Then he had retreated with it to his room and slung it aloft.

A small closet contained his clothes and the books he had accumulated and
for which there was no room on the table or under the table. Hand in
hand with reading, he had developed the habit of making notes, and so
copiously did he make them that there would have been no existence for
him in the confined quarters had he not rigged several clothes-lines
across the room on which the notes were hung. Even so, he was crowded
until navigating the room was a difficult task. He could not open the
door without first closing the closet door, and vice versa. It was
impossible for him anywhere to traverse the room in a straight line. To
go from the door to the head of the bed was a zigzag course that he was
never quite able to accomplish in the dark without collisions. Having
settled the difficulty of the conflicting doors, he had to steer sharply
to the right to avoid the kitchen. Next, he sheered to the left, to
escape the foot of the bed; but this sheer, if too generous, brought him
against the corner of the table. With a sudden twitch and lurch, he
terminated the sheer and bore off to the right along a sort of canal, one
bank of which was the bed, the other the table. When the one chair in
the room was at its usual place before the table, the canal was
unnavigable. When the chair was not in use, it reposed on top of the
bed, though sometimes he sat on the chair when cooking, reading a book
while the water boiled, and even becoming skilful enough to manage a
paragraph or two while steak was frying. Also, so small was the little
corner that constituted the kitchen, he was able, sitting down, to reach
anything he needed. In fact, it was expedient to cook sitting down;
standing up, he was too often in his own way.

In conjunction with a perfect stomach that could digest anything, he
possessed knowledge of the various foods that were at the same time
nutritious and cheap. Pea-soup was a common article in his diet, as well
as potatoes and beans, the latter large and brown and cooked in Mexican
style. Rice, cooked as American housewives never cook it and can never
learn to cook it, appeared on Martin's table at least once a day. Dried
fruits were less expensive than fresh, and he had usually a pot of them,
cooked and ready at hand, for they took the place of butter on his bread.
Occasionally he graced his table with a piece of round-steak, or with a
soup-bone