The doctor looked at his patient and the patient looked at the
doctor. Then Mrs. Beaumont put back her head and burst into a gale of
laughter, in which the dignified doctor soon joined. They laughed and
laughed, the woman wiping her tear-filled eyes. Finally, when she
could stop long enough to talk, she said:

"Did you ever hear of anything so funny in all your life--a hot
brick--or a hot flatiron"--a peal of laugher--"at my feet--another one
at the small of my back--Oh, I shall die, I shall surely die!" And
she went off into another paroxysm of laughter.

When the laughter ceased and the doctor returned to his professional
manner, asking her how she felt and starting to feel her pulse, she
said:

"Doctor, she's cured me. I haven't had a laugh like that for years.
It's better than all your medicine. Boneset tea--" and again she was
off.

Finally, when she had quieted, the doctor said:

"I don't know but that her boneset tea is as good as anything else.
All you need is a little quiet. You seem better than you were
yesterday."

"I tell you that I am well! All my system needed was a little
shaking up, and Miss Doane has done it for me."

The doctor rose to go.