Daily Story
Prescription
Mr. Lincoln said the project reminded him of the case of a girl in New Salem, who was greatly troubled with a “singing” in her head. Various remedies were suggested by the neighbors, but nothing tried afforded any relief. At last a man came along,–“a common-sense sort of man,” said he, inclining his head towards the gentlemen complimentarily,–“who was asked to prescribe for the difficulty. After the inquiry and examination, he said the cure was very simple. “What is it?” was the anxious question. “Make a plaster of psalm-tunes, and apply to her feet, and draw the ‘singing’ down, was the rejoinder.”
Francis Carpenter, Six Months at the White House, p. 239.