The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1891-09-17


All sorts Of horses were brought by
dealers to the door for the doctor to try,
and it became the principal amusement
Of the neighhors to see the doctor speed
ing them up and down the shady street.
The Bissell household came out to in
spect each new aspirant for the doctors
favor. 1t was Mrs. Bisselps opinion that
the doctor would need q long winded
horse and good goer for the fourishing
practice she anticipated for him through
DraytOn Spurs and Deadman's Hollow
and many outlying places, where there
were believers in the little pill theory
who would yet rise up and call him
blessed.
The scattering calls the doctor re-
ceived in those first weeks made the
whole house palpitate with sympathetic
excitement. If the sharp, snappy little
door bell rang at meal time they all
started and looked at tho young man at
the head of the table. A slow, collect
i've smile expanded on the composite
countenance Of the Holmes family.
Even cid Gram ther Bissell, deaf as he
was, heard it III the kitchen, and Mrs.
Bissell glowed as she busted herself dish
ing up the vegetables Bridget was to
carry into the dining room, and, if pos
sible, Anne was roster than her wont
There was no end of Joking at the table
about the good eight hours Of sleep the
doctor enjoyed nightly.
Il sha'n't feel at all satisfied said
Anne, beaining on him across the board,
''until our bell wire is broken three or
four times q week by country boys rid
ing wild colts bareback 20 summon the
doctor in hot haste for some cid woman
with the toothache."
IF you expect NE to do the repairing
it may cost more than get in fees"
'Oh, I guess we can afford q few re-
pairs" retorted Anne, ''for the glory of
the thing. We expect our doctor to
have the biggest practice Of anybody in
town"
"Our DOCTOR Miss Carver repeated
the words with her mouth pursed up in
a pucker Of disapproval that afternoon,
as she sat with her friend, the Widow
Harkaway, cooling off after her walk,
with her bonnet strings united. You'd
| think to hear them talk they had pre-
empted him and were dividing him UP
into quarter sections for their own ex
| elusive USE
There were moments when Miss Car
yer had ''slu1nped" through in her origi
nal grim determination to suspect the
doctor of possessing snowy but untrust
worthy qualities She was like one Of
those ''sugar" days in early spring thai
thaw at noon and freeze overnight
just now it was frosty weather.
The Widow Harkaway was often il
SO sensitive 81 state Of mind about the go
ings on of her neighbors, and the wick
ed of the world in general, that she fel
forced to sit with her eyes shut. Nov
her eyes were sealed, and the lids quiv
cred with reprobation.
II did think of calling him il for IN,
lumbago," she began in disparagin:
tone of voice, 'but I have to conclud
from what I have heard that he is yer,
reprehensible person. It has leaked ou
through Mary French that he is engages
to one OF her schoolmates at Smith col
lege, has been engaged a year or more
and now he has crep' in here at Little
field and KEEP it all hushed up and gon
to flirting hammer and tongs with Ann
Bissell"
| "Engagedr' whistled Miss Carve
through the gap made by the loss Of on
of her incisorg, which the dentists al
had not yet repaired. "Well, I never
And he's been sailing along under falls
ooiors, hiding 1t away as il II was some
II, l. L. r
will feel as if she had took hold Of hv