Now, if there's too much water outside, you can kind of even
it up by takin' more water inside. The reason for any sickness
is--the balance ain't right. The weight gets shifted, an' folks begin
to topple, then they're sick. If it goes clean over, they die. The
balance has got to be kept even if you want to be well. When the
swamps are fillin' up with water, an' there's too much moisture in
the outside air, an' too much pressure of it on your bones an'
joints, if you swallow enough water inside it keeps things even. If
Barney Thayer had drunk a gallon of water a day, he might have worked
in the wet swamp till doomsday an' he wouldn't have got the
rheumatiz."
"Has Barney Thayer got the rheumatiz, Cephas?"
Charlotte's pale face appeared in the pantry door.
"Yes, he has got it bad. 'Ain't stirred out of his bed since night
before last; been all alone; nobody knew it till William Berry went
in this forenoon. Guess he'd died there if he'd been left much
longer."
"Who's with him now?" asked Charlotte, in a quick, strained voice.
"The Ray boy is sittin' with him, whilst William is gone to the North
Village to see if he can get somebody to come. There's a widow woman
over there that goes out nussin', Silas said, an' they hope they can
get her. The doctor says he's got to have somebody."
"Rebecca can't do anything, of course," said Sarah, meditatively; "he
'ain't got any of his own folks to come, poor feller.
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