te had given him. All at once the mate came and
found the man steering four points out. When he upbraided him, he
answered, "He came and told me to." "Nobody did," replied the mate.
"Go northwest."

Three times the experience was repeated, and at last the mate reported
the matter to the skipper. He immediately suggested, "Well, let us go
on running in the direction he insists on taking for a while and see
if anything happens." At the end of two hours they came upon a
square-rigger with her decks just awash, and six men clinging to her
rigging. As they came alongside the sinking vessel the carpenter
pointed aghast to one of the rescued crew and cried out, "There's the
man who came and told me the skipper said to change the course."

In medicine, too, things happen which we professional men are just as
unable to explain. A big-bodied, successful fisherman came aboard my
steamer one day, saying that he had toothache. This was probable, for
his jaw was swollen, his mouth hard to open, and the offending molar
easily visible within. When I produced the forceps he protested most
loudly that he would not have it touched for worlds.

"Why, then, did you come to me?" I asked. "You are wasting my time."

"I wanted you to charm her, Doctor," he answered, quite naturally.

"But, my dear friend, I do not know how to charm, and don't think it
would do the slightest good. Doctors are not allowed to do such
things."

He was evidently very much put out, and turning round to go, said, "I
knows why you'se won't charm her. It's because I'm a Roman Catholic."

"Nonsense. If you really think that it would do any good, come along.
You'll have to pay twenty-five cents exactly as if you had it pulled
out."

"Gladly enough, Doctor. Please go ahead."

He sat on the rail, a burly carcass, the incarnation of materialism,
while the doctor, feeling the size of a sandflea, put one finger into
his mouth and touched the molar, while he repeated the most mystic
nonsense he could think of, "Abracadabra Tiddlywinkum Umslopoga"--and
then jumped the finger out lest the patient might close his ponderous
jaw. The fisherman took a turn around the deck, pulled out the
quarter, and solemnly handed it to me, saying, "All the pain has gone.
Many thanks, Doctor." I found myself standing alone in amazement,
twiddling a miserable shilling, and wondering how I came to make such
a fool of myself.

A month later the patient again came to see me when we happene