The Tangled ThreadsPorter, Eleanor H. (Eleanor Hodgman)
General
The Tangled Threads
Porter, Eleanor H. (Eleanor Hodgman)
Children's stories, American; Short stories
The finger was nearly well when he suddenly discovered that, after all,
the trouble might have been lock-jaw instead of blood-poisoning. He at
once began studying the subject so that he might be prepared should the
thing occur again. He was glad, later, that he had done so, for the
Fourth of July and a toy pistol brought all his recently acquired
knowledge into instant requisition.
"If it does come, it's 'most likely ter be fatal," he said excitedly to
his wife, who was calmly bathing a slight graze on his hand. "An' ye
want ter watch me," he added, catching up a book with his uninjured hand
and turning to a much-thumbed page for reference. "Now, listen. Thar's
diff'rent kinds of it. They're all 'te-ta-nus,' but ye got to watch out
ter find out which kind 't is. If I shut my jaws up tight, it's
'lock-jaw.' If I bend backwards, it's 'o-pis-tho-to-nos.' If I bend
forwards, it's 'em-pros-tho-to-nos'; an' if I bend ter one side, it's
'pleu-ro-tho-to-nos,'" he explained, pronouncing the long words after a
fashion of his own. "Now, remember," he finished. "Like enough I shan't
know enough ter tell which kind 't is myself, nor which way I am
a-leanin'."
"No, of course not, dear," agreed Mehitable cheerfully; "an' I'll
remember," she promised, as she trotted away with her salves and bowls
and bandages.
For some days Jason "tried" his jaw at regular intervals, coming to the
conclusion at last that fate once more was kind, and that "te-ta-nus" was
to pass him by.
The summer ended and autumn came. Jason was glad that the cold weather
was approaching. The heat had been trying. He had almost suffered a
sunstroke, and twice a mosquito bite had given him much trouble--he had
feared that he would die of malignant pustule. His relief at the coming
of cool weather was short-lived, however, for one of the neighboring
towns developed a smallpox scare, and as he discovered a slight rash soon
after passing through the place, he thought best to submit to
vaccination. He caught a bad cold, too, and was sure pneumonia was
setting in--that is, he would have been sure, only his throat was so sore
that he could not help thinking it might be diphtheria.
Realizing the seriousness of the situation, and determining to settle
once for all the vexed question, he pored over his books in an exhaustive
search for symptoms. It was then that he rushed into the presence of his
wife one morning, his face drawn, his eyes wildly staring, and an open
book in his shaking hand.
"Hitty, Hitty," he cried; "jest listen ter this! How 'm I goin' ter tell
what ails me, I should like ter know, if I don't ache where I'm sick?
Why, Hitty, I can't never tell! Jest listen:
The location of pain is not always at the seat of disease. In hip
disease the pain is not first felt in the hip, but in the knee-joint.
In chronic inflammation of the liver the pain is generally most
severe in the right shoulder and arm.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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