The Story of a Doctor's Telephone Part 21

"With a curling iron."

"Throw the darned thing away." He turned from the telephone and said, "Doctor, a young lady has burned her eye. I want you to go out there right away."

"Where shall I go?" asked the grave doctor.

"I guess you know," and he grinned.

"All right. I'll go pretty soon."

"Don't be too long. Charge it to me."

"f.a.n.n.y," he said, turning back to the 'phone, but f.a.n.n.y had gone.

And soon with a smile that had memories in it the doctor took his case and left the office, the young man at his side.

Ting-a-ling-ling-ling-ling-ling.

Mary, from the living room, heard her husband's voice:

"What is it?"

"Yes."

"They won't? O, I suppose so if n.o.body else will. I'll be up there in a little bit." He muttered something, took his hat and went.

When he came back, he said, "This time I had to help the dead."

"To help the dead!" exclaimed Mary.

"Yes. To help a dead woman into her coffin. Everybody was afraid to touch her."

"Why?"

"The report got out that she died of smallpox. I only saw her once and could not be sure, but to be on the safe side I insisted that every precaution be taken--hence the scare."

"But how could you lift the body without help?"

"Oh, I managed it somehow. Just the same I'd rather minister to the living," said John, to which Mary gave vigorous a.s.sent.

"Old Mr. Vintner has just been 'phoning for you in a most imperious way," announced Mary as the doctor came in at the door.

"Yes, old skinflint! The maid at his house is very sick and he's so afraid they'll have to take care of her that he's determined to send her home when she can't go. She has pneumonia. She lives miles out in the country--"

Ting-a-ling-ling-ling-ling.

"Yes."

"Now see here, Vintner. Listen to me."

"Yes, I know. But a man's got to be _human_. I tell you you can't send her out in this cold. It's outrageous to--"

"Yes, I know all that, too. But it won't be long--the crisis will come in a day or two now and--"

"d.a.m.n it! Listen. Now stop that and listen. Don't you attempt it! That girl will be to drag off if you do, I tell you--"

"All right then. That sounds more like it," and he hung up the receiver.

Mary looked up. "You are not very elegant in your discourse at times, John, but I'm glad you beat," she said.

One evening the doctor came in and walked hurriedly into the dining-room. As he was pa.s.sing the telephone it rang sharply in his ear.

"What is it?" he asked, hastily putting up the receiver.

An agitated voice said, "Oh, Doctor, I've just given my little girl a teaspoonful of carbolic acid! Quick! What must I do!"

"Give her some whiskey at once; then a teaspoonful of mustard in hot water. I'll be right down," and turning he went swiftly out. When he came back an hour or two later he said: "The mother got the wrong bottle. A very few minutes would have done the work. The telephone saved the child's life. This is a glorious age in which we are living, Mary."

"And to think that some little children playing with tin cans with a string stretched between them, gave to the world its first telephone message."

"Yes, I've heard that. It may or may not be true. Now let's have supper."

"Supper awaits Mr. Non-Committal-Here-As-Ever," said Mary as she laid her arm in her husband's and they went toward the dining-room together.

One evening the doctor and Mary sat chatting with a neighbor who had dropped in.

"I want to use your 'phone a minute, please," said a voice.

"Very well," said Mary, and Mrs. X. stepped in, nodded to the trio, walked to the telephone as one quite accustomed, and rang.

"I want Dr. Brown's office," she said. In a minute came the h.e.l.lo.

"Is this Dr. Brown? My little boy is sick. I want you to come out to see him this evening. This is Mrs. X. Will you be right out?"

"All right. Good-bye." And she departed.

The eyes of the visitor twinkled. "Our neighbor hath need of two great blessings," she said, "a telephone and a sense of humor." Mary laughed merrily, "O, we're so used to it we paid no attention," she said, "but I suppose it did strike you as rather funny."

"It's a heap better than it used to be when we didn't have telephones,"

said the doctor, with the hearty laugh that had helped many a downcast man and woman to look on the bright side.

"When I was a young fellow and first hung up my s.h.i.+ngle it was a surprising thing--the number of people who could get along without me. I used to long for some poor fellow to put his head in at the door and say he needed me. At last one dark, rainy night came the quick, importunate knock of someone after a doctor. No mistaking that knock. I opened the door and an elderly woman who lived near me, asked breathlessly, 'Mr.