the minister's got somethin' on his mind and it's wearin' of
him out.' You ain't got nothin' on your mind, have you, Mr. Ellery?"

"I guess not, Mrs. Rogers. It's a beautiful afternoon, isn't it?

"There! I knew you wa'n't well. A beautiful afternoon, and it hotter'n
furyation and gettin' ready to rain at that! Don't tell me! 'Tain't your
mind, Mr. Ellery, it's your blood that's gettin' thin. My husband had a
spell just like it a year or two afore he died, and the doctor said
he needed rest and a change. Said he'd ought to go away somewheres by
himself. I put my foot down on THAT in a hurry. 'The idea!' I
says. 'You, a sick man, goin' off all alone by yourself to die of
lonesomeness. If you go, I go with you.' So him and me went up to Boston
and it rained the whole week we was there, and we set in a little box of
a hotel room with a window that looked out at a brick wall, and set and
set and set, and that's all. I kept talkin' to him to cheer him up, but
he never cheered. I'd talk to him for an hour steady and when I'd
stop and ask a question he'd only groan and say yes, when he meant no.
Finally, I got disgusted, after I'd asked him somethin' four or five
times and he'd never answered, and I told him, I believed he was gettin'
deef. 'Lordy!' he says, 'I wish I was!' Well, that was enough for ME.
Says I, 'If your mind's goin' to give out we'd better be home.' So home
we come. And that's all the good change and rest done HIM. Hey? What did
you say, Mr. Ellery?"

"Er--oh, nothing, nothing, Mrs. Rogers."

"Yes. So home we come and I'd had enough of doctors to last. I figgered
out that his blood was thinnin' and I knew what was good for that. My
great Aunt Hepsy, that lived over to East Wellmouth, she was a great
hand for herbs and such and she'd give me a receipt for thickenin' the
blood that was somethin' wonderful. It had more kind of healin' herbs in
it than you could shake a stick at. I cooked a kittleful and got him to
take a dose four times a day. He made more fuss than a young one about
takin' it. Said it tasted like the Evil One, and such profane talk, and
that it stuck to his mouth so's he couldn't relish his vittles; but I
never let up a mite. He had to take it and it done him a world of good.
Now I've got that receipt yet, Mr. Ellery, and I'll make some of that
medicine for you. I'll fetch it down to-morrow. Yes, yes, I will. I'm
agoin' to, so you needn't say no. And perhaps I'll have heard somethin'
about Ca