"Right you are, Doctor. But it took a heap more than a sudden scare like what cured the feller with the hiccoughs. Yes, it took more'n that to cure me. You know, Doc, I think now, as how I was diseased."
The physician perceived that nothing was to be gained by any attempt at hurrying the old man.
"Come on into the house," he urged, "and make yourself comfortable while you tell me the whole story."
As the two came into the reception-room, the Captain fumbled in his inside coat pocket for a moment, and then carefully drew forth his narrative of the events in which he had been concerned during the last few days. He handed this to the physician as the two seated themselves by the open window.
"Doctor," Ichabod declared with gravity, "I never did think as how I was a partic'lar good story-teller, an' knowin' as how you an' one or two other friends o' mine would have to know the story, I made up my mind last night that I'd put it into writ fer you-all, so then thar couldn't be no dispute as to the exact words of Ichabod. The story starts right from the beginning o' the blow. A part of it, the first part, you already know, so jest skip along until ye come to whar Sandy Mason shows up."
Doctor Hudson perused the document with great interest. The unconscious drollery of the old man's literary style gave piquancy to the account. At times, the fisherman's bits of humor were amusing enough; again, there was often pathos of a very genuine sort, in the paragraphs. But as the physician neared the end of the roughly written record, the Captain interrupted him.
"Say, Doc," he asked, "would ye mind a-readin' o' that last stanzy right out loud? I think it has got stuff in it that'll make my blood warm up a heap to hear it read."
The doctor nodded assent, for he at this moment reached the paragraph by which the old man set such store.
"I, Ichabod Jones," the words ran, "age unknown, bein' as how the family Bible was burnt up, announces to my friends, all an' sundry, that fer the past twenty year I've been a coward an' a fool, but was not a-knowin' of the same until to-day. I ain't been called to preach nor nothin' like that. I has jest woke up! From this day on to the end o' me in this world, I aim to git all o' the honest enjoyment I kin out o' this life. An' I want my friends to know that the rule for twenty year as made and provided has been busted. From this day forward women, ole and young, will find a welcome on the shore an' in the shack at Ichabod's Island."