anxious, and took bigger swallows than
Somers told them to, or it may be the stuff was a little too strong, or
Somers got in too much of the love-vine, which has such an awful twist;
or it may be he wanted to play a joke on some of our family for being
jealous and wanting to get him caught by Mr. Painter--whatever it was,
that medicine had an awful power and did even more than he said it
would. When every one had taken a good swallow, except the last one in
line--he being a middle-aged person named Waters, who had to take what
was left, which was only about a spoonful and very disappointing to Mr.
Waters--they all felt the curling sensation begin, and commenced the new
muscle-practice Somers had mentioned; and just then Mr. Painter, who had
probably heard that Somers had gone, came tearing through the timber,
and my folks quit practising, and broke for trees and limbs, with Mr.
Painter after one plump young chap which he didn't quite get, and pretty
soon was shaking a limb in the usual way, only harder, being hungrier
than common. The plump young person was scared half to death, never
having had much practice holding on, anyway, and in about a minute he
was obliged to let go with his hands and feet, and just give up
everything, shut his eyes, and drop, expecting next minute he would hit
the ground and it would be all over.

"But right there that plump young fellow got the best surprise of his
life. He had been so scared that he had forgotten all about Mr. Somers's
medicine, but the medicine hadn't forgotten about him. During the little
minute he had been sitting on that limb his tail had curled itself
around it as tight as if it had grown there. Mr. Painter couldn't have
shaken him loose in a week. He hung down just like Somers, only not so
far, and he didn't swing much, because that strong medicine had taken up
all his slack and there was very little room for play. He didn't care
for that, of course, not then. He got brave and very cheerful right off,
and called out to Mr. Painter, just like Somers:

"'Much obliged, Mr. Painter--much obliged for the nice swing. Swing me
again, Mr. Painter.'

"And when the rest of our folks saw that the same thing had happened to
all of them they all let go and dropped, and began calling from the
different trees: 'Come and swing us, too, Mr. Painter--stay all day and
swing the rest of us!'

"And when Mr. Painter heard that, and looked around and saw all my
ancestors hanging head dow