er--"is
this."

"But you will try a cup of coffee? Or a cup of tea, at least?"

"I never use either, except when I need some such restorative. Last
night a fine cup of tea was a blessing. This morning I require nothing
of the kind."

"But you cannot make out a breakfast on our plain fare, without
something to drink besides water."

The old man smiled serenely.

"Your fare cannot be too plain for me. I often breakfast luxuriously on
a slice of brown bread and a couple of apples."

"Brown bread and apples!" exclaimed Mrs. Royden, in surprise. "Who ever
heard of apples for breakfast?"

"I never feel so well as when I make them a large proportion of my
food," replied the clergyman. "People commit a great error when they use
fruits only as luxuries. They are our most simple, natural and healthful
food."

"You have never worked on a farm, I see," observed Mr. Royden.

"I understand you,"--and the old man, perhaps to illustrate his liberal
views, ate a piece of fried bacon with evident relish. "Different
natures and different conditions of men certainly demand different
systems of diets. If a man has animal strength to support, let him use
animal food. But meat is not the best stimulus to the brain. With regard
to vegetables, my experience teaches that they are beautifully adapted
to our habits of life. Let the man who digs beneath the soil consume the
food he finds there. But I will pluck the grape or the peach as I walk,
and, eating, find myself refreshed."

"That is a rather poetical thought," remarked Chester. "But I doubt if
it be sound philosophy."

"Oh, I ask no one to accept any theory of my own," answered the old man,
benignly. "If I talk reason, consider my words; if not,"--smiling
significantly, with an expressive gesture,--"let the wind have them."

"But I think your ideas very interesting," said Sarah. "What do you
think of bread?"

"It is the _staff of life_. The lower vegetable productions are suited
to the grosser natures of men. Those brought forth in the sunlight are
more suitable to finer organizations. I place grains as much higher than
roots, on a philosophical scale, as the ear of corn is higher than the
potato, in a literal sense. Therefore, as grain grows midway between
vegetables and fruits, it appears to be wisely designed as the great
staple of food. But the nearer heaven the more spiritual. If I am to
compose a sermon, let me make a dinner of nuts that have ripened in the
broad sun