okin' more like a kite than
anythin' else an' not able to dress 'cause he could n't take off his
sheet. 'Well, Elijah, you _have_ done it now, I guess,' I says; 'I
never see nothin' the beat o' this. If I have to send for young Dr.
Brown to take that sheet off you, you'll be in the papers from the
earthquake to Russia an' back again.' Well, that was all there was to do
an' when 'Liza Em'ly come with the milk I had to ask her to go up to
young Dr. Brown's an' ask him to kindly come as soon as he could an'
amputate Elijah out o' bed. He come right after breakfast an' he had a
time, I tell you! We worked with water an' we worked with hot water, we
tried loosenin' the edges by jerkin' quick when Elijah was n't
expectin', but it was all no use. Dr. Brown said he never see such a
plaster, he said it'd be a fortune for mendin' china. Then we got the
dish-pan an' tried layin' Elijah face down across it an' pilin' books on
his back to keep the right place in front soakin', but even that didn't
help. Dr. Brown said in the end as he thought the only way maybe would
be to do all the corners of the sheet up in a paper an' let Elijah
carry it hugged tight to him an' wear father's duster down to the crick
an' sit in it till he just slowly come loose. But Elijah did n't want to
go bathin' in a duster an' I had a feelin' myself as if Meadville heard
of it we'd surely be very much talked about, so finally Dr. Brown said
he thought as he'd go home an' study up the case, an' I let him go for I
had my own ideas as to how much he knew about what was makin' the
trouble. So he went an' then I got dinner an' took some up to Elijah an'
told him jus' what I thought of the whole performance. I talked kind but
I talked firm an' I done a lot of good, for he said he did n't know but
it would be better if he arranged to live with the Whites after the
Fourth of July 'cause he had a feelin' as maybe he was a good deal of
trouble to me. I told him I hadn't a mite of doubt as he was a good deal
of trouble to me an' then Mrs. Macy come. I had to stop talkin' to him
an' go down an' tell her what was the matter. She said right off as her
idea would be to shut the windows, build a big fire an' make Elijah jus'
work himself loose from the inside out. I told her about the mucilage
though an' then she changed her views an' said I'd best fold the sheet
neatly an' let him wear it till he wore it off next time he growed a new
skin. Mrs. Macy says she's been told we k