The Coeur d'Alene press. (Coeur d'Alene, Idaho) 1906-1907, 1907-02-18

weather was reIeFfeQ 10 bdutdms WIN
concluded to refer 1t to the thermome'
ter, which he brought from the house.
He showed 1t to Merryweather, who
was surprised to see record OF 30 de-
gEees. He was much pleased to be vim
dicated, but hadn't expected so trium-
plant a vindication.
Then Mrs. Bantam came out and, re-
Rarding her husband and Guyer with
her sympathetic eye and the good Mr..
Merryweather with her dIabolic eye,
made some modest remarks on the
weather herself, In which she main
tanned that 1t was growing colder.
After having established her point, at
least with Bantam and Guyer-Mrs.
Bantam always established her point;
people were afraid that II they dis
agreed with her she would bring her
diabolc eye on them-she went back
into the house with the thermometer.
Presently Bantam went inside to get
the thermometer again, and when he
brought it out 1t had fallen 20 degrees.
Merry weather couldn't understand how
90 decided change should have oc-
CURED In SO short a time without his
feeling it. Guyer suggested that there
was something the matter with him.
Merryweather was frightened. He
thought he had better go home.
Mrs. Bantam came out again, bring
ing the thermometer with her and sug-
costing that something must be the
matter with 1t. 1t had gone up again.
This treasured Merryweather. who was
Of too sweet a disposition to speak his
thoughts, which were that Mrs Ban
tam had probably read the scale first
with her lower, then with her upper
eye. But as there were As degrees be-
tween the two eyes this didn't explain
the smaller difference. However, he
decided to wait awhile before conclud-
Ing that he had chiIls and fever. The
consequences might have been averted
had not Bantam handed round slim
ulant. A few minutes after Merry
weather had drained his glass Mrs.
Bantam came out with the thermome-
ter again standing at 60 degrees. Then
Merryweather was sure he had the
fever of pneumonia. A sympathetic
curve appeared on the left hand corner
of Mrs. Bantam's mouth as she re-
marked that 1t came on that way.
Merryweather was helped into the
house and placed on lounge. Occa-
sionally he would resume a normal
bodily temperature, but whenever he
did so one Of his three friends would
show him a thermometer antipodal to
his condition. If the mercury stood
low when he was hot he thought he
was in fever. If 1t stood high when he
was cool he assumed that he had
chill. In this way his loving friends
kept working on his Imagination and
through his Imagination on his body
till he got up and went home to die.
Once out of the way of the malign In
fiuence that had tormented him, he was
surprised at a sudden recovery.
Now, the explanation Of this me-
neurological paradox is this: Bantam
before bringing the thermometer out
on to the veranda to settle the dispute
between Merryweather and Guyer had
held the bulb in his fist. When he
took 1t inside he gave 1t to Mrs. Ban
tam with instructions to put it in the
Ice chest. And so the thermometer
was kept oscillating between heat and
cold while Mr.. Merryweather was os-
cillating between cold and heat till
he was thrown into a condition af
imaginary pneumonia.
OSCAR COX