that followed. The highly colored, carefully explained
illustrations of the kidneys, liver, heart, and lungs which the books
displayed were to her only a little less terrifying than the thought that
her own body contained the fearsome things in reality; while to her
husband these same illustrations were but the delightful means to a still
more delightful end--finding in his own sturdy frame the position of
every organ shown.

For a month Jason was happy. Then it was suddenly borne in upon him that
not always were these fascinating new acquaintances of his in a healthy
condition. At once he began to pinch and pummel himself, and to watch
for pains, being careful, meanwhile, to study the books unceasingly, so
that he might know just where to look for the pains when they should
come. He counted his pulse daily--hourly, if he apprehended trouble; and
his tongue he examined critically every morning, being particular to
notice whether or not it were pale, moist, coated, red, raw, cracked, or
tremulous.

Jason was not at all well that spring. He was threatened successively
with typhoid fever, appendicitis, consumption, and cholera, and only
escaped a serious illness in each case by the prompt application of
remedies prescribed in his books. His wife ran the whole gamut of
emotions from terror, worry, and sympathy down to indifference and
good-natured tolerance, reaching the last only after the repeated failure
of Jason's diseases to materialize.

It was about a week after Jason had mercifully escaped an attack of the
cholera that he came into the kitchen one morning and dropped heavily
into the nearest chair.

"I tell ye, my heart ain't right," he announced to his wife. "It's goin'
jest like Jehu--'palpitation,' they call it; an' I've got 'shortness of
breath,' too," he finished triumphantly.

"Hm-m; did ye catch her at last?" asked Mehitable with mild interest.

Jason looked up sharply.

"'Catch her'! Catch who?" he demanded.

"Why, the colt, of course! How long did ye have ter chase her?" Mrs.
Hartsorn's carefully modulated voice expressed curiosity, and that was
all.

Jason flushed angrily.

"Oh, I know what ye mean," he snapped. "Ye think thar don't nothin' ail
me, an' that jest fetchin' Dolly from the pasture did it all. But I know
what them symptoms means; they mean heart disease, woman,--'cardiac
failure,'--that's what 't is." Jason leaned back in his chair and drew a
long breath. When he coul