Some how or other he never appeared,
and whether he forfeited his bonds, or otherwise slipped through the
"meshes of the law," I never learned, nor have I ever seen him since
he attempted to swindle me. But these proceedings kept me in Troy
more than a month, and to pay my lawyer and other expenses, I
actually sold the horse and buggy the scoundrel tried to steal from
me.
Taking my boy to Sidney and putting him under the care of my half
sister, I went to Boston, where I met two friends of mine who were
about going to Meredith Bridge, N.H., to fish through the ice on
Lake Winnipiseogee. It was early in January, 1853, and good, clear,
cold weather. They represented the sport to be capital, and said
that plenty of superb lake trout and pickerel could be taken every
day, and urged me to go with them. As I had nothing special to do
for a few days, I went. When we reached Meredith we stopped at a
tavern near the lake, kept by one of the oddest landlords I have
ever met. After a good supper, as we were sitting in the barroom,
the landlord came up to me and at once opened conversation in the
following manner:
"Waal, where do you come from, anyhow?"
"From Boston," I replied.
"Waal, what be you, anyhow?"
"Well, I practice medicine, and take care of the sick."
"Dew ye? Waal, do ye ever cure anybody?"
"O, sometimes; quite frequently, in fact."
"Dew ye! waal, there's a woman up here to Lake Village, 'Squire
Blaisdell's wife, who has had the dropsy more'n twelve years; been
filling' all the time till they tell me she's bigger'n a hogshead
now, and she's had a hundred doctors, and the more doctors she has
the bigger she gets; what d' ye think of that now?"
I answered that I thought it was quite likely, and then turned away
from the landlord to talk to my friends about our proposed sport for
to-morrow, mentally making note of 'Squire Blaisdell's wife in Lake
Village.
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