DOCTOR NATURE
"The wise for cure on exercise depend;
God never made His work for man to mend."
"He that takes no holiday hastens a long rest."
Game is not the only thing sought for by many men and women who go
angling and shooting. Wise Lord Russell used to ride to the hounds
until he bagged an appetite, then turn suddenly and ride as hard as
possible to the nearest farmhouse and eat a hearty meal. Audubon and
Wilson went afield to study ornithology; Gray and Thoreau for the
study of general natural history, and thousands upon thousands of men
and women less famous have gone afield with rod and gun for still
another quarry--health.
Lord Russell's appetite hunting reminds me of the case of a young
invalid whom I once took on a trout fishing trip. The young man had
been ill all his life. Nobody seemed to know what his complaint was,
but everybody he came in contact with agreed that he was ill. He
looked it, and often said he was born that way. I defined his case the
first day I met him--the city complaint, a complication of general
under-the-weather-ness that is brought about by foul air, improper
exercise, steady indoor work, irregularity, cigarettes, and incorrect
food incorrectly eaten. He's well now. He went out in the woods for
two weeks every three months for six years, and at present he's as
fat and solid as a Delaware shad. I shall never forget his expression
when he hooked his first breath of fresh air and creeled a genuine
outdoor appetite. A woods appetite is very different from the hunger
that once in a while comes to the always-in-the-city man. It strikes
suddenly, one's knees begin to shake, and a cold perspiration breaks
out on the forehead. My poor young friend, having never previously
experienced an appetite, of course didn't know what had taken hold of
him. He began to cry and totter, and I stepped up to him just in time
to save him from falling off a moss-covered rock into a roaring trout
stream.
"I'm ill," he said, "have been ill all my life. I thought this trip
would do me good but I'm worse. Please let me lie down; I'm very
faint."
"Oh, come," said I, "you're only hungry; here, give me your rod, and
lean on my arm; you'll be all right in a little while."
I took him up to the farmhouse and started him slowly on some deviled
trout and watercress. Poor fellow, he reminded me of a young setter
dog born and brought up in the city and taken afield for the first
time. Well, that young man did nothing but cry and eat for two weeks.
He then went home to tell his folks he had come to life, and then
hurried out to feed and weep for another month. I know a hundred young
men and women in New York who are in a bad way with the city
complaint. The streets are filled with ghost-like creatures. Lord
Derby is right: "If you do not find time for exercise you will have to
find time for illness."
"To-morrow we will go a-fishing; do thou go now and fetch the bait."
--Hymir to Thar.