n
concocting and selling the wonderful remedies of which he was the
inventor.

This duty included filling bottles, pasting on labels, carrying his
baggage, making his fires, and several other minor matters which he
could not recall just then.

"Ve'll camp out like this most of the time," he added. "Hotels is
hexpensive, and I never stops at 'em, unless it's raining or I'm going
to sell in the town. You von't mind that, vill you?"

I was more than delighted at the prospect, and I said so.

"This man," I told myself, "is evidently a great traveler, and he is
going West. If I stick to him my fortune is made."

It did not take the doctor long to pack up his traps, and, dividing them
between us, we journeyed along very agreeably.

When we arrived in Butler we went to a hotel, and there, in the
seclusion of our room, the doctor manufactured three dozen bottles of
the balsam, as many of the toothache drops and twice as many boxes of
the tooth-powder.

At this distance of time I cannot recall the ingredients of these justly
celebrated remedies, but I can cheerfully testify to their harmlessness.

The balsam was composed of two or three simple aromatic oils, the
toothache drops was merely a diluted essence of the oil of cloves,
and the wonderful tooth-powder chalk powdered and scented.

The labels for the various compounds the doctor carried in his oilcloth
bag, and the bottles, boxes and various ingredients he purchased at the
village drug stores.

I am almost ashamed to tell you what enormous profits he made on his
sales, and will only mention that he once told me that the bottle and
label formed nine-tenths of the cost of the Golden Balsam, which
retailed at one dollar.

In these days the street vender of physic is an ordinary sight, but a
quarter of a century ago he was almost unknown outside of the largest
cities.

After being a month in the company of Doctor Norris I easily understood
why he followed such a life. In the town of Butler two days' sales
netted him sixty dollars, and he made nearly as much in Beaver.

He was not always so successful, but, taking one week with another,
I judged that he cleared at least fifty dollars, which was a bank
president's salary in those days.

His methods were such as are in use among this class of gentry all the
world over.

Having prepared his stock in trade, he would gravely walk down the main
street, followed by your humble servant.

Halting on the most promine