"I think I have," said I, my heart growing faint at the very thought I thought I was thinking.
"You are at least sure of your convictions," said Æsculapius. "Now, as a matter of fact, the thoughts your thoughtful nature has induced you to think are utterly valueless. You have a pain in your side?"
"Yes," said I. "And a very painful pain in my side—and I am not putting on any side in my pain either," I added.
"No doubt," said Æsculapius. "But are you sure it is in your side, or isn't it your chest that aches a trifle, eh?"
"Not much," said I, growing doubtful on the subject.
"Still it aches," said he.
"Yes," I answered, the pain in my side weakening in favor of one in my chest. "It does." And it really did, like the deuce.
"Now about that pain in your chest," said Æsculapius. "Isn't it rather higher up—in your throat, instead of your chest?"
My throat began to hurt, and abominably. Every particle of it throbbed with pain, and my chest was immediately relieved.
"I think," said I, weakly, "that the pain is rather in my throat than in my chest."