"I once knew an asian sailor," said he, "who claimed the ability to turn off the words and learning within himself. I shall attempt to turn off the words within myself in the same way. Should I succeeded, I'll know whether my original self would prefer to do without words, and if it so wishes, I can conclude that Willie's original self wants to live without the leech, and plans can proceed to find a method to remove it."
One could never charge Mr. Birdsong with dalliance. As soon as he had told me of his planned experiment he said, "let no one accost me for any reason, m'dear." He seated himself in the sand. Emulating the oriental, he knotted his legs, stiffened his back, and began to hum with each exhalation of his breath. I stepped outside the cabana and sat, smoking a cigar and listning to the sound of the surf. Hours drug by, and he made no move. After midnight grandmother came looking for him. When I explained the situation, she became agitated, and her agitation grew as the week ground by. He continued with his assiduous inactivity, breaking only to drink water and eliminate. He refused to speak to anyone. Flys would light on him and he would not swat. One night a rain flooded the cabana, and he kept sitting in the puddle until the crabs began to pinch him. He grew thin.
Finally, granddmother could put up with the experiment no longer. I saw her go into the cabana one night. Despite my promise not to let anyone disturb him, I decided, for his health, to let her go on with whatever magic she had to help him. I settled down to spy on her. She went over to him and began toying with his privy parts, the which had less mind to ignore her ministrations than did he. Emboldened by her partial success, she embarked upon a series of speedy maneuvers with his rusty artillery which resulted in the firing, straight up into the air, of a fuselage of truly magnificant proportions. He fell back into the sand and shouted "Eurika! I've lost the words!"
"Ha," she whispered, "look to me like you got 'em back, old devel." She curled herself around him, and they drifted off to sleep.
