“‘Remember this—’ he shakes his finger at Tellurium and rolls uh smoke onehanded—‘I’m not discoursin’ on diseases. I’m touchin’ on th’ grandest subject on earth—science of th’ mind, before which all diseases vanish like iron pyrites in boilin’ nitric. You ain’t got nothin’ th’ matter with yuh a-tall. It’s jist uh lazy streak in yore subconscious mind.’
“‘As I was sayin’ before this interruption,’ remarks Tellurium, ‘as I was sayin’, Ike, th’ Lord made uh big mistake. Yuh shore got to agree with me that it was an error on His part when He wished long ears and uh brayin’ voice on uh perfectly innocent jackass, and let some people I know resemble uh human bein’.’
“Tellurium is uh big hulk of uh man, and Magpie ain’t what you’d call uh runt; so after watchin’ it uh while I pries ’em apart with uh pick-handle. They arbitrates what’s left of th’ battle and smoke uh peace pipe. When Tellurium hikes back up th’ trail home, I notices that his limp is plumb gone.
“‘That’s psychology, Ike,’ states Magpie. ‘He comes down uh cripple and we sends him home whole. Great stuff, Ike. Now jist let me read yuh one little chapter out loud and I’ll bet——’
“I didn’t hear it ’cause I’m on my way down to th’ pitch stump after kindlin’-wood. One Winter me and him was snowed in up in th’ Coeur d’Alenes, and Magpie finds uh copy of th’ Congressional Record.
“Since then nobody can read out loud to me.
“‘Laziness covers uh multitude uh sins,’ announces Magpie, while we’re eatin’ supper that night. ‘Tellurium states that he’s only drivin’ uh foot uh day. Now, Ike, no man can ever live long enough to develop uh copper mine at that rate. With th’ help of psychology he can drift three feet uh day in that formation.’
“‘Well, mebby,’ I sort of agrees. ‘I don’t know th’ power of this element yuh claim to have corraled, but I do know Tellurium, and I’m here to state that uh foot uh day is hy-iu driftin’ fer him.’
“Magpie peruses his book some plentiful before he opens up again.
“Ike, I’ll bet yuh uh hundred dollars that I can have Tellurium drivin’ three feet uh day inside of uh week. I aims to sort of work on his imagination through th’ elements uh psychology. Enervate his subconscious mind, sabe?’