"He did," said Mr. Higgins impressively. "An' 'twasn't but last week.
I'm glad you asked me. For two nights I couldn't sleep. Had the earache
powerful. Poured hot oil an' laud'num into it, an' kept a hot brick
rolled up in flannel against it, but didn't do no good. Then Mrs.
Higgins says, 'Hiram, why in the land's sake don't you go out an' see
the Patriarch?' An' I hitched right up, an' every step that horse took I
could feel it gettin' better, an' I wasn't five minutes with the
Patriarch before I was cured, an' I ain't had a twinge since."

"It certainly looks as though there were something in that," admitted
Madison cautiously.

Hiram Higgins smiled a world of tolerance.

"'Tain't worth mentionin' alongside some of the things he's done," he
said deprecatingly. "You'll hear about 'em fast enough."

"What's the local doctor say about it?" asked Madison.

"There ain't enough pickin's to keep a doctor here, though some of 'em's
tried," chuckled Mr. Higgins. "Have to have 'em for _some_ things, of
course--an' then he drives over from Barton's Mills, seven miles from
here."

"And do _all_ the people in Needley believe in the
Patriarch?"--Madison's voice was full of grave interest.

"Well," said Mr. Higgins, "to be plumb downright honest with you, they
don't. Folks as was born here an' are old inhabitants do, but the