212 FIELD SHOOTING. 



When I first went to Illinois, I shot many geese; 

 and if one fell in a pond or slough, I waded in. 

 waist-deep to bring it out. The old settlers 

 used to tell me that it was a bad practice; but 

 I had never been sick in my life to any degree 

 of importance, and had no fears. But after being 

 there a year, out in all sorts of weather, and 

 often in and out of the water two or three times 

 a day, I caught the ague, and had it eleven 

 months. It was not the mild ague, such as pre- 

 vails to some extent on the Atlantic coast of 

 the Northern States, but the powerful Western 

 ague, which shakes a man so that his bones al- 

 most rattle as well as his teeth. In the course 

 of the eleven months it was broken up several 

 times, but always came back again. Now, there 

 are a great many infallible remedies for the ague. 

 I took about a score of them, but didn't get well. 

 At last, however, I got hold of the real thing. It 

 cured me, and much experience of it since for 

 sixteen years has convinced me that it is the 

 best thing in the world to cure the complaint. 

 It is not a patent medicine. The editor of this 

 book, to whom I am relating my experience, and 

 who had experience of the shakes himself in 

 Michigan from July to Christmas, says he wishes 



