The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1886-05-14
THE LITTLE DARK DOCTOR.
RY MANY n. pREscorr.

with him; but it was necessary that
he should travel with aphysician who
would watch the variations of his
pulse, and a friend introduced him to
the '1ittle dark Doctor" as Ladislaw
described him to me, who, having been
overwOrk9d himself, needed a vaca~
ton. On my part, Ihadmy chaperon,
to be snre-a widow, not too old and
not too frivolous, who knew how to
be blind at discretion, and who was
at the same time, SO dreadfully e
sighted that she could hardly distin-
guish a Irritation from a quarrel, and
who, moreover, never made her ap-
pearance on deck after the first day
during the whole voyage. found the
Doctor agreat convenience, you may
be sure. Ladislaw said one would
suppose | was his patient; but Lads
law always exaggerates a little about
such things. Our passage was long
and rough, and Heaven only knows
what | should have done but for the
little dark Doctor! If l wanted an ex-
ira wrap-and one always does on
shipboard-or a book, or my chair
moved, he was at hand. He read
to me on calm days, he sang to me
little Spanish and Italian ballads
on moonlight nights; he beguil-
ed me with anecdotes of his
profession when we sat upon
deck in a heavy swell, with our chairs
dashed to the house, and the spray
driving over us-that is, unless Mr..
Finch, the English gentleman who had
made III acquaintance through Lad
islaw, stole a march upon him, and
erected a canopy over my head with
his umbrella and macintosh, or gave
me his arm for q promenade on the
tipsy deck. The doctor, however,
lavished his attentions upon me with
an air which made one sensible that
he would do as much for any m
kind who happened in his way; that
there was nothing personal or par
ticular in his devotion. Perhaps |
OWNED his feeling from the perfect
case with which he made himself at
home with me, as if | we're merely a
companionable cousin or other Indif-
ferent feminine relative. Shall / ever
forget that pitch-black night-"a very
WaIpurgis night" hedoctorhad SAID,
earlier-when the engine stopped sud
denly, like a tired-out heart, on the
Irish coast, and all the gentlemen
came tearing up from the card-room,
and theladies, in all degrees oftoilettes,
from their state-rooms, forgetful of
seasickness or appearances; and ],
with sudden visions of shipwreck In
that p%lunging sea, with the hustle of
launching lifeboats, and the terror of
being swung into one, and possibly
dropping between the two, rising be-
tore me like a spectral scene, tainted
outright upon the deck, and walked to
find myself in the Doctor arms in the
saloon?
You thought this was the end of the
world?" he said, smiling as only the
dark Doctor could smile.
II fancy that lam dead-and damn
ed" | answered laughing hysterically.
lie dropped me upon the sofa aud
turned away. "They stopped to take
soundings,'' he said. ct is nothing.
You had better 90 to bed"
do you charge much for your adj
vlce?" | asked. Well goodnight. I
hope We may not meet in the life
boat"
One day in London, DIS we were
walking through the dim old cloisters
at the Abbey, and trying to spell out
the names of the dusty dead on the
Worn pavement, having left Ladislaw
and Mrs. Adams still-mooning in the
Poets Corner, the Doctor said:
you were a little frightened that
night on the Irish coast. To tell the
truth, a small pipe in the engine broke;
put there was no real danger, | sus-
pect."
"And you we're not frightened at all,
knowing this?"
III We would all go together, you
Know. Your company would be as
pleasant in heaven as on ship
board
"Equivocal-but thank you. Asfor
me, like to choose my company, not
nave 1T thrust upon me-"
"Yes!' he said, indifferently.
Whose company would you select?"
Il would select an artist, or @ mu-
sician, OF perhaps a poet"
"Isee. In heaven they need no doc
tors
Nor on earth either, generally
speaking" And then / impertinently
repeated to him the little German le
gend OF the Doctor whom Death paid
q visit one day, and who, begging to
defer the debt OF Nature, offered to di-
yld all his future patients with ths
King of Terrors; and so ~engrossed
We're we with this pastime that we
Darely escaped being locked into the