your noddle, there's
plenty on 'em, ef a man knows beans. Now I'm jest a-goin' to let
daylight into that little knowledge-box o' yourn, an' fill it with good,
wholesome idees, clean up to the brim, an' runnin' over,--good, honest,
Shaker measure. I'll give ye more new wrinkles afore mornin' than ever
you dreamed of in your physiology, valooable hints, an' nuthin' to pay.

* * * * *

Being now securely camped on my mountain-height, I peered out upon the
horizon beneath, and signified to the Luminary that the gas might at
once be turned on full blaze.

"As when the sun new risen
Looks through the horizontal misty air,"

so gleamed, no longer nebulous, but now full-orbed, the bright star
Diaetetica,--a central sun, holding within its ample bosom the star-dust
of whole galaxies, infinite gastric constellations.

_The Luminary._--"Any fool'll allow that there's nerves, an' plenty on
'em, all over the body. All these nerves come from the stomach. Fact is,
they're the stomach's errand-boys. They run round an' do his chores jest
as he says, an' then trot back ag'in. He's an awful hard master,
though,--likes to shirk, an' makes 'em lug round all his baggage an'
chicken-fixin's. When he gits grumpy, which is pooty consid'able often,
he's death on some on 'em,--jest walks into 'em like chain-lightnin'
into a gooseberry-bush. When he's gouty, he kicks up a most etarnal
touse with the great-toe nerve, an' slaps it right into him fore an'
aft, the wust kind. Folks hev asked me why the gout pitches into the
great toe wuss than the rest on 'em. It's jest as nateral as Natur'. I
cal'late it's a special Providence for the benefit of the hull human
family, to hang out a big sign jest where folks ken see it, to show up
the man who's ben an' sinned ag'inst his stomach. When he limps round in
flannel, he's a conspicoous hobblin' advertisement, a fust-cut lecterer
on temperance, an' the horrible example to boot. Now you know the way
the stomach an' nerves fay in.

"Wal, then ag'in, there's another set,--the stomach's own
blood-relations. He's head o' the family, an' they all work in together
nice an' handy, jest as slick as grease. Lam ary one on 'em, an' you got
to lam the whole boodle. Jest like a hornet's nest: shake a stick at ary
one o' the group, an' they all come buzzin' round te'ble miffy in less
'n no time. There's the nose,--he wears a coat jest as well 's the
stomach: he's the s