circumstances. But while I was
starving I could see before me from morning till night, in my
imagination, all kinds of delicacies--caviare, Russian soups, macaroni au
gratin, all kinds of refreshing ice-creams, and plum pudding. Curiously
enough, some days I had a perfect craving for one particular thing, and
would have given anything I possessed in the world to obtain a morsel of
it. The next day I did not care for that at all, in my imagination, but
wanted something else very badly. The three things which I mostly craved
for while I was starving were caviare, galantine of chicken, and
ice-cream--the latter particularly.

People say that with money you can do anything you like in the world. I
had at that time on my person some L6,000 sterling, of which L4,000 was
in actual cash. If anybody had placed before me a morsel of any food I
would gladly have given the entire sum to have it. But no, indeed; no
such luck! How many times during those days did I vividly dream of
delightful dinner and supper parties at the Savoy, the Carlton, or the
Ritz, in London, Paris, and New York! How many times did I think of the
delicious meals I had had when a boy in the home of my dear father and
mother! I could reconstruct in my imagination all those meals, and
thought what an idiot I was to have come there out of my own free will to
suffer like that. My own dreams were constantly interrupted by Benedicto
and Filippe, who also had similar dreams of the wonderful meals they had
had in their own houses, and the wonderful ways in which their
_feijaozinho_--a term of endearment used by them for their beloved
beans--had been cooked at home by their sweethearts or their temporary
wives.

"Why did we leave our _feijaozinho_"--and here they smacked their
lips--"to come and die in this rotten country?"

All day I heard them talk of _feijaozinho_, _feijaozinho_, until I was
wearied to distraction by that word--particularly as, even when starving,
I had no desire whatever to eat the beastly stuff.

The negro Filippe and Benedicto were really brave in a way. I tried to
induce them all the time to march as much as we could, so as to get
somewhere; but every few moments they sat or fell down, and much valuable
time was wasted.

In a way it was amusing to watch them--poor Benedicto particularly, who
every few minutes would take out a little pocket looking-glass to gaze at
his countenance.

"Am I not thin?" he would ask me a dozen times a day. "