and the
Areopagus), and could be kept warm without more labor or expense than
would be required for an entire dwelling at home. Our principal anxiety
was, that the supply of fuel, at any price, might become exhausted. We
burned the olive and the vine, the cypress and the pine, twigs of rose
trees and dead cabbage-stalks, for aught I know, to feed our one little
sheet-iron stove. For full two months we were obliged to keep up our
fire, from morning until night. Know ye the land of the cypress and
myrtle, where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine? Here it
is, with almost snow enough in the streets for a sleighing party, with
the Ilissus frozen, and with a tolerable idea of Lapland, when you face
the gusts which drive across the Cephissian plain.

As the other guests were Greek, our mode of living was similar to that
of most Greek families. We had coffee in the morning, a substantial
breakfast about noon, and dinner at six in the evening. The dishes were
constructed after French and Italian models, but the meat is mostly
goat's flesh. Beef, when it appears, is a phenomenon of toughness.
Vegetables are rather scarce. Cow's milk, and butter or cheese
therefrom, are substances unknown in Greece. The milk is from goats or
sheep, and the butter generally from the latter. It is a white, cheesy
material, with a slight flavor of tallow. The wine, when you get it
unmixed with resin, is very palatable. We drank that of Santorin, with
the addition of a little water, and found it an excellent beverage....

Except during the severely cold weather, Athens is as lively a town as
may be. One-fourth of the inhabitants, I should say, are always in the
streets, and many of the mechanics work, as is common in the Orient, in
open shops. The coffee-houses are always thronged, and every afternoon
crowds may be seen on the Patissia Road--a continuation of Eolus
Street--where the King and Queen take their daily exercise on horseback.
The national costume, both male and female, is gradually falling into
disuse in the cities, altho it is still universal in the country. The
islanders adhere to their hideous dress with the greatest persistence.
With sunrise the country people begin to appear in the streets with
laden donkeys and donkey-carts, bringing wood, grain, vegetables, and
milk, which they sell from house to house....

Venders of bread and coffee-rolls go about with circular trays on their
heads, calling attention to their wares b