Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1876-03-08

thought he would need through
the day, promising to call again il
the evening, on my return from
visiting my other patients.
"What do you think Of the cap
tain :" anxiously inquired Mrs
Crosby, as she followed me out o
the sick mans chamber.
ga billions attack, jndge,"
"Serious, doctor! Dangerous
Serious, certainly, but l trust
not dangerous. ] hope to find him
better when l return"
"You will not be gone long, doc.
tor ?" said Mrs. Crosby, her soft
eyes appealing with an eloquence
greater than words.
81 will be back as soon rs posi-
ble-say three or four hours"
81 suppose you think me selfish
but l cannot help it. No one
knows how dear the captain is to
US all-how much we love and ven-
crate him-and the very thought
of losing him makes my heart
ache !"
"Be comforted madame" return
ed l, with a cheerful smile "we
are not going to lose him yet awhile.
| trust to see him well again in a
day or two"
then repeated my directions,
and bowed myself out, not giving
her an opportunity for rejoindtr.
1t was then perhaps three o'clock
in the afternoon, and did not get
back till after dark. AS l entered
Mrs. Crosby met me at the door,
pale, trembling and fearful.
"Oh, doctor :" she cried, cover
ing her face with her handker-
chief, and sinking upon the nearest
seat.
"The captain ?" almost gasped /.
"Dead dead! He died an hour
ago, in awful agonies."
l went up, took a brief look at
the corpse, and hurried away. The
house of death is no place for the
physician.
That was the first death that
happened in the Crosby family af-
ter knew them-but it was by no
means the last. The long funeral
train of the captain was followed |
by another in less than six months,
and the son literally slept with his
father, leaving beautiful widow
and lovely children to mourn his
loss. The children commenced dy-
ing one after another, and, and in
two years more, only the widow
aud her own bright little son re-
of the eight have men-
toned. Yet, strange to say, al
though the family physician, l nev-
er saw one of these die My ex-
tended practice sometimes called
me ten or fifteen miles from home,
and occasionally detained me over
night, and by some fatal chance
4 considered it) each one of the
Crosbys dropped off suddenly dur
ing my absence, and in manner
similar to the disease of the old
gentleman.
The house was thus constantly
Kept in mourning, and the pale
widow in her weeds and deep af-
became an object Of uni
,ersal interest and commiseration.
She seemed to take tho death of
Ter husband and step children very
lard indeed, and no wife and moth
II could have been kinder and
more feeling than she, as she how
red over them in their last mo-
nents. 1t was curious, too, that each
hould have been stricken down in
he same manner as the captain
md when the last ole lay dead, j
the propriety of open
ng the body to see If any light
'ould be thrown upon the cause
,ut Mrs. Corsby, with tears in her
yes, begged me not to make the
saying the idea was
most repugnant to her feelings; and
o avoid giving her pain, l dropped
he matter and allowed the affair to
est in the mystery which envelop-
ID it.
Time passed on. years passed
way, aud no more deaths occurred
n the ill-fatcd family. In fact there
we're only two remaining of the
,ame--the lonely widow and her
,nly child-who rapidly grew up
nto a stout and promising youth,