Food and health

although they did not always quite agree. The club soon learned that not all the members could have the food they liked best at every luncheon, and that it was not good sense to be what John Alden called " too fussy." One day, when John Stark asked for plum pudding, and his sister, Mollie Stark, told him that he could not have it because plum pudding is not a luncheon dish, he said, '* Why not ? What is luncheon ? Some of us call it dinner, anyway." And what is luncheon, or breakfast, or dinner ; and what is a meal ? These questions seemed to be conundrums, although the girls and boys had eaten meals all their lives. So they looked up the words in the new, big dictionary. They became so much interested that they wanted to learn the \yords for meals in other languages, and they found that different nations have very different habits in regard to their food. In our own country, we usually have three meals, — breakfast, dinner, and supper, or tea, — or breakfast, luncheon, and dinner. What is a meal ? One dictionary says that a meal is " the supply of food taken at one time for the relief of hunger," and tells us that in the very old days of England, the Anglo-Saxon days, the word was spelled " mael," meaning a fixed time. That is very interesting ; for not only is it important to the person preparing the meal to have people prompt, but it is very necessary to us all to eat at regular hours, — babies, little children, and grown people, too. Breakfast, dinner, luncheon, supper, all are meals. How do they differ ? You have heard of light and heavy meals, have you not ? When Marjorie Allen told her father that Miss Travers said in one of her lectures that bread and milk and baked apples would be good for a farmer at noon of a hot day, he laughed, and replied that he had rather have a good square meal. What did he mean .? Something like this .? Well-cooked corn beef, pickles, potatoes, sweet corn, string beans, pie, cake, coffee or tea ? Is that a light or a heavy meal ? What name belongs to such a meal? If the Pleasant Valley School ate a meal like that at recess, would Miss James find her pupils wide-awake and quick at arithmetic ? Who was right about the plum pudding, MoUieor John Stark.? Is it not true that you already know something about meals ; and that a " light "" meal is one where less food is served, and where the food is more easily, or more quickly, digested ? Luncheon is a rather " light '* meal ; ** a slight repast,^' says the dictionary. If you have not already done so, look in your dictionary to find the rest of the story about the words lunch and luncheon. The other meals we will talk about as we learn about preparing them. A luncheon, then, is a meal rather small in quantity, and, in the case of the school lunch, consisting of foods that can be carried easily, and readily prepared. What may we add to our list of bread, milk, fruit and perhaps vegetables, cocoa or a cool fruit drink ? What can we put into sandwiches ? We have already spoken of bread for sandwiches, which must be cut of even thickness and, for the school luncheon, must have the crusts left on. When the crusts are cut off for " fancy "' sandwiches, they should be saved for a scalloped dish of some kind. Brown bread may be used as well as white. The question at the beginning of this page can be answered by saying, *' Almost anything eatable."' The bread should be evenly buttered, and the material used, neatly put in ; and, if the sandwich is not to be very dry by lunch time, it should be wrapped in paper. If you are serving sandwiches at a fair or entertainment, put a damp napkin over them.