Golden Days for Boys and Girls Part 17

After supper he washed out the dishes and utensils in a brook near by, and lying at full length on the ground, composed himself for a smoke.

All this time I had been regarding him in silence, but with considerable curiosity, and I had about made up my mind that he was a gipsy, on his way to join his tribe, when he startled me by saying, abruptly:

"Look 'ere!"

I intimated that I was all attention.

"Who are you?" he asked, bluntly.

"Jack Wood," I answered, promptly, although a trifle nervously.

"My name is Miles Norris," he rejoined, after a long pause. "I'm a wender of physics and knickknacs."

"A doctor?"

"Not exactly," he replied, rising on his elbow and winking at me significantly. "I cures people as hasn't got nothink the matter vith 'em and thinks they has."

This sentence was too deep for me to fathom, and on my intimating as much, he condescended to explain.

"I go round the country selling my own medicines, which is Norris's Golden Balsam, wot cures all kinds of pains, cuts and bruises, whatsomedever they may be; fifty cents a bottle, small bottles twenty-five. Then there's the Lightning Toothache Drops, wot cures that hagonizing malady in one second, or money refunded--twenty-five cents a bottle. And finally, 'ere we 'ave the Great American Tooth Powder, which makes the blackest teeth vite in less'n no time, and makes the gums strong and 'elthy--ten cents a box. And each and every purchaser is presented vith a book containing fifty songs, all new and prime, free gratis and for nothink! Valk hup, ladies and gentlemen; who'll 'ave another bottle?"

During this recital, Doctor Norris gradually a.s.sumed a professional demeanor, and near the close he rose to his feet, and gesticulated as if addressing a large audience.

But at the close he suddenly cooled down, and a.s.suming his rec.u.mbent position, said, listlessly:

"Now you know me."

"Certainly," said I; "but then I do not see--"

"I hunderstand," said he. "You don't see no Balsam, nor Drops, nor Powder?"

"I do not."

"And you vonder vere they are?"

"Yes."

"Your surprise is werry natural," said Doctor Norris, with great gravity. "I am out of those inwaluable medicines at present, but ven I get to my laboratory, I shall roll 'em out wholesale."

"Then you make them?"

"In course. I couldn't trust anybody else."

Then, after a pause, he added, slowly:

"I don't know but that I might let you into my secrets if-- What did you say your name was?"

I repeated my alias, and told my fict.i.tious history.

"So you ain't got nothink to do?"

"Nothing."

"How would you like to work for me?"

"Doing what?"

"Selling my medicines."

"Done!" cried I, joyfully.

"Hold hup!" said he, quickly. "I ain't quite certain. Can you patter?"

"Can I what?"

"Gab, I mean--talk? Are you good on that?"

"I think I am," I answered, modestly.

"And 'ave you got plenty of cheek?"

"Oh, yes! Why?"

"Because you'll need it. You wouldn't be afraid to stand hup before a big crowd and blow away about the Balsam, or the Powder, nor yet the Drops--hey?"

I a.s.sured him that the prospect did not dismay me in the least.

My companion then brought the conversation to a conclusion very summarily.

"Then, Jack Wood," said he, "you're my man!"

Then he rolled over and went to sleep, and although somewhat astonished at the suddenness of the doctor's resolution, I thought his action a good one, and _I_ rolled over and went to sleep, also.

CHAPTER XVI.

TREATS OF MY EXPERIENCE AS A PHYSICIAN--I REACH THE MISSISSIPPI.

I awoke at sunrise, or rather Doctor Norris awoke me by a vigorous dig in the ribs with the point of his boot, and told me that breakfast was ready. I arose at once, washed my face, combed my hair, and then astonished the doctor by the vigor of my appet.i.te.

During the meal he confided to me his plans for the future. He had laid out a route through Butler and Beaver counties to the State line, and thence through Ohio until winter set in.

"I make enough in summer to lay hup in winter," he explained. "It's an 'ealthy and hinvigorating life, and I like it. I've traveled over nearly all the States between the Atlantic and the Mississippi, 'ave 'ad my hups and downs, and I wouldn't change places with a king."

I rather doubted whether the doctor knew very much about kings, that he could afford to speak so positively, but I felt that it would be neither polite nor prudent to disagree with him.

"I dare say I shall like the life very well," I said, quietly.

"But--what am I expected to do?"