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CHAPTER VII.--THE COMMISSARIAT.
_To feed were best at home_.
MACBETH.
[Greek verse]
ILIAD IX.
PRINCE HENRY. _Doth it not show vilely in me to desire small beer_?
POINS. _Why_, _a prince should not be so loosely studied as to
remember so weak a composition_.
PRINCE HENRY. _Belike then my appetite was not princely got_; _for_,
_by my troth_, _I do now remember the poor creature_, _small beer_.
_But_, _indeed_, _these humble considerations make me out of love with
my greatness_.
2 HENRY IV.
"Who ought to take the command, in the event of anything happening to
your lordship?" asked Wellington's officers on an occasion in the
Peninsular War. "Beresford," the great strategist answered, after
reflection. And then, in answer to their surprised looks: "If it were a
question of handling troops, some of you fellows might do as well,
perhaps better than he; but what we now want is someone to _feed_ our
men." {46}
This story, and the countenance of the epic and royal personages of our
mottoes, is our excuse for passing on to treat of the ignoble topic of
knives and forks, and to describe how three times a day our colony was
fed.
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