A Holiday in Bed, and Other SketchesBarrie, J. M. (James Matthew)
General
A Holiday in Bed, and Other Sketches
Barrie, J. M. (James Matthew)
Essays; Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
All respectable chemists, Montgomery assures me, keep the cio-root. That
is the name of the drug, and Montgomery is the man who ought to write
its testimonials. This is a testimonial to the efficacy of the cio-root,
and I write it the more willingly, because, until the case of Montgomery
cropped up, I had no faith in patent medicines. Seeing, however, is,
they say, believing; and I have seen what the cio-root did for
Montgomery. I can well believe now that it can do anything, from
removing grease-spots to making your child cry out in the night.
Montgomery, who was married years ago, is subject to headaches, and
formerly his only way of treating them was to lie in bed and read a
light novel. By the time the novel was finished, so, as a rule, was the
headache. This treatment rather interfered with his work, however, and
he tried various medicines which were guaranteed to cure rapidly. None
of them had the least result, until one day, some two months ago, good
fortune made him run against an old friend in Chambers street.
Montgomery having a headache, mentioned it, and his friend asked him if
he had tried the cio-root. The name even was unfamiliar to Montgomery,
but his friend spoke so enthusiastically of it that the headachy man
took a note of it. He was told that it had never been known to fail, and
the particular merit of it was that it drove the headache away in five
minutes. The proper dose to take was half an inch of the root, which was
to be sucked and eventually swallowed. Montgomery tried several chemists
in vain, for they had not heard of it, but at last he got it on George
IV. Bridge. He had so often carried home in triumph a "certain cure,"
which was subsequently flung out at the window in disgust, that his wife
shook her head at the cio-root, and advised him not to be too hopeful.
However, the cio-root surpassed the fondest expectations. It completely
cured Montgomery in less than the five minutes. Several times he tried
it, and always with the same triumphant result. Having at last got a
drug to make an idol of, it is not perhaps to be wondered at that
Montgomery was full of gratitude. He kept a three pound tin of the
cio-root on his library-table, and the moment he felt a headache coming
on he said, "Excuse me for one moment," and bit off half an inch of
cio-root.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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