The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1891-03-15
ANNE BISSELL.
How the New Littlefield Doctor Got Into Prac-
tiee and Found Wife
Ry AUGUSTA LARNEp.

medical views. A doctor in the house
would certainly be a convenience, for
Miss Carver had her pet inirmities. and
she regretted the expensive luxury of
talking them over with regular prac-
titioner. But doctor in the house,
whom one met Familiarity at meals,
wonId hardly estimate his professional
talk as highly as DR.. Leavitt did. She
would doubtless be able to pick up good
deal that might be useful to her gratis.
But, alas. ne was Of the wrong school.
She could not in all conscience ever
bring herself to take those absurd little
pills, even if they were given away.
Miss Carver had been going over these
questions in her mind when a station
hack drew up to the front gate and a
young man of fair complexion, .swell
set up" as our English cousins say, and
decidedly good looking, stepped out and
banged the hack door, He had no lug
gage, and had in his hand little sign in
scribed with the words s'Dr. S. L. Tib-
BETS Miss Carver flew out to the pas
sage and called down, "He's come, Mrs.
Bissell!'' in hysterical voice.
The horsehair sofa still blocked the
hall, and q large easy chair filed the
front door. Mercy! what shall DOR
exclaimed Mrs Bissell. Anne rushed
out from the dining room letting down
the sleeves of her pink morning dress
and with pretty blush on her fair face.
ssCome right in, DOCTOR" Miss Carver
L \. fsNT<.4T,<-. 1fk4Jo he,
lated about your Office; but step into the
parlor if you can manage to climb over
these things"
The doctor replied in an easy, good
natured, languid voice. and Miss Carver
thought to herself in her New England
fashion of weighing and measuring,
HE hasn't got much force" The doc
tor was telling Anne that his luggage
had been left by mistake at the juno
ton where he had taken the Applicable
branch line, and would not arrive for
some hours. He had therefore appeared
with only his doctors sign in his hand
as proof of identity. The young people
went into the parlor, and in few mo-
ments Miss Carver heard sounds of
laughter, the doctors easy voice and
Anne's girlish staccato notes.
'sWhat confidence the girl has"
thought Miss Carver, 'sto be going on
like that the very first minutei should
think her mother would try and check
her; it looks so firtatious' The risk
that poor, unsuspecting young man in
CURED in coming into the Bissell family
filed her with a kind of pity. She was
glad Providence had SO arranged things
that at her age she did not find any for
ward, pert girls on her hands to man
age. Surely the single state has its adj
vantages. It at least affords one lofty
pedestal for criticising ones neighbors.
Miss Carver could see IN many ways
how Mrs. Bissell had missed it, and how
differently she would have done in her
place.
There was an old Grandfather Bissell,
a stone deaf old man, who sat in the
kitchen in rocking chair close to the
stove, with his hat on even in warm
weather Sometimes he worked little
in the garden, or pottered about on
errands in the town, or assisted at the
cooking when a crisis occurred in the
domestic arrangements, as often hap
pened. But in general way he was of
no use-only another mouth to feed.
The old man had married daughters far
better off than Mrs. Bissell, who refused
to keep him on the ground that he was
hard to get along with, though appar-
entity more harmless old soul did not
live. Miss Carver was strenuous ON the
fact of Grant her Bissell. If she could
have had her way the old man would
have been sent packing, and the hard
hearted daughters brought to terms.
Then there was Bissell himself, part
carpenter and part teamster; but both
teaming and carpentry were now at a
low ebb in Littlefeld, and as there was
nothing for Bissell to do he did nothing,
and let his wife support him. The sight
of Bissell hanging about the place when
there was mortgage on the property
filed Miss Carver with suppressed rage.
If Bissell was her husband she knew she
would find some way of making him
earn his salt. She dared not hint of her
feelings to Mrs. Bissell, for the little
woman was very touchy and truculent
about her s'men folks" She said she
guessed she had right to keep as many
men folks as she pleased, and the neigh
bors might just stop talking. They sat
back in their easy chairs doing fancy
work and crochet, and saw her digging
away for dear life. and could find moth
ing better to gossip about than her ways
Of managing her affairs. They had bet
ter look to the beam in their own eyes. {"