OOTNOTES:

[5] I believe the best authorities say that one change is enough to take
on a camping trip, and maybe it is--for the best authorities.

Chapter Twenty-one

_Oh, it's well to live high as you can, my boy,_
_Wherever you happen to roam,_
_But it's better to have enough bacon and beans_
_To take the poor wanderers home._

Chapter Twenty-one

By this time we had reached trout diet _per se_. I don't know what _per
se_ means, but I have often seen it used and it seems to fit this case.
Of course we were not entirely out of other things. We had flour for
flapjacks, some cornmeal for mush and Johnnie-cake, and enough bacon to
impart flavor to the fish. Also, we were not wholly without beans--long
may they wave--the woods without them would be a wilderness indeed. But
in the matter of meat diet it was trout _per se_, as I have said, unless
that means we did not always have them; in which case I will discard
those words. We did. We had fried trout, broiled trout, boiled trout,
baked trout, trout on a stick and trout chowder. We may have had them
other ways--I don't remember. I know I began to imagine that I was
sprouting fins and gills, and daily I felt for the new bumps on my head
which I was certain must result from this continuous absorption of brain
food. There were several new bumps, but when I called Eddie's attention
to them, he said they were merely the result of butting my head so
frequently against logs and stumps and other portions of the scenery.
Then he treated them with liniment and new skin.

Speaking of food, I believe I have not mentioned the beefsteak which we
brought with us into the woods. It was Eddie's idea, and he was its
self-appointed guardian and protector. That was proper, only I think he
protected it too long. It was a nice sirloin when we started--thick and
juicy and of a deep rich tone. Eddie said a little age would improve it,
and I suppose he was right--he most always is. He said we would
appreciate it more, too, a little later, which seemed a sound doctrine.

Yet, somehow, that steak was an irritation. It is no easy matter to
adjust the proper age of a steak to the precise moment of keen and
general appreciation. We discussed the matter a good deal, and each time
the steak was produced as a sort of Exhibit A, and on each occasion
Eddie decided that the time was not ripe--that another day would add to
its food value. I may say that I had no special app