there was any hope of recovery. Doctors were few and far away. The 
     
     two most terrible and deadly diseases with which we were scourged, 
     
     were smallpox and diphtheria. 
     
    
   
   
    
     How We Vaccinated Ourselves 
     
    
   
   
    
     One year some of the neighbor children got vaccinated to protect 
     
     them against smallpox. One of the boys had a very sore and» swollen 
     
     arm from it. He came over to our place and several of us boys got 
     
     out behind the barn and vaccinated one another. We got the vaccine 
     
     matter from his arm, and performed the operation with a pin. It 
     
     took on me severely and I had a very swollen arm. It never would 
     
     catch on me afterwards. Our sore arms let our secret out, and we 
     
     had to tell where we got vaccinated. We had no idea or fear of ill 
     
     effects that might have come from the pin scratches or unhealthy vac- 
     
     cine. Bleeding was a common practice for many kinds of ailments. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The older people used a number of medicinal plants. Among 
     
     them were tansy, catnip, mint and hoarhound. They also gathered 
     
     wild medicinal plants such as peppermint, thoroughwort or bone-set. 
     
     Goldthread was used for sore mouth. They steeped wild cherry bark 
     
     for coughs. They gathered the poisonous mushroom called the fly 
     
     agaric, which they put in dishes with sweetened water, for killing flies. 
     
     It was a large, yellow-topped mushroom with white flakes on the top 
     
     of the cap. There was a great abundance and variety of. these pois- 
     
     onous mushrooms or toadstools. We had to be very careful gather- 
     
     ing the kind that was good for food, as a mistake would mean certain 
     
     death to those eating the poisonous ones. We knew of no antidote 
     
     for their poison. In appearance some of them were like edible ones, 
     
     Children should be taught to recognize the difference between the 
     
     good and the bad, and to leave the bad alone. And this instruction 
     
     should be given in other things, as there are many bad things that 
     
     poison the mind as some mushrooms do the body. Many ignore Wise 
     
     advice and run risks that prove fatal. Most of the older folk knew the 
     
     good varieties of mushroom, and we younger ones. kept strictly to the 
     
     kind we were sure of. They were delicious. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The women were very skilful in ordinary cases of sickness. When 
     
     babies came these women were the only doctors and nurses. Their 
     
    
   
   
    
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