ive him organized matter. Now, in doing this, you have
been wise in spending even a tenth of your substance on wheat. For wheat
is almost pure food; and wheat contains all you want,--more carbon than
your diamonds, more oxygen and hydrogen than your tears, more nitrogen
than the snow-flake,--but not nitrogen enough, dear Hero.

"More nitrogen!" gasps Leander, "more nitrogen, my charmer, or I die!"
This is the real meaning of the words, when he says, "Let us have
roast-beef for dinner," or when he asks you to pass him the butter.

Although beef, then, has little more than a quarter as much food in it
as wheat has, you must have some beef, or something like it, because
Leander, and you too, my rosy-cheek, must have nitrogen as well as
carbon.

I beg you not to throw the "Atlantic" away at this point, my child. Do
not say that Mr. Carter is an old fool, and that you never meant to live
on vegetables. A great many people have meant to, and have never known
what was the matter with them, when the real deficiency was nitrogen.
Besides, child, though wheat is the best single feeder of all, as I have
told you, because in its gluten it has so much nitrogen, this is to be
said of all vegetables, that, so far as we live on them, we exist
slowly; to a certain extent we have to ruminate as the cows do, and not
as men and women should ruminate, and all animal or functional life goes
more slowly on. Now, Hero, you and Leander both have to lead a rapid
life. Most people do in the autumn of 1864. So give him meat, dear Hero,
as above.

As for my being an old fool, my dear, I have said I am one hundred and
nine, which is older than old Mr. Waldo was, older than everybody except
old Parr. And after forty, everybody is a fool--or a physician.

Let us return, then, to our mutton,--always a good thing to return to,
especially if the plates are hot, as yours, Hero, always will be. For
mutton, besides such water as you can dry out of it, contains
twenty-nine per cent. of food,--for meat, a high percentage.

Let us see where we are.

Our butter costs us one-tenth.

Our flour and wheat-bread cost us almost one-tenth.

Our beef costs us one-tenth.

Our other meats cost us a tenth and a half of what we spend for eating
and drinking.

"Where in the world does the rest go, Mr. Carter? Here is not half. But
I could certainly live very well on these things."

Angel, you could. But if you lived wholly on these, you would want more
of the