patter word for word; but the nub of it
was that I could knock that toothache out in one round just by thinkin'
hard. Now wouldn't that peeve you? What?

"All right, Doc.," says I. "I'll try thinkin' I ain't got any ache, if
you'll sit here and keep me comp'ny by thinkin' you've had your dinner.
Is it a go?"

Well, it wa'n't. He shrugs his shoulders, and says he's afraid I'm a
difficult subject, and then he teeters off on his toes. Sadie tells me I
ought to be ashamed of myself for tryin' to be so fresh.

"He's a very distinguished man," she says. "He's the founder of
Toodleism. He's written a book about it."

"I thought he looked like a nutty one," says I. "Keep him away from me;
I'll be all right by mornin'."

The argument might have lasted longer; but just then comes the dinner
call, and they all goes in where the little necks was waitin' on the
cracked ice, and I'm left alone to count the jumps and enjoy myself.
Durin' one of the calm spells I wanders into the lib'ry, picks a funny
paper off the table, and settles down in a cozy corner to read the jokes.
I must have been there near an hour, when in drifts the loppy young lady
in the pink what-d'ye-call-it,--the one I'd made the silent hit with in
the gym.,--and she makes straight for me.

"Oh, here you are!" says she, like we was old friends. "Do you know, I've
just heard of your--your trouble."

"Ah, it ain't any killin' matter," says I. "It don't amount to much."

"Of course it doesn't!" says she. "And that is what I came to talk to you
about. I am Miss Lee,--Violet Lee."

"Ye-e-es?" says I.

"You see," she goes on, "I am Dr. Toodle's secretary and assistant."

"Oh!" says I. "He's in luck, then."

"Now, now!" says she, just like that, givin' me a real giddy tap with her
fan. "You must be real serious."

"I'm in condition to be all of that," says I. "Are you plannin' to try
the----"

"I am going to help you to banish the imaginary pains, Mr. McCabe," says
she. "Now first you must repeat after me the _summum bonum_."

"Eh?" says I.

"It's very simple," says she, floppin' down on the cushions alongside and
reachin' out for one of my hands. "It begins this way, 'I am a child of
light and goodness.' Now say that."

Say, how would you duck a proposition of that kind? There was Violet,
with her big eyes rolled at me real pleadin', and her mouth puckered up
real cunning, and the soft, clingin' grip on my right paw. Well, I says
it over.

"That's i