“Our board, that evening, was really tempting.  The absence of meat was compensated to us by the crisp and racy onions, and I craved only a little salt, which had been interdicted, as a most pernicious substance.  I sat at one corner of the table, beside Perkins Brown, who took an opportunity, while the others were engaged in conversation, to jog my elbow gently.  As I turned towards him, he said nothing, but dropped his eyes significantly.  The little rascal had the lid of a blacking-box, filled with salt, upon his knee, and was privately seasoning his onions and radishes.  I blushed at the thought of my hypocrisy, but the onions were so much better that I couldn’t help dipping into the lid with him.

“‘Oh,’ said Eunice, ’we must send for some oil and vinegar!  This lettuce is very nice.”

“‘Oil and vinegar?’ exclaimed Abel.

“‘Why, yes,’ said she, innocently:  ‘they are both vegetable substances.’

“Abel at first looked rather foolish, but quickly recovering himself, said,—­

“’All vegetable substances are not proper for food:  you would not taste the poison-oak, or sit under the upas-tree of Java.’

“‘Well, Abel,’ Eunice rejoined, ’how are we to distinguish what is best for us?  How are we to know what vegetables to choose, or what animal and mineral substances to avoid?’

“‘I will tell you,’ he answered, with a lofty air.  ‘See here!’ pointing to his temple, where the second pimple—­either from the change of air, or because, in the excitement of the last few days, he had forgotten it—­was actually healed.  ’My blood is at last pure.  The struggle between the natural and the unnatural is over, and I am beyond the depraved, influences of my former taste.  My instincts are now, therefore, entirely pure also.  What is good for man to eat, that I shall have a natural desire to eat:  what is bad will be naturally repelled.  How does the cow distinguish between the wholesome and the poisonous herbs of the meadow?  And is man less than a cow, that he cannot cultivate his instincts to an equal point?  Let me walk through, the woods and I can tell you every berry and root which God designed for food, though I know not its name, and have never seen it before.  I shall make use of my time, during our sojourn here, to test, by my purified instinct, every substance, animal, mineral, and vegetable, upon which the human race subsists, and to create a catalogue of the True Food of Man!’

“Abel was eloquent on this theme, and he silenced not only Eunice, but the rest of us.  Indeed, as we were all half-infected with the same delusions, it was not easy to answer his sophistries.

“After supper was over, the prospect of cleaning the dishes and putting things in order was not so agreeable; but Mrs. Shelldrake and Perkins undertook the work, and we did not think it necessary to interfere with them.  Half an hour afterwards, when the full moon had risen, we took our chairs upon the stoop, to enjoy the calm, silver night, the soft sea-air, and our summer’s residence in anticipatory talk.