lescence. I am
going to live on a strict diet. I shall also take a tepid bath at
night and a cold one in the morning. I shall endeavour to be cheerful,
and fix my mind on pleasant subjects. In the way of drugs I intend to
take a phosphorous pill three times a day, preferably after meals, and
a tonic composed of the tinctures of gentian, cinchona, calisaya, and
cardamon compound. Into each teaspoonful of this I shall mix tincture
of nux vomica, beginning with one drop and increasing it a drop each
day until the maximum dose is reached. I shall drop this with a
medicine-dropper, which can be procured at a trifling cost at any
pharmacy. Good morning."

I took my hat and walked out. After I had closed the door I remembered
something that I had forgotten to say. I opened it again. The doctor
had not moved from where he had been sitting, but he gave a slightly
nervous start when he saw me again.

"I forgot to mention," said I, "that I shall also take absolute rest
and exercise."

After this consultation I felt much better. The reestablishing
in my mind of the fact that I was hopelessly ill gave me so much
satisfaction that I almost became gloomy again. There is nothing more
alarming to a neurasthenic than to feel himself growing well and
cheerful.

John looked after me carefully. After I had evinced so much interest
in his White Orpington chicken he tried his best to divert my mind,
and was particular to lock his hen house of nights. Gradually the
tonic mountain air, the wholesome food, and the daily walks among
the hills so alleviated my malady that I became utterly wretched and
despondent. I heard of a country doctor who lived in the mountains
nearby. I went to see him and told him the whole story. He was a
gray-bearded man with clear, blue, wrinkled eyes, in a home-made suit
of gray jeans.

In order to save time I diagnosed my case, touched my nose with my
right forefinger, struck myself below the knee to make my foot kick,
sounded my chest, stuck out my tongue, and asked him the price of
cemetery lots in Pineville.

He lit his pipe and looked at me for about three minutes. "Brother,"
he said, after a while, "you are in a mighty bad way. There's a chance
for you to pull through, but it's a mighty slim one."

"What can it be?" I asked eagerly. "I have taken arsenic and gold,
phosphorus, exercise, nux vomica, hydrotherapeutic baths, rest,
excitement, codein, and aromatic spirits of ammonia. Is there anything
left