some utterly exceptional patient,
who was both fool enough to consult me and clever enough to know he had
been swindled. When such a fellow made a fuss, it was occasionally
necessary to return his money, if it was found impossible to bully him
into silence. In one or two instances, where I had promised a cure upon
prepayment of two or three hundred dollars, I was either sued or
threatened with suit, and had to refund a part or the whole of the
amount; but most folks preferred to hold their tongues, rather than
expose to the world the extent of their own folly.

In one case I suffered personally to a degree which I never can recall
without a distinct sense of annoyance, both at my own want of care and
at the disgusting consequences which it brought upon me.

Early one morning an old gentleman called, in a state of the utmost
agitation, and explained that he desired to consult the spirits as to a
heavy loss which he had experienced the night before. He had left, he
said, a sum of money in his pantaloons-pocket, upon going to bed. In the
morning he had changed his clothes, and gone out, forgetting to remove
the notes. Returning in an hour in great haste, he discovered that the
garment still lay upon the chair where he had thrown it, but that the
money was missing. I at once desired him to be seated, and proceeded to
ask him certain questions, in a chatty way, about the habits of his
household, the amount lost, and the like, expecting thus to get some
clew which would enable me to make my spirits display the requisite
share of sagacity in pointing out the thief. I learned readily that he
was an old and wealthy man, a little close too, I suspected; and that he
lived in a large house, with but two servants, and an only son about
twenty-one years old. The servants were both elderly women, who had
lived in the household many years, and were probably innocent.
Unluckily, remembering my own youthful career, I presently reached the
conclusion that the young man had been the delinquent. When I ventured
to inquire a little as to his character and habits, the old gentleman
cut me very short, remarking that he came to ask questions, and not to
be questioned, and that he desired at once to consult the spirits. Upon
this I sat down at a table, and, after a brief silence, demanded in a
solemn voice if there were present any spirits. By industriously
cracking my big-toe joint, I was enabled to represent at once the
presence of a numerou