. Stephen of Philadelphia; a story of Penn's colony . URE Jethro and I were so rilled with curiosity to learnhow long the sick man would live after such roughtreatment, that we ran after him, coming into the vil-lage just as all the boys were forming in a ring onthe cleared ground where I had often seen them playball. The Indian whom we had followed was well wrappedin blankets by this time, and had seated himself on theearth in the middle of the ring of boys. He had onhis knees what looked to be a piece of board, worn, orground, very smooth, and two small sticks. You can guess that by this tim
. Stephen of Philadelphia; a story of Penn's colony . URE Jethro and I were so rilled with curiosity to learnhow long the sick man would live after such roughtreatment, that we ran after him, coming into the vil-lage just as all the boys were forming in a ring onthe cleared ground where I had often seen them playball. The Indian whom we had followed was well wrappedin blankets by this time, and had seated himself on theearth in the middle of the ring of boys. He had onhis knees what looked to be a piece of board, worn, orground, very smooth, and two small sticks. You can guess that by this time Jethro and I hadour eyes open very wide, for it was the oddest way oftaking medicine we had ever seen. The sick man began to tap on the board with thesticks, and sing, or howl, in the most dismal suppose he called it singing, but I couldnt for thelife of me make out any tune, and am certain there wasno music in his voice. When he began to make this noise, the boys ranaround him, sometimes leaping high in the air, and FINISHING THE CURE 77. again darting out of the circle as if about to make anattack upon the fellow because of his not singingbetter. Then two of them would come together, withtheir hands on each others shoulders, and spin aroundlike tops, until they became so dizzy as to fall over,wrhen they rolled out from under the feet of their com-rades, while another couple went through the sameantics. As we afterward learned, this leaping, running, andwhirling around was a regular dance, and supposed tobe a portion of the remedy necessary to finish the cureof him who had been so thoroughly steamed and thencooled off so suddenly. The boys did their part until the sick man stopped 78 STEPHEN OF PHILADELPHIA howling, after which they went about their play orbusiness, as if nothing out of common had taken sick Indian carried the board and sticks intohis hut, and a few moments later we saw him walkingaround the village as if having entirely recovered fromthe
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidstephenofphi, bookyear1910
