{"product_id":"2940013761773","title":"The House of the Four Winds","description":"Great events, says the philosophic historian, spring only from\u003cbr\u003egreat causes, though the immediate occasion may be small; but I\u003cbr\u003ethink his law must have exceptions.  Of the not inconsiderable\u003cbr\u003eevents which I am about to chronicle, the occasion was trivial, and\u003cbr\u003eI find it hard to detect the majestic agency behind them.  What\u003cbr\u003eworld-force, for example, ordained that Mr Dickson McCunn should\u003cbr\u003eslip into the Tod's Hole in his little salmon-river on a bleak\u003cbr\u003enight in April; and, without changing his clothes, should\u003cbr\u003ethereafter make a tour of inspection of his young lambs?  His\u003cbr\u003eaction was the proximate cause of this tale, but I can see no\u003cbr\u003eprofounder explanation of it than the inherent perversity of man.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe performance had immediate consequences for Mr McCunn.  He awoke\u003cbr\u003enext morning with a stiff neck, an aching left shoulder, and a pain\u003cbr\u003ein the small of his back--he who never in his life before had had a\u003cbr\u003etouch of rheumatism.  A vigorous rubbing with embrocation failed to\u003cbr\u003erelieve him, and, since he was accustomed to robust health, he\u003cbr\u003efound it intolerable to hobble about with a thing like a toothache\u003cbr\u003ein several parts of his body.  Dr Murdoch was sent for from\u003cbr\u003eAuchenlochan, and for a fortnight Mr McCunn had to endure mustard\u003cbr\u003eplasters and mustard baths, to swallow various medicines, and to\u003cbr\u003esubmit to a rigorous diet.  The pains declined, but he found\u003cbr\u003ehimself to his disgust in a low state of general health, easily\u003cbr\u003etired, liable to sudden cramps, and with a poor appetite for his\u003cbr\u003emeals.  After three weeks of this condition he lost his temper.\u003cbr\u003eSummer was beginning, and he reflected that, being now sixty-three\u003cbr\u003eyears of age, he had only a limited number of summers left to him.\u003cbr\u003eHis gorge rose at the thought of dragging his wing through the\u003cbr\u003ecoming delectable months--long-lighted June, the hot July noons\u003cbr\u003ewith the corncrakes busy in the hay, the days on August hills, red\u003cbr\u003ewith heather and musical with bees.  He curbed his distaste for\u003cbr\u003emedical science, and departed to Edinburgh to consult a specialist.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat specialist gave him a purifying time.  He tested his blood and\u003cbr\u003ehis blood pressure, kneaded every part of his frame, and for the\u003cbr\u003ebetter part of a week kept him under observation.  At the end he\u003cbr\u003eprofessed himself clear in the general but perplexed in the\u003cbr\u003eparticular.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You've never been ill in your life?\" he said.  \"Well, that is just\u003cbr\u003eyour trouble.  You're an uncommonly strong man--heart, lungs,\u003cbr\u003ecirculation, digestion, all in first-class order.  But it stands to\u003cbr\u003ereason that you must have secreted poisons in your body, and you\u003cbr\u003ehave never got them out.  The best prescription for a fit old age\u003cbr\u003eis a bad illness in middle life, or, better still, a major\u003cbr\u003eoperation.  It drains off some of the middle-age humours.  Well,\u003cbr\u003eyou haven't had that luck, so you've been a powder magazine with\u003cbr\u003esome nasty explosives waiting for the spark.  Your tom-fool\u003cbr\u003eescapade in the Stinchar provided the spark, and here you are--a\u003cbr\u003ehealthy man mysteriously gone sick.  You've got to be pretty\u003cbr\u003ecareful, Mr McCunn.  It depends on how you behave in the next few\u003cbr\u003emonths whether you will be able to fish for salmon on your\u003cbr\u003eeightieth birthday, or be doddering round with two sticks and a\u003cbr\u003eshawl on your seventieth.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMr McCunn was scared, penitent and utterly docile.  He professed\u003cbr\u003ehimself ready for the extremest measures, including the drawing of\u003cbr\u003eevery tooth in his head.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe specialist smiled.  \"I don't recommend anything so drastic.\u003cbr\u003eWhat you want first of all is an exact diagnosis.  I can assess\u003cbr\u003eyour general condition, but I can't put my finger on the precise\u003cbr\u003emischief.  That needs a technique which we haven't developed\u003cbr\u003esufficiently in this country.  Next, you must have treatment, but\u003cbr\u003etreatment is a comparatively simple affair if you first get the\u003cbr\u003eright diagnosis.  So I am going to send you to Germany.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMr McCunn wailed.  Banishment from his beloved Blaweary was a\u003cbr\u003ebitter pill.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47145777299696,"sku":"2940013761773","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013761773_p0.jpg?v=1763589914","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013761773","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}