Somehow my father had discovered this peculiarity of my affliction—­that is, my ability to talk to animals or when alone.  Something suggested to him that my stammering could be cured, if I could be kept by myself for several weeks.  With this thought in mind, he suggested that I go on a hunting and fishing trip in the wilds of the northwest, taking no guide, no companion of any sort, so that there would be no necessity of my speaking to any human being while I was gone.

My father’s idea was that if my vocal organs had a complete rest, I would be restored to perfect speech.  As I afterwards proved to my own satisfaction by actual trial, this idea was entirely wrong.  You can not hope to restore the proper action of your vocal organs by ceasing to use them.  The proper functioning of any bodily organ is the result, not of ceasing to use it at all, but rather of using it correctly.

This can be very easily proved to the satisfaction of any one.  Take the case of the small boy who boasts of his muscle.  He is conscious of an increasing strength in the muscles of his arm not because he has failed to use these muscles but because he has used them continually, causing a faster-than-ordinary development.

You can readily imagine that I looked forward to my “vacation” with keen anticipation, for I had never been up in the northwest and I was full of stories I had read and ideas I had formed of its wonders.

The trip, lasting two weeks, did me scarcely any good at all.  The most I can say for it is that it quieted my nerves and put me in somewhat better physical condition, which a couple of weeks in the outdoor country would do for any growing boy.

But this trip did not cure my stammering, nor did it tend to alleviate the intensity of the trouble in the least, save through a lessened nervous state for a few days.  Today, after twenty-eight years’ experience, I know that it would be just as sensible to say that a wagon stuck in the soft mud would get out by “resting” there as it is to say that stammering can be eradicated by allowing the vocal organs to rest through disuse.

Shortly after my return from the trip to the northwest, my father died, with the result that our household was, for a time, very much broken up.  For a while, at least, my stammering, though not forgotten, did not receive a great deal of attention, for there were many other things to think about.

The summer following my father’s death, however, I began again my so-far fruitless search for a cure for my stammering, this time placing myself under the care and instruction of a man claiming to be “The World’s Greatest Specialist in the Cure of Stammering.”  He may have been the world’s greatest specialist, but not in the cure of stammering.  He did succeed, however, by the use of his absurd methods, in putting me through a course that resulted in the membrane and lining of my throat and vocal organs becoming irritated and inflamed to such an extent that I was compelled to undergo treatment for a throat affection that threatened to be as serious as the stammering itself.