fall I
did not have a single day's real illness. I had raspberries,
currants--black, red, and white--tomatoes, apples, pears, walnuts,
mulberries, gooseberries, etc., beside wild blackberries; also several
vegetables, such as onions, carrots, lettuces, cauliflowers, peas,
beans, potatoes, beet, and others.

When I landed on the island I weighed twelve stone six pounds. When I
was weighed at Dover, on my voyage home, I drew the beam at thirteen
stone eight pounds; so I was not starved. I was as tough as
whit-leather, and as strong as a horse, as we say in Norfolk. With this
experience, therefore, I must certainly affirm that a diet of
farinaceous food, fruit, vegetables, and fish, will not only give a man
good health, but a clear brain, a strong body to perform heavy work, and
staying power whenever anything unusual has to be endured or undertaken.
More than this, no man can wish for; and even if he is maintained from
his youth up on mutton cutlets, or choice rump steaks, he cannot be
_more_ than healthy, strong, and happy.

Englishmen having for centuries been a meat-eating nation, are naturally
reluctant to give up a habit that is almost part and parcel of their
nature; but probably if less meat were eaten and more fruit consumed,
especially in the warm weather, doctors would be less numerous, and the
hospitals be crying out less frequently for increased funds to provide a
greater number of beds.

But where are we? Oh, yes, of course, they were Dovercourt lighthouses
we have just passed, which seemed to me like two more mile-stones on my
voyage home.

The "Happy Return" behaved handsomely, and our cabin was quite dry all
the voyage, thanks, perhaps to an extra washboard strake we ran round
the bows before starting.

We hoped on the 7th, by evening, to reach Yarmouth, but were doomed to
disappointment, as upon night closing in, we were only off Kessingland,
a mile or two south of Lowestoft. As we did not want to enter the Bure
before daylight, I decided to run into Lowestoft Harbour for the night,
which we did, and had a good night's rest. If I had not been so eager to
get home I should have passed under the bridge into Lake Lothing, and so
through Oulton Broad into the Waveney on my way, but now I was as eager
as a schoolboy, and could not bear the loss of even an hour.

On the 8th we slipped out of harbour at dawn, which was about five
o'clock, and by seven a.m. crossed Yarmouth Bar, at which my heart
thumped