as I go on he
speaks to me much of things I should do for health. And then I think of
them and study, and I see that there is much I have never learned and
that they must learn also with me.

"There is one thing that Americans will, more than all peoples of the
earth. They will have a place so hot that breath is nowhere, and women
more even than men. I begin to think how I shall keep them warm yet give
them to breathe. The place is old, as you see. No builder thought ever
of air in such time as this was built, and if they think to-day, it is
chiefly wrong, for in all places I go one breathes the breath of all
others, never true air of heaven. At first I open windows from top and
before they come; but when they see it they cry out and say, 'O Mr.
B----! You want to freeze us!' 'Not so,' I say; 'I would make you
healthy.' And they say, 'We're healthy enough. We don't want draughts.'
It is true. There were draughts, and I begin to think how this shall be
changed, and try many things, and all of them they pull down or push out
or stop up tight, whichever way will most surely abolish air. At last I
bring up my doctor who is wise and can explain better than I, and I say
that work may stop and all listen and learn. They listen but they laugh,
all but one, and say, 'How funny! What is use of so much fuss?'

"While I do these things which I keep on and will not stop, finding best
at last a shaft and a hole above, that they cannot pull out or reach to
fill, I think of other things. They eat at noon what they bring,--pie
that is dear to Americans, and small cakes, many of them; but good bread
that has nourishment, or good drink like soup or coffee, no. They stand
many hours and: faint and weak. So I say there must be good coffee for
them, and I tell them, 'Girls, I will buy a big urn and there shall be
coffee and milk, and for two cents you have a big cup so sweet as you
will, or if you like better it shall be hot soup.' Above in a room was a
a Swiss that knew good soup, and that would, if I pay her a little, buy
all that is wanted and a make a big pot, so that each could have a bowl.
This also I would have them pay for, three cents a bowl, and they like
this best, and it is done for three weeks. They go up there and have
full bowls, and I have a long table made before a bench where sometimes
they rest, with oil-cloth, and here they eat and are comfortable. Three
days soup, three days hot coffee; and I have place where the men ca