Tom’s aunt was the type of person who was infatuated with patent medicines and new ways of producing health or mending it. The first remedy aunt Polly tried on Tom was the water treatment. She stood him up in the woodshed and drowned him with a deluge of cold water; then she scrubbed him down with a towel like a file; then she rolled him up in a wet sheet and put him under blankets till he sweated his soul clean.
The boy remained as dismal as a hearse. Aunt Polly began to assist the water with a slim oatmeal diet and blister plasters. When she heard of Pain-killer, she ordered a lot at once. She tasted it and it was simply fire in a liquid form. She gave Tom a teaspoonful pain-killer and watched with anxiety for the result.
