The Story of a Doctor's Telephone Part 12

"Is this Dr. Blank?"

"Yes."

"Doctor, will it hurt the baby to bathe it every morning? I've been doing that but some of the folks around here say I oughtn't to do it; they say it isn't good for a baby to bathe it so often."

The doctor answered solemnly, "The baby's fat and healthy isn't it?"

"Yes, sir."

"And pretty?"

"Yes, _sir_."

"Likes to see its mamma?"

"You _know_ it."

"Likes to see its papa?"

"He does that!" said the young mother.

"Then ask me next fall if it will hurt to bathe the baby every morning."

"All right, Doctor," laughed the baby's mamma.

"The fools are not all dead yet," said John, as he took his hat and departed. On the step he turned back and put his head in at the door.

"Keep an ear out, Mary. I'm likely to be away from the office a good bit this morning."

An hour later a call came. Mary put the ear that was "out" to the receiver:

"It's on North Adams street."

"All right. I'll be out there after awhile," said her husband's placid voice.

"Don't wait too long. He may die before you git here."

"No, he won't. I'll be along pretty soon."

"Well, come just as quick as you can."

"All right," and the listener knew that it might be along toward noon before he got there.

About eleven o'clock the 'phone rang sharply.

"Is this Dr. Blank's house?"

"Yes."

"Is he there?"

"I saw him pa.s.s here about twenty minutes ago. I'm sure he'll be back to the office in a little bit."

"My land! I've been here three or four times. Looks like I'd ketch him _some_ time."

"You are at the office then? If you will sit down and wait just a little while, he will be in."

"I come six miles to see him. I supposed of course he'd be in _some_ time," grumbled the voice (of course a woman's).

"But when he is called to visit a patient he must go, you know,"

explained Mary.

"Y-e-s," admitted the voice reluctantly. "Well, I'll wait here a little while longer."

Ten minutes later Mary rang the office. Her husband replied.

"How long have you been back, John?"

"O, five or ten minutes."

"Did you find a woman waiting for you?"

"No."

"Well, I a.s.sured her you'd be there in a few minutes and she said she'd wait."

"Do you know who she was?"

"No. Some one from the country. She said she came six miles to see you and she supposed you'd be in your office _some_ time, and that sometime was mightily emphatic."

"O, yes, I know now. She'll be in again," laughed the doctor and Mary felt relieved, for in the querulous tones of the disappointed woman she had read disapproval of the doctor and of herself too, as the partner not only of his joys and sorrows, but of his laggard gait as well. The people who wait for a doctor are not apt to consider that a good many more may be waiting for him also at that particular moment of time.

CHAPTER VI.

One of the most discouraging things I have encountered is a great blank silence. The doctor asks his wife to keep a close watch on the telephone for a little while, and leaves the office. Pretty soon it rings and she goes to answer it.

"h.e.l.lo?" Silence. "What is it?" More silence. She knows that "unseen hands or spirits" did not ring that bell. She knows perfectly well that there is a listening ear at the other end of the line. But you cannot converse with silence any more than you can speak to a man you meet on the street if he purposely looks the other way.

Mary knew that the listening ear belonged to someone who recognized that it was the wife who answered instead of the doctor, and therefore kept silent. She smiled and hung up the receiver--sorry not to be able to help her husband and to give the needed information to the patient.

But when this had happened several times she thought of a more satisfactory way of dealing with the situation. She would take down the receiver and ask, "What is it?" She would wait a perceptible instant and then say distinctly and pleasantly, "Doctor Blank will be out of the office for about twenty minutes. He asked me to tell you." That never failed to bring an answer, a hasty, shame-voiced, "Oh, I--well--thank you, Mrs. Blank, I'll call again, then."

The doctor's absence from town has its telephonic puzzles. One day during Dr. Blank's absence his wife was called to the 'phone.