Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1833-11-14

As Sam said this, he shouldered his
axe, and was about quitting the wood
when a deep voice came, as it were,
from hollow tree close beside him,
saying
'tS-a-m! Sam! stir not an inchl il
you do the devil will have you for Ger.
tain! Work two hours more to-day,
and tomorrow be here bright and ear.
ly."
'What!" said Sam, ssif the trees be.
gin to talk it's time TO look around me. -
With that he turned and fell to chop
ping again. He continued until his
hands were nearly worn out, and his
strength so nearly exhausted that he
could stand it no longer, when he again
shouldered his axe, and without being
further molested by the voice from the
tree, dragged himself home. He slept
soundly that night, not being the least
troubled with dyspeptic dreams. His
hands were terribly sore; he was lame
at every joint: but his appearance was
improved, and he was able to eat his
meat without either pepper or mustard.
He would, however, have declined
going to the wood; but the deep voice
was still ringing in his ears, and the
devil, in his heated Imagination, ready
to catch him. He once more, there
fore, took his medicated axe and re-
paired to the forest. He continued
longer than the day before; but so sore
were his hands that every stroke that
he struck gave him severe pain; and
he was once or twice on the point of
giving it up, when the same deep voice
from the tree again warned him Of the
danger ofsuch course.
In short, Sam Crookshank repaired
to the wood daily, working longer and
harder each day than the day before
sleeping soundly at night, and eating
his meals with constantly increasing
appetite. His hands by degrees be-
came hardened to the work, and his
whole body SO strengthened, that he
could labor from morning till night not
feeling half as much fatigue as he en-
dured the first day from an hours
work.
"But what the plague is the reason"
said he, applying his nose to the axe
helve. 81 can't smell the campfire
and the murrer oozing through, as the
said. Pm sure I've hct the
axe helve nearly red hot every day for
a month, and yet can't perceive that
the ingredience comes through at all.
The potecary must have cheated me
in the articles"
Full of this idea, he went to scold
the apothecary for putting him off with
bad medicines, when the latter threw
his pestlc at his head and called him
fool for his pains.
But though Sam could not perceive
by any outward signs that the medi-
cine had come through the axe helve,
yet inasmuch as he daily grew better
by handling the instrument, he finally
concluded that the virtue Of the rene
dy had insensibly entered the pores Of
his hands, and without his knowing it,
diffused itself over his whole system.
He did not relax his endeavors or
lay aside his medicated axe until his
acre ofwoodand was completely chop
ped, and his dyspepsia most thoroughly
cured. He was also cured of his gen.
tlemanly pretensions, and is now one of
the most Industrious young men in the
neighborhood.
There is one thing, however, which
seems to him little mysterious, and
that is the voice from the hollow tree;
bat Jack Whipplctree, son of the far
mer above mentioned, knows more
about the voice than he who heard it.