After listening and taking notes of her story of misery, I made a careful examination and then told her that she was entirely free from all disease, but that she was simply worn out and needed six months of rest and good living. She sighed deeply and said it was impossible to follow such a prescription as their pecuniary means would not permit it. She said further that their two children had outgrown the district school of the town, and she had, with true Yankee ambition, persuaded her husband to send them to a relative in the city that they might have the advantage of came, she told me he had done so regularly every extra dollar of their earnings, although from motives of economy, the children spent Saturday and Sunday at home. She said she felt sure a tonic would restore her appetite, and that the relief to her mind in knowing that she was free from disease would aid in curing her. So, carrying in her hand the valuable recipe for a tonic which might or might not be of use, she left me, promising to report herself in ten days. At the end of that time she appeared, looking more dejected and forlorn than at her first visit, so much so that I was startled, and thought that I had made a mistake in my diagnosis as well as in my prognosis. With sobs, she informed me that a great misfortune had befallen them. This statement at once explained to me her appearance. It was at the time when the first Jersey cows were imported into this country from England, and they were held at a great price. She told me that her husband, about six months before, had invested all the money they had in the savings bank in the purchase of one of those valuable creatures. On the day following the woman’s visit to me, this precious cow had begun to be ailing. The trouble increasing, a veterinary surgeon had been consulted, and he told them if they would save the health and life of the cow, they must procure a faithful, intelligent man to take charge of her from morning to night. This sad event made it necessary for them to take for attendance on the cow the services of their best hired man, while the hiring of another man in his place would prevent their expending money for the charwoman who gave the good farmer’s wife an occasional lift with the housework. She sobbingly ended her story by saying, “I must work even harder than a week ago--you must give me a stronger tonic.” The case looked so sad and hopeless that I sat silently thinking for a moment, when suddenly a bright thought sprang into my mind, and I said, “Why don’t _you_ nurse that cow and let the charwoman do your work in house, kitchen and dairy?”