"One would think I was poisoned," said he.
At one o'clock he was seized with a kind of spasm in the throat that lasted so long it nearly choked him.
Then Phoebe got frightened, and sent to the nearest surgeon.

He did not hurry, and poor Dick had another frightful spasm just as he came in.
"It is hysterical," said the surgeon.

"No disease of the heart, is there?
Give him a little sal-volatile every half hour." In spite of the sal-volatile these terrible spasms seized him every half hour; and now he used to spring off the bed with a cry of terror when they came; and each one left him weaker and weaker; he had to be carried back by the women.
A sad, sickening fear seized on Phoebe.

She left Dick with the maid, and tying on her bonnet in a moment, rushed wildly down the street, asking the neighbors for a great doctor, the best that could be had for money.
One sent her east a mile, another west, and she was almost distracted, when who should drive up but Dr.and Mrs.Staines, to make purchases.
She did not know his name, but she knew he was a doctor.

She ran to the window, and cried, "Oh, doctor, my brother! Oh, pray come to him.