After dinner Doctor Bolus went to visit a very poor woman, who was sick
with a lung fever, and all alone, only when a colored girl came in to help
her, or to read to her. The Doctor knew he could not cure her, and only
gave her a little medicine to soothe her pain.
[Illustration]
His next visit was to Susan Blake, a little girl of ten years old, who was
very sick, and could not recover. She had one sister, and they were
orphans. It was hard indeed for them to part, but they both knew that
death would soon separate them.
[Illustration]
Doctor Bolus was next called to pull a tooth for a little girl, (see
frontispiece,) and then went to see Joe Glutton as he was called. Joe well
deserved the name for his greediness; a day or two before he had slily
climbed up to a dish of sweetmeats, and eaten very freely of them; that
night he was taken severely sick, and was obliged to take much bitter
medicine. This was not the first time he had suffered for his greediness.
The Doctor had a fine pear tree which was often robbed; when the pears
were ripe, he had inserted emetics in several of the finest of them, and
soon after was called to visit Joe, who had been suddenly taken with
vomiting; the Doctor soon relieved him, but found he had been eating his
pears.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
The next place was at the carpenter's, where the baby and the grandfather
were both sick. The grandfather was a very old man, and loved to tell over
the story of his settling in the wilderness, when a young man. The Doctor
left medicine for them, and then went on to Mrs. Thorn's whose daughter
was sick. He found the mother spinning, and the daughter trying to sew as
she lay on the bed. Mrs. Thorn's husband and six children had died with
consumption, and now the last, and youngest, on whom the mother had
depended for aid, was wasting away with the same disease. The mother
grieved deeply, but was cheerful, and said she hoped to meet them in
heaven.
[Illustration]
Next he called to see a little girl who had been sick for several days
with a violent fever; he had been afraid she would die, but now found her
better, and the danger past. Her brother was standing by her, trying to
draw her attention to a brood of chickens which had been hatched since she
was shut up by sickness.
[Illustration]
The Doctor had now finished his calls; but as he was walking home he was
called to a young lady who had been with a party of young people, sailing
on the pond, and in reaching over too far had fallen into the water. The
party were frightened, and it was sometime before she was taken out. The
Doctor tried for several hours to restore her, but it was in vain; she was
dead, and the whole village mourned over the sudden and sad death.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]