Charlotte had set an old remedy of her mother's steeping over the fire--a harmless old-wives' decoction, with which to supplement the doctor's remedies, and give new courage to the patient's mind.
Barney came to think that this remedy which Charlotte prepared was of more efficacy than any which the doctor mixed in his gallipots.

That is, when he could think at all, and his mind and soul was able to reassert itself over his body.

He had a hard illness, and after he was out of bed he could only sit bent miserably over in a quilt-covered rocking-chair beside the fire.

He could not straighten himself up without agonizing pain.

People thought that he never would, and he thought so himself.