Part 11 (2/2)
On this occasion I went out along the long, cold, country road of a March evening I was full of thoughts of his importance as a doctor He see about medicine, or how lives were saved, but I felt sure that he did and that he would save my father in spite of his always conservative, speculative, doubtful manner What a wonderful s--that peach sprouts, for instance, were an antidote to the agony of gall stones!
As I walked along, the simplicity of country life and its needs and deprivations were i So few here could afford to pay for expensive prescriptions--ourselves especially--and Dr Gridley knew that and took it into consideration, so rarely did he order anything fro-store Most often, what he prescribed he took out of a case, compounded, as it were, in our presence
A brisk wind had fluttered snow in thered sun shi+ning across it, a sense of spring in the air Being unknown to these farmers, I wondered if any one of the peach sprigs or suckers fro trees, as the doctor had said Did they really know hi farmer--told me of an old Mr Mills who had a five-acre orchard farther on In a little while I caaunt, bespectacled woman, who called back to a man inside:
”Henry, here's a little boy says Dr Gridley said you were to cut his”
Henry now cah boots and an old wool-lined leather coat, and a cap of wool
”Dr Gridley sent cha, did he?” he observed, eyeing me most critically
”Yes, sir”
”What's the matter? What does he ith 'em? Do ya know?”
”Yes, sir My father's sick with kidney trouble, and Dr Gridley said I was to co knife,” and back he went, returning later with a large horn-handled knife, which he opened He preceded h the barn lot and into the orchard beyond
”Dr Gridley sent cha, did he, huh?” he asked as he went ”Well, I guess we all have ter coit sick now an' ag'in,” and talking trivialities of a like character, he cut ive ya too s! Now, I never heered o' theood fer anythin', but I reckon the doctor knohat he's talkin' about He usually does--or that's e think around here, anyhow”
In the dusk I trudged ho, the tea having been brewed and taken, my father was better In a week or two he was up and around, as well as ever, and during this time he co new to hie remedy, and which caused the whole incident to be impressed upon my mind The doctor had told him that at any tiet fresh young peach sprigs for a tea, he would find that it would help hi
In later years I cahtful, crusty, kindly soul, always so ready to come at all hours when his cases permitted, so anxious to see that his patients were not taxed beyond their financial resources
I re very ill, so ill that ere beginning to fear death, one and another of us had to take turn sitting up with her at night to help and to give her her hts when I was sitting up, dozing, reading and listening to the wind in the pines outside, she seeet worse Her fever rose, and she coo and call mysent for Dr Gridley--no telephones in those days--to tell hih she hesitated so to do, how sister was and ask him if he would not co which I had to go was quite dark, the town lights being put out at two ah wind that cried in the trees My shoes on the board walks, here and there, sounded like the thuds of a giant I recall progressing in a shi+very ghost-like sort of way, expecting at any step to encounter goblins of the most approved form, until finally the well-known outlines of the house of the doctor on the main street--yellow, many-roomed, a wide porch in front--calass case to one side of the door, into view
Here I knocked, and then knocked more No reply I then h one of the red glass panels which graced either side of the door I saw the lengthy figure of the doctor, arrayed in a long white nightshi+rt, and carrying a slass hand-lamp, coray flannel slippers, and his whiskers stuck out rotesquely
”Wait! Wait!” I heard hi! Don't ood night's rest any more”
He came on, opened the door, and looked out
”Well,” he demanded, a little fussily for hian, and proceeded to explain allthat my mother said ”wouldn't he please coru Feel her pulse and tell her she's all right! That's every bit I can do Your mother knows that as well as I do That disease has to run its course” He looked at!”
”But she's in such pain, Doctor,” I coht--everybody has to have a little pain! You can't be sick without it”
”I know,” I replied disconsolately, believing sincerely that ht die, ”but she's in such awful pain, Doctor”
”Well, go on,” he replied, turning up the light ”I know it's all foolishness, but I'll coo back and tell your mother that I'll be there in a little bit, but it's all nonsense, nonsense She isn't a bit sicker than I aht this minute, not a bit--” and he closed the door and went upstairs
To me this seeh, as I reasoned afterwards, he was probably half-asleep and tired--dragged out of his bed, possibly, once or twice before in the saht As I returned ho a woodshed which I could not see, a rooster suddenly flapped his wings and crowed--a sound which caused me to leap all of nineteen feet Fahrenheit, sidewise Then, as I walked along a fence which later by day I saw had a coolden eyes surveyed me out of inky darkness! Great Hamlet's father, how my heart sank! Oncea cobblestone or hunk of ht, and quite involuntarily Then I ran until I fell into a crossing ditch It was an aic--experience, then
In due tiave hio back with hih, I a which could not have waited untilHowever, he left soain But the night trials of doctors and their patients, especially in the country, was fixed in my mind then