It was five o'clock in the morning when the doctor heard the call and
made his way to it. His wife was roused too and was a passive listener.
"Yes."
"Yes."
"Down where? I don't understand you."
"On what street?.... Down near Dyre's? I don't know any such family."
Here Mary called out, "Maybe they mean Dye's."
"Dye's? Yes, I know where that is..... Galliver--that's the name is it?
Very well, Mrs. Galliver, I'll be down in a little while.... Yes, just
as soon as I can dress and get there."
He proceeded to clothe himself very deliberately, but years of
repression had taught Mary resignation.
Ting-a-ling-ling-ling. Three rings.
The doctor went with shoe in hand and again his wife was a listener.
"Yes..... Yes..... I'm just getting ready to go to see a patient......
It's a hurry call, is it? All right then, I'll come there first......
Yes, right away."
As he put up the receiver he said to his wife, "Somebody else was trying
to get me then, too, but couldn't make it." Mary thought it well he
couldn't since her husband was only one and indivisible.
"But he will probably try again after a little," she thought, "and John
will be gone and I won't know just where to find him."
Ting-a-ling-ling-ling-ling-ling. Collar in hand the doctor went.
"Yes..... Who is this?.... Come where?.... Jackson street. Right next to
Wilson's mill?.... On which side? I say on which side of Wilson's
mill?.... West? All right, I'll be down there after awhile...... No, not
right away; I have to make two other visits first, but as soon as I can
get there."
When at last he was dressed and his hand was on the door-knob the 'phone
called him back.
"You say I needn't come..... Very well. I'll come if you want me to
though, Mrs. Galliver. I'm just starting now. I have to see another
patient first."--
"Why John," interposed Mary from the bedroom, "She called you first."
"It will be about half an hour before I can get there..... All right,
I'll be there."
Then Mary remembered that No. 2 was the hurry call and was silent. When
the doctor was gone she fell asleep but only for two minutes.
She went to answer the call. "Has the doctor started yet?"
"Yes, he is on his way."
"All right then," and the relief in the tone was a pleasant thing to
hear.
"Now, if I go to sleep again I can feel no security from No. 1 or No. 3
or both." Nevertheless she did go to sleep and neither No. 1 nor No. 3
called her out of it.
* * * * *
"I must be going," said Mary, rising from her chair in a neighbor's
house.
"Have you something special on hand?" asked her neighbor.
"Yes, it's clock-winding day at our house, for one thing."
"Why, how many clocks do you have to wind?" inquired the little old lady
with mild surprise.
"Only one, thank heaven!" ejaculated Mary as she departed.
When she had sped across the yard and entered her own door she threw off
her shawl and made ready to wind the clock. First, she turned off the
gas in the grate so that her skirts would not catch fire. Second, she
brought a chair and set it on the hearth in front of the grate. Third,
she went into the next room and got the big unabridged dictionary,
brought it out and put it on the chair. Fourth, she went back and got
the oldest and thickest Family Bible and the fat Bible Dictionary,
brought them out and deposited them on the unabridged. Fifth, she
mounted the chair. Sixth, she mounted the volumes--which brought her up
to the height she was seeking to attain. Seventh, she wound the clock;
that is, she usually did. Today, when she had inserted the key and
turned it twice round--the 'phone rang. Oh, dear! Thank goodness it
stopped at two rings. She would take it for granted the doctor was in
the office. She wound on. Then she took the key out and inserted it on
the opposite side. A second peal. That settled it. If it were a lawyer's
or a merchant's or any other man's 'phone she could wind the other side
first--but the doctor's is in the imperative mood and the present tense.
She must descend. Slowly and cautiously she did so, went to the 'phone
and put the receiver to her ear.
"Hello, is this Dr. Blank's office?"
"This is his--"
"Hello, what is it?" said her husband's voice. "Now why couldn't he have
come a minute sooner," thought Mary, provoked.
"Doctor," said an agitated voice, "my little boy has swallowed a penny."
"Was it a good one?" inquired the doctor, calmly.
"Why--ye-es," said the voice, broken with a laugh, "guess it was."
"Just let him alone. It will be all right after awhile."
"It was worth getting down to hear so comforting an assurance," said
Mary as she ascended again the chair and the volumes. She finished her
weekly task, then slowly and cautiously descended, carried the big books
back to their places, set the chair in its corner and lighted the gas.
She stood for a moment looking up at this clock. The space over the
mantel-piece was just the place for it and it was only after it had been
firmly anchored to the wall that the thought had arisen, "How can I ever
get up there to wind it?"
She smiled as she thought of a social gathering a few days before, when
a lady had called to her across the room, "Mrs. Blank, tell us that
clock story again." And she had answered:
"It isn't much of a story, but it serves to show the manner in which we
computed the time. One night the doctor woke me up. 'Mary,' he said in a
helpless sort of way, 'It struck _seven_--what _time_ is it?' 'Well--let
me see,' I said. 'If it struck seven it meant to strike three, for it
strikes four ahead of time. And if it meant to strike three it's just a
quarter past two, for it's three quarters of an hour too fast.'"
Ting-a-ling-ling. Ting-a-ling-ling-ling. Ting-a-ling-ling-ling.
Mary recognized her husband's ring. "Yes, what is it John?"
"I'm going out for twenty minutes, watch the 'phone, please."
She laughed in answer to this most superfluous request, then sat her
down near by.
* * * * *
"John, Mrs. B. said a pretty good thing last night."
"That's good."
"I've a notion not to tell you, now that the good thing was about you."
"That's better still. But are good things about me so rare that you made
a note of it?"
"I don't know but what they are," said Mary, reflectively. "There was
Mrs. C., you know, who said she didn't see how in the world Doc Blank's
wife ever lived with him--he was so mean."
"I wonder about that myself, sometimes."
"The way I manage it is to assert myself when it becomes necessary--and
it does. You're a physician to your patients but to me you're a mere
man."
"I feel myself shrivelling. But how about Mrs. B.'s compliment?"
"I was over at the church where a social program of some sort was being
given and 'between acts' everybody was moving about chatting. An elderly
woman near me asked, 'Mrs. Blank, do you know who the Hammell's are?' I
told her that I did not, and she went on, 'I see by the paper that a
member of their family died today, and I thought you, being a doctor's
wife, might know something about it.'
"Mrs. B. spoke up promptly, 'Why, Mrs. Blank wouldn't know anything
about the _dead_ people--her husband gets 'em _well_.'"
The doctor laughed, "And she believes it too," he said.
"No doubt of it. So a compliment like that offsets one of Mrs. C.'s
kind."
"O, no. The C.'s have it by a big majority. Don't you know I have the
reputation of being the meanest man in the county?"
"No, I don't."
"Well, I have. Do you remember that drive we took a week or two ago up
north?"
"That long drive?"
"Yes. When I went in the man who was a stranger to me, said, 'I'll tell
you why I sent for you. I've had two or three doctors out here,
recommended as _good_ doctors, and they haven't done me a darned bit of
good. Yesterday I heard you was the meanest doctor in this county and I
said to myself, "He's the man I want."'"
"I heard you laughing and wondered what it was about. The man's wife
came out to the buggy and talked to me. She said they were strangers and
didn't know anything about the doctors around here--they had thought of
sending down to this town for a doctor but she had spoken to a woman--a
neighbor--and she had said there wasn't _any_ of 'em any account down
there. But her husband kept getting worse so they finally sent for Dr.
Blank and she hoped he'd cure 'im. Are you doing it? I hope so for I
assured her that the physicians of this town are recognized throughout
the State as being men of exceptional ability, and she went in,
comforted."
"Yes, he got better as soon as he struck the road to health," laughed
John. He took out his watch. "Jove! I haven't any time to spare if I
catch that train." For several days he had been taking the train to a
little station some miles out of town, where he would get off and walk a
mile to the home of his patient, make his visit and walk back in time to
catch the train for home.
Just after the doctor left the house the telephone rang twice. His wife
answered it, knowing he had not yet reached the office.
"Is the doctor there?"
"He left the house just a minute ago."
"Well, he's coming down today isn't he?"
"Is this Mrs. Shortridge?"
"Yes."
"Yes, he just said he must make that train."
"He'll go to the office first won't he?"
"Yes, to get his case, I think."
"Will you please telephone him there to bring a roast with him?"
"To bring what?"
"A roast."
Mary was nonplussed. Her husband had the reputation of "roasting" his
patients and their attendants on occasion. Had an occasion arisen now?
"Why, ye-es," she began, uncertainly, when the voice spoke again.
"I mean a roast of beef, Mrs. Blank. I thought as the doctor was coming
he wouldn't mind stopping at the butcher's and bringing me a roast--tell
him a good-sized one."
The receiver clicked. Mary still held hers. Then she rang the office.
"What _is_ it?" Great haste spoke in the voice.
"John, Mrs. Shortridge wants you to bring her a roast of beef when you
go down."
"The devil she does!"
"The market is right on your way. Hurry. Don't miss the train!" She put
up the receiver, then she snatched it and rang again violently.
"_Now_ what!" thundered John's voice.
"She said to get a good-sized one." Standing with the receiver in her
hand and shaking with laughter she heard the office-door shut with a
bang and knew that he was off.
She knew that if he had been going in the buggy he would have been glad
to do Mrs. S.'s bidding. He often carried ice and other needful things
to homes where he visited. Mary pictured her husband picking his way
along a muddy country road, his case in one hand and the "roast" in the
other, and thought within herself, "He'll be in a better mood for a
roast when he arrives than when he started."
* * * * *
Mary was out in the kitchen making jelly. At the critical moment when
the beaded bubbles were "winking at the brim" came the ring. She lifted
the kettle to one side, wiped her hands and went.
"Is this you, Mary?"
"Yes."
"Watch the 'phone a little bit, please. I have to be out about half an
hour."
"I'm always watching the 'phone, John, always, _always_!"
She went back to her jelly. She put it back on the fire, an inert mass
with all the bubbles died out of it. Scarcely had she done so when the
'phone rang--two rings. Surely the doctor had not got beyond hearing
distance. He would answer. But perhaps he had--he was a very swift
walker. The only way to be sure of it was to go to the telephone and
listen. She went hastily back and as she put the receiver to her ear
there came a buzz against it which made her jump.
"Hello," she said.
"I wanted the doctor, Mrs. Blank, do you know where he is?"
"He just 'phoned me that he--" an unmistakable sound arose from the
kitchen stove. The jelly was boiling over! Instinct is older than the
telephone. The receiver dangled in air while Mary rushed madly to the
rescue. "I might have known it," she said to herself, as she pushed the
kettle aside and rushed back to the 'phone.
"I guess they cut us off," said the voice.
"I was just saying," said Mary, "that the doctor 'phoned me a few
minutes ago he would be out for half an hour."
"Will you please tell him when he comes in to call up 83?"
The man goes on his way, relieved of further responsibility in the
matter. It will be a very easy thing for the doctor's wife to call up
her husband and give him the message. Let us see.
When the jelly was done, and Mary had begun to fill the waiting glasses
she thought, "I'd better see if John is back. He may go out again before
I can deliver that message." So she set the kettle on the back of the
stove and went to ascertain if her husband had returned. No answer to
her ring. She had better ring again to be sure of it. No answer. She
went back to the kitchen. When the glasses were all filled and she had
held first one and then another up to get the sunlight through the clear
beautiful redness of them, she began setting them back to cool. The
telephone! She hurried in and rang again to see if John had got back.
Silence. She sighed and hung up the receiver. "I'd like to get it off my
mind." As she started toward the kitchen again the door-bell rang. She
went to open the door, and wonder of wonders--an old friend she had not
seen for years!
"I am passing through town, Mary, and have just three quarters of an
hour till my train goes. Now sit down and _talk_."
And the pair of them did talk, oblivious to everything about them. How
the minutes did fly and the questions too! The 'phone rang in the next
room--two rings. On Mary's accustomed ear it fell unheeded. She talked
on. Again two rings. She did not notice.
"Isn't that your 'phone?" asked the visitor.
"O, _yes_! You knocked it clean out of my head, Alice. Excuse me a
minute," and she vanished.
"Did you give that message to the doctor?"
"He is not back yet."
"I saw him go into the office not ten minutes ago."
"I have 'phoned twice and failed to find him."
"I hoped when I saw him leave the office that he had started down to see
my little boy, but of course he hasn't if he didn't get the message."
"I am sorry. An old friend I had not seen for years came in and of
course it went out of my mind for a few minutes, though I 'phoned twice
before she came. I am sure he will be back in a few minutes and I will
send him right down, Mr. Nelson."
"Why do you do that?" asked her friend, pointedly as she came in. "Why
take upon yourself the responsibility of people's messages being
delivered."
"It _is_ an awful responsibility. I don't know why I do it--so many
people seem to expect it as a matter of course--"
"It's a great deal easier for each person to deliver his own message
than for you to have a half dozen on your mind at once. I wouldn't do
it. You'll be a raving lunatic by the next time I see you."
"At least I'll have ample time in which to become one," laughed Mary.
"I'm going," announced her friend, suddenly rising. "I could spare five
or ten minutes more but if I sit here you'll forget that 'phone again.
But take my advice, Mary, and institute a change in the order of
things."
When she had gone Mary sat for a few minutes lost in thought. Then,
remembering, she sprang up and went to the 'phone. No answer to her
ring. "Dear me! Will I _never_ get that message delivered and off my
mind." Soon a ring came.
"Isn't he back _yet_?"
"I 'phoned about three minutes ago and failed to get him. By the way,
Mr. Nelson, will you just 'phone the doctor at the office, please? That
will be a more direct way to get him as I seem to fail altogether this
morning. I am sure that he can't be gone much longer," she said very
pleasantly and hung up the receiver. The responsibility had been
gracefully shifted and she was free for a while. Other occasions would
arise when she could not be free, but in cases of this kind her friend's
clear insight had helped her out.
* * * * *
Ting-a-ling-ling-ling. Ting-a-ling-ling-ling.
"Hello."
"Is this Dr. Blank?"
"Yes."
"My husband has just started for your office. He says he's going to send
you down. I don't need a doctor. Will you tell him that?"
"I'll tell him you _said_ so."
"Well, I don't. So don't you come!"
"All right. I haven't got time to be bothered with you anyway. The sick
people take my time."
In a few minutes the 'phone rang again.
"Dr. Blank, can you come over to the Woolson Hotel?"
"Right away?"
"Yes, if you can. There's a case here I've treated a little that I'm not
satisfied about."
"All right, Doctor, I'll be there in a few minutes."
When he reached the hotel and had examined the patient he said, "He has
smallpox."
"I began to suspect that."
"Not a bit of doubt of it."
"The hotel is full of people--I'm afraid there'll be a panic."
"We must get him out of here. We'll have to improvise a pest-house at
once. I'll go and see about it."
That evening about an hour after supper the doctor's daughter came
hurriedly into the room where her mother was sitting.
"Mother," she exclaimed, "there's an awful lot of people in the office,
a regular mob and they're as mad as fury."
"What about?" exclaimed her mother, startled.
"They're mad at father for putting the tent for a smallpox patient down
in their neighborhood."
"Is he in the office now?"
"He was there when I first went in but he isn't there just now. Father
wasn't a bit disturbed, but I am. I got out of there. The mayor went
into the office just as I came out."
Uneasy, in spite of herself, Mary waited her husband's return. Ten
o'clock, and he had not come. She went to the 'phone and called the
office. The office man answered.
"Where is the doctor?"
"He was in here a few minutes ago, but there's a big fuss down at the
smallpox tent and I think he's gone down there."
Mary rang off and with nervous haste called the mayor's residence.
"Is this Mr. Felton?"
"Yes."
"This is Mrs. Blank. I am very uneasy about the doctor, Mr. Felton. I
hear he has just started down to the smallpox tent. Won't you please see
that someone goes down at once?"
"Yes, Mrs. Blank. I came from there a little while ago but they're mad
at the doctor and I'll go right back. I'm not going to bed until I know
everything's quieted down."
"And you'll take others with you?" she pleaded, but the mayor was gone.
Again she waited in great anxiety. The tent was too far away for her to
go out into the night in search of him.
Between eleven and twelve o'clock she heard footsteps. She rose and went
to the door. Almost she expected to see her husband brought home on a
stretcher. But there he came, walking with buoyant step. When he came in
he kissed his anxious wife and then broke into a laugh.
"My! how good that sounds! I heard of the mob and have been frightened
out of my wits."
"They've quieted down now. There wasn't a bit of sense in what they
did."
"Well, I don't know that one can really blame them for not wanting
smallpox brought into the neighborhood. Couldn't you have taken the tent
farther out?"
"Yes, if we had had time. But we had a sick man on our hands--he had to
be got out of the hotel and he had to be taken care of right away. He
had to have a nurse. There must be water in the tent and the nurse can't
be running out of a pest-house to get it. Neither can anyone carry it to
such a place. So we couldn't put it beyond the water- and
gas-pipes--there must be heat, too, you know. We have done the very best
we could without more time. The nearest house is fifty yards away and
there's absolutely no danger if the people down there will just get
vaccinated and then keep away from the tent."
"They surely will do that."
"Some of them may. One fool said to me awhile ago when I told them that,
'Oh, yes! we see your game. You want to get a lot of money out of us.'"
"What did you say to that ancient charge," asked Mary, smiling.
"I said, 'My man, I'll pay for the virus, and I'll vaccinate everyone of
you, and everyone in that neighborhood and it won't cost you a cent'."
"Did he look ashamed?"
"I didn't wait to see. I had urgent business out just then."
"Is the patient in the tent now?"
"Yes, all snug and comfortable with a nurse to take care of him. That
was my urgent business. I went into the back room of the office in the
midst of their jabber, slipped out the door, got into the buggy hitched
back there, drove to the hotel and with Dr. Collins' help, got the
patient down the ladder waiting for us, into the buggy, then got the
nurse down the ladder and in, too, then away we drove lickety-cut for
the tent while the mob was away from there. Then I went back to the
office and attended the meeting," added the doctor, laughing heartily.
His wife laughed too, but rather uneasily. "Were they still there when
you got back?"
"Every mother's son of 'em. They didn't stay long though. I advised them
to go home, that the patient was in the tent and would stay there. They
broke for the tent--vowed they'd set fire to it with him in it and I
think they intended to hang _me_," and the doctor laughed again.
"John, don't _ever_ get into such a scrape again. I 'phoned Mr. Felton
and begged him to go down there and take someone with him."
"You did? Well, he came, and it happened there was a member of the State
Board of Health in town who had got on to the racket. He came, too, and
you ought to have heard him read the riot act to those fellows:
"'We've got a sick man here--a stranger, far from his home. You are in
no danger whatever. Every doctor in town has told you so. We're going to
take care of this man _and don't you forget it_. We have the whole State
of Illinois behind us, and if this damned foolishness don't stop right
here, I'll have the militia here in a few hours' time and arrest every
one of you.' That quieted them. They slunk off home and won't bother us
any more."
* * * * *
Three or four days after the above conversation Mary stood at the window
looking out at the storm which was raging. The wind was blowing
fearfully and the rain coming down in torrents. "I do hope John will not
be called to the country today," she thought.
Ting-a-ling-ling-ling--three rings.
"Is this Dr. Blank's office?" asked a feminine voice.
"No, his residence."
"Mrs. Blank, this is the nurse at the smallpox tent. Will you 'phone the
office and tell the doctor it's raining in down here terribly. I'm in a
hurry, must spread things over the patient."
"Very well, I'll 'phone him," and she rang twice. No reply. Again. No
reply. "Too bad he isn't in. I'll have to wait a few minutes."
In five minutes she rang again, but got no reply. In another minute she
was called to the 'phone.
"Didn't you get word to the doctor, Mrs. Blank?" asked a voice, full of
anxiety. "I'm afraid we'll drown before he gets here."
"I have been anxiously watching for him, but he must be visiting a
patient. Hold the 'phone please till I ring again." This time her
husband answered.
"Doctor, here's the nurse at the tent to speak to you." She waited to
hear what he would say.
"Doctor, please come down here and help us. The roof is leaking awfully
and we are about to drown."
"All right, I'll be down after a little."
"Don't wait too long."
Mary's practised ear caught something beginning with a capital D as the
receiver clicked.
"Poor old John," she murmured, "it's awful--the things you have to do."
The doctor got into his rubber coat and set out for his improvised
pest-house.
When he came home Mary asked, "Did you stop the leak?"
"I did. But I had a devil of a time doing it."
"I'm curious to know how you would go about it."
"The roof was double and I had to straighten out and stretch the upper
canvas with the wind blowing it out of my hands and nobody to help me
hold it."
"Was there nobody in sight?"
"That infernal coward of a watchman, but I couldn't get him near the
tent--he's _had_ smallpox, too."
"I should think the nurse could have helped a little, that is if she
knew where to take hold of it, and what to do with it when she got
hold."
"O, she sputtered around some and imagined she was helping."
"Poor thing," said Mary, laughing, "I know just how bewildered she was
with you storming commands at her which she couldn't understand--women
can't."
Ting-a-ling-ling-ling. Ting-a-ling-ling-ling. Ting-a-ling-ling-ling.
The doctor helloed gruffly.
"Is this you, Doc?"
"Looks like it."
"We want ye to come down here an' diagnosis these cases."
"_What_ cases!"
"There's two down here."
"Down _where_?"
"Down here at my house."
"Well, who the devil _are_ you?"
"Bill Masters. We're afraid maybe it's smallpox."
"Yes, _yes_!" snarled the doctor, "every _pimple_ around here for the
next three months will be smallpox."
"Well, we want ye to diagnosis it, Doc."
"All right. I'll 'diagnosis' it the first time I'm down that way--maybe
this evening or tomorrow," and he slammed the receiver up and went to
bed.
* * * * *
One evening the doctor was waiting for the stork at a farmhouse some
miles from home. He concluded to telephone his wife as it might be
several hours before he got in. He rang and put the receiver to his ear:
"Did you put your washin' out today?"
"No, did you?"
"No, I thought it looked too rainy."
"So did I. I hope it'll clear up by mornin'."
"Have you got your baby to sleep yet?"
"Land! yes. He goes to sleep right after supper."
"Mine's not that kind of a kid. He's wider awake than any of us this
minute."
"Got your dress cut out?"
"No, maybe I'll git around to it tomorrow afternoon, if I don't have
forty other things to do."
"Did ye hear about--"
Seeing no chance to get in the doctor retreated. Half an hour later he
rang again. A giggle and a loud girlish voice in his ear asking, "Is
this you, Nettie?"
"This is me."
"Do you know who this is?"
"Course I do."
"Bet ye don't."
"Bet I do."
"Who?"
"It's Mollie, of course."
"You've guessed it. I tried to change my voice so you wouldn't know me."
"What fer?"
"Oh, cat-fur to make kitten breeches."
Mild laughter.
"I heard that you gave Jake the mitten last night."
"Who told ye?"
"Oh, a little bird."
"Say! Who _did_ tell ye?"
"You'll never, never tell if I do?"
The clock near the patiently waiting doctor struck nine quick short
strokes.
"Did you hear that?" asked the first voice, startled.
"Whose clock _is_ that?"
"Johnson's haven't got one like that."
"Miller's haven't neither."
"I'll tell you--it's Gray's--their clock strikes quick like that."
"Then there's somebody at their 'phone listenin'!"
"Goodness! Maybe it's Jake, just like him!"
"Jake Gray, if that's you, you're a mean eavesdroppin' sneak an' that's
what I think of _you_! Good-bye, Nettie." And as the receiver slammed
into its place the doctor shook with laughter.
"This seems to be my opportunity," he thought, then rang and delivered
the message to his wife. Often these dialogues kept him from hearing or
delivering some important message and then he fumed inwardly, but
tonight he had time to spare and to laugh.
* * * * *
After a little the 'phone rang. "It's someone wanting you, Doctor," said
the man of the house who answered it. The doctor went.
"Is this you, Doctor Blank?"
"Yes."
"I want you--"
The doctor heard no more. This was a party line and every receiver on it
came down. A dozen people were listening to find out who wanted the
doctor and what for. All on the line knew that Doctor Blank had been at
the Gray farmhouse for hours. The message being private, there was
silence. The doctor waited a minute then his wrath burst forth.
"Damn it! Hang up your receivers, all you eavesdroppers, so I can get
this message!"
Click, click, click, click, and lots of people mad, but the doctor got
the message.
* * * * *
Ting-a-ling-ling-ling.
"Is this Mrs. Blank?"
"Yes."
"I telephoned the office and couldn't get the doctor so I'll tell you
what I wanted and you can tell him. His patient down here in the
country, Mrs. Miller, is out of powders and she wants him to send some
down by Mrs. Richards, if he can find her."
"Where is Mrs. Richards?"
"She's up there in town somewhere."
"Does she know that the powders are to be sent by her and will she call
at the office?"
"No, I don't think she knows anything about it. Mrs. Miller didn't know
she was out till after she left. That's all," and she was gone.
"All!" echoed Mary.
In a few minutes when she thought her husband had had time to return she
went to the 'phone and told him he must go out and hunt up Mrs.
Richards.
"What for?"
"Because Mrs. Miller wants you to find her and send some powders down by
her."
An explosion came and Mary retired laughing and marvelling to what
strange uses telephones--and doctors--are put.