THE SEARCH AND FINDING 



"Oh Lord, no, sir ; 't was a pesky little thing, 

 belonged down to the landin'. Fever-'nager 's 

 what driv the folks off, in my 'pinion." 



"Ah, they do have the fever about here, 

 then?" 



"Gosh — Smithers here — p'raps you doan't 

 know Smithers — no; waal, he 's got it, got it 

 bad; that 's so; and what 's wus, his chil'en 

 's got it, and his wife 's had it; and my wife 

 here, a spell ago, what does she do, but up 

 and takes it, 's bad 's enny on 'em ; 't 's a dum 

 curi's keind o' thing. You doan't know nothin' 

 when 't 's comin'; and you doan't know no 

 more when 't 's goin' ; and arter 't 's dun, 't ain't 

 no small shakes of a thing; a feller keeps 

 keinder ailin'." 



Upon a sudden the place took on a new as- 

 pect for me; its cool shade seemed the murky 

 parent of miasma; the wind sighed through 

 the leaves with a sickly sound, and the brook, 

 that gave out a little while before a roistering 

 cheerfulness in its dash, now surged along with 

 only a quick succession of sullen plashes. 



I must recur to one other disappointment in 

 respect of a country place, which possessed 

 every one of the features I had desired in 

 unmistakable type; and yet all these so curi- 



33 



