been "thrashed" a great many times, and inferred from that fact that I
must have had the disease at some time or other in my youth, so I
answered,

"Yes, sir."

"Have you ever had the itch?"

"What kind?" said I. "The old fashioned seven year kind? Y-e-s, sir, I
have had it."

He then continued asking me questions, and wanted to know if I ever
had a great many diseases, the names of which I had never heard
before. Since I catch almost everything that comes along, I supposed,
of course, that at some period during my childhood, youth or early
manhood I had suffered from all those physical ills, so I always
answered,

"Yes, sir." He wound up by inquiring if I ever had a stroke of the
horse glanders. I knew what was meant by that disease, and replied in
the negative.

He then looked at me over the top of his spectacles, and, in a rather
doubting manner, said, "and you really have had all these diseases? By
the way," he continued, "are you alive at the present moment after all
that you have suffered?" Mr. Mooney is an Irishman. He was having a
little cold-blooded sport at my expense. Whenever you meet an
Irishman you will always strike a budget of fun.

His next question was, "Are you a sound man?"