you want to get cured you must take six bottles of it. I don't say
but that it would be safer for you if you took twelve. But do as you
like about that. Mix each of them in a stiff glass of grog. You may
take three a day if you like, and then come back to me for more. At the
end of three days--trust the word of an honest man and a true friend of
the whole human race--you will be clear of them all, and every complaint
you have at the same time.'

"Well," thinks I to myself, "`in for a penny, in for a pound,' though
there is a difference between the shilling my friend in the crowd said I
should have to pay and the twelve shillings the doctor demands. But
then, to be sure, the stuff can't be unpleasant, and the grog, at all
events, is no bad thing. `Well, doctor,' says I, `I'll take the twelve
bottles, but I should like to know what the stuff you give me is made
of?'

"`What!' he sings out, drawing himself up and looking as proud as a
prince. `What! Do you just imagine for one quarter of a moment that I
would tell you, or any man like you, alive on this terrestrial sphere,
what my infallible Obfucastementi-scoposis is composed of? No; not to
satisfy the gaping curiosity of twenty such wretched creatures as you
are would I reveal that golden, all-important, mysterious secret. If
you are not content, go! Give me back my invaluable 'lixier and cut.'

"`Yes, doctor,' says I, going to give him the twelve bottles, `and just
do you in return hand me out my twelve shillings.'

"`Your twelve shillings! you audacious rascal. Here's a man asks me for
twelve shillings in exchange for my 'lixier, which is worth twelve
pounds at least. Ladies and gentlemen, he ain't fit to be among such as
you. Hoot him--hoot him--hiss him--kick him out from among you.'

"On this my friend in the crowd, who advised me to buy the stuff, began
to hoot and to hiss and to shove me about, and others followed his
example, till I saw that there was no use of attempting to hold my own,
and I wasn't sorry to be able to get clear of them, and to bolt with a
whole skin on my body, though two of the bottles were broken in the row.

"I got home at last, not over well pleased with Doctor Gulliman and the
way I had been treated. However, as I had paid for my whistle, I
thought I might as well try if the stuff would do me any good. As soon
as I got into Portsmouth I bought a bottle of old rum; for, thinks I to
myself, if I am to take the stuff, t