Can tell you what it is:
a man smitten with the cholera stares death right in the face; and
the torment he is suffering is so great that he would gladly die to
get rid of it."
"You were fortunate, C - -, to escape," said a backwood settler, who
occupied the opposite seat; "many a younger man has died of it."
"Ay; but I believe I never should have taken it had it not been for
some things they gave me for supper at the hotel; oysters, they
called them, oysters; they were alive! I was once persuaded by a
friend to eat them, and I liked them well enough at the time. But I
declare to you that I felt them crawling over one another in my
stomach all night. The next morning I was seized with the cholera."
"Did you swallow them whole, C - -?" said the former spokesman,
who seemed highly tickled by the evil doings of the oysters.
"To be sure. I tell you, the creatures are alive. You put them on
your tongue, and I'll be bound you'll be glad to let them slip down
as fast as you can."
"No wonder you had the cholera," said the backwoodsman, "you
deserved it for your barbarity. If I had a good plate of oysters
here, I'd teach you the way to eat them."
Our journey during the first day was performed partly by coach,
partly by steam.
