St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-04-06
THE DOCTORS BOY.
BY EDMUND LYONS.


founding, because he had been left at the
door of old Dr. Harris house one cold Christ
mas eve, but it was divided in opinion as to
whether he was bad boy or good one.
Some thought he was the latter, some the
former. was perfectly satisfied that he was
wretchedly Ubiquitous youth, and 1 told him
so. He burst into tears, and said 1 would
change my opinion of him some day.
But at first he certainly gave no reason to
do so. He compounded for me dose once
to cure headache, for DR.. Hart was not
above keeping drugs and making up his own
prescriptions, that brought me to deaths
door, and the old doctor was put to his wits
end to cure me. But the Boy went to my
mother and told her that 1t was his fixed in
tention to become great doctor and chem
list, and had given him his first opportuni-
ty to test his knowledge Of medicine. He
had given me the wrong drug, he acknow-
lodged; but he said it was all in the interests
of science, and he promised never to do so
any more. So my mother forgave; and per-
suaded DR.. Hart to retain him in his service
1t certainly was not on account OF the
Boys good looks that his first mis- adventure
resulted harmlessly to him. He was an angu-
lar Bow. He was red-haired Boy. He was
freckIed Boy But he was frank Boy, at
least my mother said so, and for two years
more he was allowed to go about the village
distributing the DOCTORS nostrums, and max
ing himself, as 1 thought, very Objectionable.
DIR. Hart had no particular liking for the
Boy. He said the Boy was Christmas gift,
and like all such presents, called for some
thing in return. Thus he had been obliged
10 board and clothe the lad for seventeen
years, and he always protested that he was
not worth the outlay. Still, those who knew
che doctor best were well assured Of the fact
that if the Boy had not earned his board,
clothing, and lodging, he W ould not have re-
ceived them. He was called, in later years,
Ebenezer Dorking, though what right he had
TO that name nobody in the village knew.
At last the Doctors Boy disappeared. He
stole quietly away in the nighttime, leaving
not line Of writing behind him to say where
he had gone; so Mrs. Hart suggested that he
had robbed the till in the drugstore. A
search was at once made, and the fact was
developed that not only had no money been
taken from the drawer, but new crisp five
dollar bill had been added to its contents
There seemed to be TO doubt that the Doc
tors Boy had placed it there, and the matter
was d nine days. wonder for the village Then
the doctor hired another boy, who interested
nobody, and was soon discharged.
l suppose it was due to the suhject-matter
of conversation furnished by the Boys depar-
ture and found myself more frequently
than before in the DOCTORS sittlng-room.
Agnes Hart was beautiful girl, about six
teen years of age, and she laughed so mcr-
rily at my tales of the eccentricities Of the
Boy that l am afraid gradually grew to ex-
aggerate them little; but by degrees the re-
collection of the fugitive seemed to pass out
of our lives, and when, four years later, a
torrent Of war swept over the country, l was
thinking of the Doctors Boy when / took
Agnes Harris hand to say goodbye before
going to the front; but l was thinking very
tenderly of Agnes herself, and / believed
she was thinking in much the same strain of
me. A hundred times during the past two
years I had been on the verge of asking her
the momentous question, but had decided to
wait until my position in the world was bet
ter assured. And now that the country in
her extremity was calling for the best SER
vices of her sons, would it have been fair to
ask simple girl to bind herself, even by an
engagement, to one who might never return
watched her face when we were parting, and
imagined saw what I longed for written
there. determined to ask her to be my wife
when the war was over.
Oh, thewretched years of strife that fol-
lowedl l thought they would never end.
But at last the closing scenes had come,
and the good fortune that had followed
me through a score of engagements, bearing
me unframed while others went down by
thousands, forsook me in measure at last.
/ was hit by spent ball in the knee, and a
mentafterward ridden over by the charg
ing cavalry.
"Your case is not very serious one,"
said tbs doctor, as he bent over me while /
lay that night on "a blanket on the field,
where the hospital tents had not yet been
erected. ''There are others here more in
need of my services-this boy beside you,
for instance; l must attend to him. He
seems to be badly hurt. Let me examine
you, my lad"
''Oh, there is not much the matter with
me, sir,' said the lad II was hit in the
side at the last fire; but it is only trifing
wound. You see, Twas DOCTORS boy before
joined the army, and know something
about such things"
''Indeedr' said the doctor, smiling.
L
a doctors boy myself before became doc
tor. Bullet me look at your wound. Phew
this is no trifle. The sooner we get you nm
der cover the better. You are in for a siege
of couple of months of it at least, my lad"
The boy was very much disheartened at
this intelligence; and the next morning,
when we were all under canvas, the doctor,
having finished his immediate duties, sat by
his bedside, and l heard him tell his patient
how when he was DOCTORS boy he had not
learned much of medicines and how in max
ing an experiment he had nearly dosed to
death a boy a little older than himself.
When he was about to leave the tent said:
"Doctor, am the boy whom you nearly
dosed to death. What have you been doing
through all these years2"
had recognized him on the preceding
night, but he had not known me, and he was
sstounded when I accosted him. He had
certainly improved both in appearance and
manners, and I found afterwards that he
was great favorite with the command to
which he was attached. We soon became
very good friends-far better, indeed, than
we had ever in the old days when so can
didly expressed my opinion of him. Tissue
cess was due simply to common-sense and
industry. On leaving DR.. Harris service he
had hired himself to another doctor, who
gave him fairer play than his former princi-
pal, and he was enabled to study medicine,
attend the necessary lectures, and finally to
obtain his diploma.
At last asked him why he had left the
fve-dollar bill in the drawer when he was
leaving. He laughed.
cit was the only money" he said, ''that
DR.. Hart ever gave me. He handed it to me
grudgingly enough'about year before I left
and never changed it. You will think it,
perhaps, strange sentiment for a DOCTORS
boyy but when was running away without
giving him notice thnnnht I bod forfoitod