The Story of a Doctor's Telephone Part 10

"You'd better fix that harness yourself, my friend, and fix it strong,"

was the doctor's parting injunction as he climbed into the buggy and started on.

"I don't like the looks of this slough of despond," said Mary. The next minute the horses were floundering through it, tugging with might and main. Now the wheels have sunk to the hubs and the horses are straining every muscle.

"Merciful heaven!" gasped Mary. At last they were safely through, and the doctor looking back said, "That is the last great blot on our civilization--bad roads."

After a while there came from across the prairie the ascending, interrogative _boo-oo-m_ of a prairie chicken not far distant, while from far away came the faint notes of another. And now a different note, soft, melodious and mournful is heard.

"How far away do you think that dove is?" asked the doctor.

"It sounds as if it might be half a mile."

"It is right up here in this tree in the field."

"Is it," said Mary, looking up. "Yes, I see, it's as pretty and soft as its voice. But I'm getting sunburned, John. How hot a March day can get!"

"Only two more miles and good road all the way."

A few minutes more and Mary was set down at Centerville, "I'll be back about sunset," announced her husband as he drove off.

A very pleasant-faced woman answered the knock at the door. She had a s.h.i.+ngle in her hand and several long strips of muslin over her arm. She smilingly explained that she didn't often meet people at the door with a s.h.i.+ngle but that she was standing near the door when the knock came.

Mary, standing by the bed and removing hat and gloves, looked about her.

"What are you doing with that s.h.i.+ngle and all this cotton and stuff, Mrs. Parkin?" she asked.

"Haven't you ever made a splint?"

"A splint? No indeed, I'm not equal to that."

"That's what I'm doing now. There's a boy with a broken arm in the office in the next room."

"Oh, your husband has his office here at the house."

"Yes, and it's a nuisance sometimes, too, but one gets used to it."

"I'll watch you and learn something new about the work of a doctor's wife."

"You'll learn then to have a lot of pillow slips and sheets on hand. Old or new, Dr. Parkin just tears them up when he gets in a hurry--it doesn't matter to him what goes."

The doctor's wife put cotton over the whole length of the s.h.i.+ngle and wound the strips of muslin around it; then taking a needle and thread she st.i.tched it securely. Mary sat in her chair watching the process with much interest. "You have made it thicker in some places than in others," she said.

"Yes; that is to fit the inequalities of the arm." Mary looked at her admiringly. "You are something of an artist," she observed.

Just as Mrs. Parkin finished it her husband appeared in the doorway.

"Is it done?" he asked.

"It's just finished."

"May I see you put it on, Doctor?" asked Mary, rising and coming forward.

"Why, good afternoon, Mrs. Blank. I'm glad to see you out here. Yes, come right in. How's the doctor?"

"Oh, he is well and happy--I think he expects to cut off a foot this afternoon."

A boy with a frightened look on his face stood in the doctor's office with one sleeve rolled up. The doctor adjusted the fracture, then applied the splint while his wife held it steady until he had made it secure. When the splint was in place and the boy had gone a messenger came to tell the doctor he was wanted six miles away.

About half an hour afterward a little black-eyed woman came in and said she wanted some more medicine like the last she took.

"The doctor's gone," said Mrs. Parkin, "and will not be back for several hours."

"Well, you can get it for me, can't you?"

"Do you know the name of it?"

"No, but I believe I could tell it if I saw it," said the patient, going to the doctor's shelves and looking closely at the bottles and phials with their contents of many colors. She took up a three-ounce bottle.

"This is like the other bottle and I believe the medicine is just the same color. Yes, I'm sure it is," she said, holding it up to the light.

Mary looked at her and then at Mrs. Parkin.

"I wouldn't like to risk it," said the latter lady.

"Oh, I'm not afraid. I don't want to wait until the doctor comes and I know this must be like the other. It's exactly the same color."

"My good woman," said Mary, "you _certainly_ will not risk that. It might kill you."

"No, Mrs. Dawson, you must either wait till the doctor comes or come again," said Mrs. Parkin. The patient grumbled a little about having to make an extra trip and took her leave.

When the door had closed behind her Mary asked the other doctor's wife if she often had patients like that.

"Oh, yes. People come here when the doctor is away and either want me to prescribe for them or to prescribe for themselves."

"You don't do it, do you?"

"Sometimes I do, when I am perfectly sure what I am doing. Having the office here in the house so many years I couldn't help learning a few things."

"I wouldn't prescribe for anything or anybody. I'd be afraid of killing somebody." About an hour later Mary, looking out of the window, saw a wagon stopping at the gate. It contained a man and a woman and two well-grown girls.

"h.e.l.lo!" called the man.

"People call you out instead of coming in. That is less trouble,"

observed Mary. The doctor's wife went to the door.

"Is Doc at home?"

"No, he has gone to the country."

"How soon will he be back?"