Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-10-05

1
| WEI, come to Tat she didn't know
what to say or DO. woman-like she up
| ped and cried, and then she said hi
hurt her feelings. And the upshot OF
1t was he said he'd come, and they
! shook hands ON it-Abe givin his other
hand of course.
Well, Abe kept his word and took Ut
schOolin' as if nothin' had happened
and such SchOOlin' as there was thai
winter. L don't believe any regular
academy had more learnin' and teachin
that winter than what that district
school did. Seemed as if all the
school had turned over new leaf
Even wild, Ornery, no-accOunt Epht
Dodge couldn't help but get ahead
some-but then he was crazy to get the
schOolma'am, and she never paid nc
attention to him; just went with Abe
Abe was teachin' her mathematics,
seem that was the one thing where
he knOWed more than she did-outside
of farmin.' Folks used to say that il
Ephe had Abe's head, or Abe had
Ephe'S face, the school ma'am would
have half Of the Dodge farm whenever
OF man Dodge got through with it
but neither of them did have what the
other had, and so there it was, you see
Well, you've heard Of Squire Cation
Of course; Judge Cation they call him
since he got to be judge of the supreme
CORTLAND chief justice at that Well
he had farm down there not far from
Fox river, and when he was there he
was just plain farmer like the rest of
us, though I'D in Chicago he was a
hlgh-up lawyer-leader of the bar. Now
it SO happened that a young doctor
named Brainard = Daniel Brainard-
had just come to Chicago and was
startin' in, and Squire Cation was help
in him, gave him deskroom in his
office and made him known to the folks
I-Kinzies, and Butterfields, and Og-
dens, and Hamiltons, and Arnolds, and
all of those folks-about all there was
in Chicago in those days.
Brainard had been to Paris-Paris,
France, not Paris, ILL.,, you understand
and knew all the doctorin there was
to know then. WeH, come spring
Squire Cation had Doc Brainard down
to visit him, and they shot ducks and
geese and prairie chickens, and some
wild turkeys and deer, tOO-game was
just swarmin' at that time All the
while Cation was dom what law bust
ness there was to do, and Brainard
thought he ought to be dom some doc
torin' to keep his hand in, so he asked
Cation if there wasn't any cases he
could take up-Surgery cases especially
he hanl<ered after, seem he had more
surgery tools than you could shake a
stick at. He asked him particularly
if there wasn't anybody he could treat
fer "strabismus.' The squire hadn't
heard of anybody dying of that COM
plant, but when the doctor explained
that strabimus was French for cross
eyes, he naturally thought Of poor Abe
Dodge, and the doctor was right up on
his ear. He smelled the battle afar
off; and most before you could say
Jack Robinson the squire and the doc
tor were on horseback and down to the
Dodge farm, tool chest and all.
Well, it so happened that nobody
was at home but Abe and Ephe, and, it
didn't take but 4 few words before
Abe was ready to set right down. then
and there, and let anybody do anything
he was mind to with his misfortune
eyes. No, he wouldn't wait till the
old folks come home; he didn't want to
ask advice; he wasn't afraid of pain,
nor of what anybody could do with his
eyes-couldn't be made any worse than
they We're, whatever you did to 'em.
Take EN- out and boil 'em and put 'em
back if you had a mind to, only go to
work. He knew he was Of age and he
guessed he was master Of his own eyes
such as they were.
Well, there wasn't nothing else to do
but go ahead. The doctor opened up
his killing tools and tried to keep Abe
from seeing them: but Abe, he just
come right over and peeked at 'em,
handled 'em and called 'em splendid"
and so ,ney were, barrin' havin' them
used on your own flesh and blood and
bones.
Then they got some cloths and a
basin, and one thing and another, and
set Abe right down in chair. NO
such thing as chlorofOrm in those days,
you'll remember.) And Squire Cation
was to hold an instrument that spread
the eyelid wide open, while Ephe was
to hold Abe's head steady. First touch
of the lancet and first squirt Of blood,
and what do you think? That ornery
Ephe wilted and fell fiat on the floor
behind the chair.
Squire" said Brainard, ''step around
and hold his head"
II can hold my own head" says Abe,
az steady as you please. But Squire
Cation. he straddled over Ephe and
held his head between his arms and the
two handles of the eye spreader with
his hands.
1t was all over in half a minute, and
then Abe he leaned forward and shook
the blood off his eye lashes and looked
straight out of that eye for the first
time since he was born. And the
first words he said were:
THANK the Lord She's miner
About that time Ephe had crawled
out doors, sick as a dog; and Abe spoke
up; says he:
Now for the other eye, doctor"
o. says the doctor, wed better
take another day for that"
"All right" says Abe, eff your hands
are tired Of cuttin you can make
another job Of it. My face amt tired
OF bein' cut, I can tell you
well, if you're game, I am"
So, if you'll believe it, they just set to
work and operated on the other eye,