m. You see we have said nothing of coffee and tea,--the princes or
princesses of food,--without which civilized man cannot renew his
brains. In such years as these, Hero, when our brave soldiers must have
coffee or we can have no victories, coffee costs me and Lois fifty
dollars,--cheap at that,--for, without it, did we drink dandelion like
the cows, or chiccory like the asses, how were these brains renewed?

"Tea and coffee are the same thing," says Liebig; at least, he says that
_Theine_, the base of tea, and _Caffeine_, the base of coffee, are the
same. What I know is, that, when coffee costs fifty dollars a year, tea
costs thirty dollars and eighty-nine cents.

For tea and coffee, Hero, allow about another tenth,--the cocoa and
cream will bring it up to that.

Our sugar cost us fifty-four dollars and twenty-two cents; our milk
fifty dollars and sixty-two; our cream ten dollars seventy-seven.

"Buy your cream separate," says Hero, "if you have as good a milkman as
Mr. Whittemore."

You have not as many babies as we, Hero. When you have, you will not
grudge the milk or the sugar. Lots of nourishment in sugar! Sugar and
milk are another tenth.

I do not know if you are a Catholic, Hero; but I guess your kitchen is;
and so I am pretty sure that you will eat fish Fridays. I know you are a
person of sense, so I know you will often delight Leander, as he rises
from the day's swim which, for your sake, Hero, he takes across the cold
Hellespont of life,--(all men are Leanders, and all women should be
their Heros, holding high love-torches for them,)--as he rises, I say,
with "a sound of wateriness," I know you will often delight him with
oysters, scalloped, fried, or plain, as _entremets_ to flank his
dinner-table. For fish count two per cent., for oysters two more, for
eggs three or four, and for that stupid compound of starch which some
men call "indispensable," and all men call "potato," count three or four
more. My advice is, that, when potatoes are dear, you skip them.
Rice-_croquets_ are better and cheaper. There goes another tenth.

Tea and coffee, etc., one-tenth.

Sugar and milk, one-tenth.

Fish, eggs, potatoes, etc., one-tenth.

Thus is it, Hero, that three-quarters of what you eat will be spent for
your bread and butter, your meat, fish, eggs, and potatoes, your coffee,
tea, milk, and sugar,--for twenty-one articles on a list of one hundred
and seven. Fresh vegetables, besides those named, will take on