CHAPTER XXX.
THE FAMILY INVALID.
One of the most anomalous of the inconsistencies peculiar to human nature is that we who are flesh, and consequently liable to all the ills to which flesh is heir, should know so little about the manner in which to check or, at least, alleviate these miseries.

In the average household the proper care of the sick is an unknown art, or one so little understood that illness would seem to be an impossible contingency.
The chamber of illness is at best a sadly uncomfortable place, and it is the duty of the nurse, be she a hireling or the nearest and dearest of kin to the prostrate inhabitant thereof, to be cognizant of the methods of tending and easing the unfortunate being during the trying period of his enforced idleness.

Only those who have been confined to a sick couch can appreciate its many trying features.

The looker-on sees a man or woman uncomfortable or in pain, lying in an easy bed, "the best place for sick folk," with nothing to trouble him beyond the bodily malease which holds him there.

He is merely laid aside for repairs, and, if the observer be somewhat wearied and overworked, he is conscious of a pang of envy.