_loquacious_ kind, in French. I asked for _lait_, pronouncing the word as
if it was spelt l-a-t-e, but he did not understand me. I could adorn my
conversation neither with verbs nor with adjectives, so I repeated the
word _lait_ several times with the rising inflection, by which he readily
inferred that I wanted something, though what that something was, remained
a mistery to him, all the same. By and by, I pointed out the word lait to
him, on seeing which, he exclaimed "---- du lá!" and gave me what I
wanted. Thereafter I visited him from two to five times every day,
according to convenience, to get my "du l[=a]_it!_". Of "du pä_in_"
(bread) and smoked sausages, I constantly kept a supply in my satchel, so
that when I entered a new city, I could well get along until I had become
acquainted. Fruits and a very healthy and nutricious kind of nuts, (the
Brazilian nuts), I bought in great abundance and exceedingly cheap from
such as hawked them about on the streets. Five to ten centimes (1 to 2
cents) would buy 7 or 8 large Brazilian nuts and 6 to 8 fine juicy pears,
or as many delicious plums, of which I was extremely fond. By thus
reducing the number and variety of my dishes at the regular meals, I only
enhanced the pleasures of the palate instead of reducing them; for he who
"does not eat but when he is hungry, nor drink except when he is thirsty,"
will enjoy the humblest meal much more than the pampered dedauchee can
relish the richest feast. As beer does not please my palate, and because
the water fountains of Paris were often out of my reach when I was
thirsty, I soon took fruit to supply the place of drink, and thus, in
Paris already, I laid the foundation of a dietary system that ensured me
not only health, happiness and convenience of procuring it alike in all
countries, but that proved to be very economical too. For from 40 to 60
cents a day, I supplied all the necessaries, and more of the luxuries of
life, than most of us are accustomed to, even in voluptuous America.