that thayer is Pleurisy root, an' thayer!
well, thayer's the foinest hairb that iver God made to grow--that's
Cure all. Some things cures wan thing and some cures another, but when
ye don't know just what to take, ye make tay o' that root an' ye can't
go wrong. It was an Injun larned me that. The poor miserable baste of
a haythen hed some larnin', an' the minit he showed me I knowed it was
so, fur ivery lafe wuz three in wan an' wan in three, an' had the sign
o' the blessed crass in the middle as plain as that biler settin' on
the stove."

Thus she chattered away, smoking her short pipe, expectorating on the
top of the hot stove, but with true feminine delicacy she was careful
each time to wipe her mouth on the back of her skinny arm.

"An' that's what's called Catnip; sure Oi moind well the day Oi furst
larned about that. It warn't a Injun nor a docther nor a man at all,
at all, that larned me that. It was that ould black Cat, an' may the
saints stand bechuxt me an' his grane eyes! Bejabers, sometimes he
scares me wid his knowin' ways, but I hev nothin' agin him except that
he kills the wee burruds. He koind o' measled all wan winter an' lay
around the stove. Whiniver the dooer was open he'd go an' luk out an'
then come back an' meow an' wheen an' lay down--an' so he kep' on,
gittin' waker an' worser, till the snow wuz gone an' grass come up,
an' still he'd go a-lukin' toward the ayst, especially nights. Then
thayer come up a plant I had never sane, right thayer, an' he'd luk at
it an' luk at it loike he wanted it but didn't dar to. Thar was some
foine trays out thayer in thim days afore the ould baste cut thim
down, an' wan av thim hed a big limb, so--an' another so--an' when the
moon come up full at jest the right time the shaddy made the sign av
the crass an' loighted on me dooer, an' after it was past it didn't
make no crass. Well, bejabers, the full moon come up at last an' she
made the sign of the shaddy crass, an' the ould Cat goes out an'
watches an' watches loike he wanted to an' didn't dar to, till that
crass drapped fayer onto the hairbs, an' Tom he jumped then an' ate
an' ate, an' from that day he was a well Cat; an' that's how Oi larned
Catnip, an' it set me moind aisy, too, fur no Cat that's possesst 'll
iver ate inunder the shaddy av the crass."

Yan was scribbling away, but had given up any attempt to make sketches
or even notes beyond the names of the plants.

"Shure, choild, put them papers wid th