months; nor were the indulgences of the table believed to be remarkable,
as they were forbidden by a due regard to economy. They suffered much by
excessive heat in their rooms, both by day and by night, and in several
other ways, much more than by high living.

But I endeavored to put all things right, and to convince them of the
necessity of keeping them so. In a long, but very familiar series of
conversations,--for the most part separately,--I endeavored to show them
that conjugal life was a life of duty, as well as of enjoyment; and that
consumptive people, in order to live out more than half their days,
must forego a great many gratifications to which they might very
naturally lay claim.

The results of this conversation were probably worth a hundred-fold the
expense they involved. This young couple are, to this hour, for aught I
know, enjoying tolerable health; and their health is improving. Their
children, though not strong, reap the full benefit of thorough parental
reform; and their scrofulous tendencies seem every day more and more
receding.

CHAPTER LXXXVI.

HOW TO CURE CHOLERA.

While cholera was prevailing in our large towns and cities, and a few
cases were occurring and proving fatal in my own neighborhood, a friend
of mine, who had till recently been a sea captain, complained, one day,
of cholera symptoms, and begged to know what he could do to ward off the
threatened disease.

On inquiry I found he was more than half right, that cholera, surely
enough, was already marking him for its victim. The rice-water
discharges, so called, had actually commenced. Had he been any thing but
a resolute tar, he would have gone on, most evidently, into severe if
not fatal disease.

I gave him the best advice I was able, with regard to diet, exercise,
etc.,--probably the same, or about the same, that any thoughtful medical
man, in the same circumstances, would have given. He was to be cheerful,
quiet, and abstinent. For food, he was to use nothing but a little
boiled rice,--at least, till the symptoms of cholera began to abate. He
was especially directed to avoid all medicine.

Several weeks passed away, during which I heard nothing from him. As I
did not hear of his death, however, I concluded he must have recovered.
One day, rather unexpectedly, I met him again, and inquired familiarly
how he got along with his cholera? He laughed outright, but immediately
added,--"Sit down, sir, and I will tell you