"Quad's odds"; . ast resting Toms was not a fool—he was aconfiding man. Up to the age of forty Mr. Tomswas healthy, fat, good-natured and jovial. Various menfelt of the fat on his ribs, looked into his smiling face, andpredicted that he would live to be one hundred years started his downfall was reading a book on had always been able to sit down to three square mealsper day, and to get away with beans, potatoes, pork, mut-ton, pie, cake and biscuit, and he had never known a qualmof indigestion. The book said that he must eat oat-meal,cracked wheat and codfish, if he
"Quad's odds"; . ast resting Toms was not a fool—he was aconfiding man. Up to the age of forty Mr. Tomswas healthy, fat, good-natured and jovial. Various menfelt of the fat on his ribs, looked into his smiling face, andpredicted that he would live to be one hundred years started his downfall was reading a book on had always been able to sit down to three square mealsper day, and to get away with beans, potatoes, pork, mut-ton, pie, cake and biscuit, and he had never known a qualmof indigestion. The book said that he must eat oat-meal,cracked wheat and codfish, if he would be healthy, andfrom that day his house was turned into a hospital. Hehad codfish and oat-meal for breakfast, codfish and crackedwheat for dinner, and codfish and Graham bread for sup-per. He gave up his lunch, neglected his cider, andimagined that he Mas growing healthy. Then he bought a book on ventilation. He read that noone should sleep in a room without a window open, and 323 324 HE READS OTHER he went to bed one night in January with his room prop-erly ventilated. He got up in the morning with his throatfull of shingle nails, his nose blockaded and his eyes fullof blood. His wife felt even worse, and it was four weeksbefore sage-tea and cough medicine hadany effect. He sat up with his wife onenight, and she sat up with him the next,and by strict attention to business theywere finally so far restored to health thatthey could read a work on The care ofthe body. The book announced that feather bedswere slowly but surely depopulatingAmerica. They were productive of spinalcomplaint, fever and twenty-one otherVentilated. diseases, and Mr. Toms felt his hair standup as he remembered that he had slept on feathers forforty years. The feather bed came off, and Mr. Toms andhis wife reposed on an old straw bed, having straw pillowsunder their heads. After a week Mrs. Toms could not getout doors, and Mr. Toms had to walk with a crutch, andfor the first time in his life
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Keywords: ., bookauthorquadm184, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookyear1875
