And the woman, standing in front of the shops, kept incessantly crying her one message to the purchasers who came by, and the purchasers began to be troubled.
Then perceiving that this audacious housekeeper was likely to injure their wares, the tradesmen said to the purchasers:—
“Look here, gentlemen, what a lunatic this woman is! She wants people to perish of starvation. She insists on our burning up and destroying all our provisions. What would you have to eat if we should heed her and refuse to sell you our goods? Do not listen to her, she is a coarse countrywoman, and she is no judge of provisions, and it is nothing but envy which makes her attack us. She is poor, and wants everyone else to be as poor as she is.”
Thus spoke the tradesmen to the gathering throng, purposely blinking the fact that the woman wanted, not that all provisions should be destroyed, but that good ones should be substituted for bad.
And thereupon the throng fell upon the woman and began to beat her. And though she assured them all that she had no wish to destroy the foodstuffs, that, on the contrary, she had all her life been occupied in feeding others and herself, but that she only wanted that those men that took upon themselves the feeding of the people should not poison them with deleterious adulterations pretending to be edible. Though she pleaded her cause eloquently, they refused to hear her because their minds were made up that she wanted to deprive people of the food which they needed.
The same thing has happened to me in regard to the art and science of our day.
All my life long I have been fed on this food, and to the best of my ability I have attempted to feed others on it. And as this for me is a food and not