Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-02-12

it's stuff" as the young deiight IN
saying. there results a most exquisite
sensation in the neck.
To be able to concentrate on these
seconds of bliss and forget the pains
is to extract from illness all the
legitimate pleasure that any one has
right to expect from a frst-ciass
sickness.
Illness is usually not all pain and
| if one tries to find the good in every
, thing" he will discover that being
sick abed has some very good points.
Not only is there that great sport
with ones epiglottiS, there are any
number of high spots to an average
good case. of the sort in which one II
pretty sick. but there is never much
doubt about the favorable outcome,
after all.
Chief among these is the pleasure
of being waited on hand and foot
as they still say in the country dis
tricts.
How expressive that phrase is is
known only to a good wife, who smiles
away the growls Of the sufferer and
complies willingly with demands for
cracked ice, and hundred other such
thing a sick person wants is at the
other end Of the house.
The patient has but to express a
wish and some one is ready to full
fill it for him. He wants certain
book: the book is brought. He tires of
it and demands magazines. The
magazines are too large; they tire his
arms; his arms ache, anyway
The blinds are too high there is
too much light
They are lowered--now there isn't
light enough.
Surely, only mahara jail car get
such attention when well.
We knew a man who preferred t.
live in the Philippines because he could
have three or four servants there to
wait OH him. and he liked it. He said
it made man feel like somebody.
Maybe he was right and maybe he
was wrong. but his viewpoint Is un-
dersta ndable. The great bulk of men
In the world do not have others to
jump at their bidding, except, per.
chance, under specialized conditions.
Most must become i'll to have their
whim become law. If this happens
now and then. it is good for all par
ties concerned. and must be reckoned
among the benefits of illness.
X X
No doubt the chief gain is the re.
covery.
Surely this is easily understood by
well and Ill alike.
At o'clock the patient Is still
very sick man. The doctors medicines
do not seem to be functioning. He
still perspires. his throat is sore, his
cough racks his diaphragm.
Suddenly, at 6 o'clock. these symp
toms, as if by magic, disappear.
A delicious GOODNESS passes over the
frame: the friendly epiglottis bound
joyously at the touch Of cold milk: tn
cough is practically gone. The dead
~ drug codeine. skillfully administer.
ed. has got in it's work.
There is an absolute point in time
when one ceases to be patient, and
becomes a convalescent. He admits to
himself that he is, If not exactly well
at least not really ill any longer. A
little sensible lying around the house
for a few days and he will be as good
as ever.
AS matter of fact, in many cases
he will be better than ever for Mother
Nature. aided by the doctor, has
cleaned him out. The respite from food
too, has done him good, even as the
respite from active life has helped
his outlook as a whole.
Then II one gains physically and
mentally from his period of incubation.
1t can be said to have some decided
points of goodness in it. and to live
up to Tin some degree) Shakespeare's
great lines. The bard was wrong
about the toad having a jewel in its
head-but what difference does that
make? Illness, too. wears no jewel;
we must make ourselves see. what
good there is in it, else we win miss
the plain benefits that it has.
To be Ill gracefully--that is the
thing. To recognize that Nature. like
a father. is doing this for your own
good: to feel sure that this hurts
me as much as it does you, my son."
These attitudes of mind are as neces.
sary. in illness as the recumbent posi-.
ton of the body. if one is to derive
from a sickness all Of it's lasting
benefits.