Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 83, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 April 1913 — HE HAD THE NERVE [ARTICLE]

HE HAD THE NERVE

And That Is Why the Young MedA ico Built Up Practice Among Strangers. 1 BY MAUDE J. PERKINS. Old Doctor-Bliss had sold* his practice and good-will to a young M. D., and the village of Roselands resented IL The people for five miles around had come to believe that the old doctor was infallible. Where one of his patients had died he had saved a score. He was a fatherly, sympathetic man, making his calls no matter what the weather or the distance, and even if he had got to be sixty-five years old he had no right to turn the people over to a. young man fresh from college and not yet having a case to diagnose. “Oh, he’ll do —he’ll do,” was . the doctor’s reply to the grumblers. "I had to start that way, you know. I ehall be here to help him out if he needs it. i*ve tried him out and found him very bright.” Mr. Royal Preston fully realized ’what he had to meet, and that it would take time to remove the prejudice. He must do the best he could and hope to be lucky with his first few patients. “If you get a call from the Gilberts, the rest of the people will follow,” said Doctor Bliss. "The Gilberts are rich and sort o’ run things in this comjnunity. Have you seen Nina Gilbert yet?” “Not to know her." ‘'’Charming, handsome girl and an heiress. I must get her to champion your cause. Don’t fall in love with her, for she is not for you. She can have her choice of several rich men’s eons.’’

That evening Doctor Preston attended a lecture in the town hall. In front of him sat two young ladles, and as the lecture didn’t Interest them much, they presently began talking to each other, leading off with: “Mollie, have you heard about the new doctor?” “Yes, Nina.” Doctor Preston pricked up his ears. It was possible, but not probable, that here was the Nina Gilbert the old doctor referred to. Yes, good-looking so far as he could jffdge, with a haughty poise of the head. “Isn’t it a shame?" she queried of Mollie. “What?” ’ “Why, Doctor Bliss stepping out and leaving us to the mercy of a fledgling.” “He is pretty yofing. I understand he’s only about twenty-four." “And never had a case. He’s surely some quack that has deceived the good old doctor." “But if we are ailing?" 1 “If it's any one la our family, we’ll send to the city for some one that Knows beans from putty. Mrs. Davis •says anybody would know the young man was a quack to look at him." A doctor must have nerve. Doctor Preston had it. If he had been a failure as to nerve he would have jumped out of one of the open windows, or at least stood up and taught those young ladies how to swear in three different languages. He may have blushed a little, but his nerve held him fast. Of all the 200 people making up the audience he appeared to be paying the most attention to the words of the lecturer.

The young ladies had just ceased to discuss him when his landlord came down the aisle and halted and said: “Guess I’ll have to take a seat with you, Doctor Preston." . , “That’s right—sit down." "Doctor Preston!” gasped Miss Nina. “Doctor Preston!” gasped Miss Mollie. There he was right behind them, and must have heard their comments and criticisms. They hadn’t nerve. No young lady has need of it. Their best plan was to rise up and walk out doors as carelessly as if old Doctor Bliss was only forty years old. Many people looked at them in surprise, and the lecturer got so muddled up that he got it that Eve wks created before Adam, and that she was disagreeably ’surprised when he came loafing along qne day. “Well, that cooks me,” mused Doctor Preston as he walked home after the lecture. “They were simply discussing me before. Now that they Know I overheard them they can never see any good in me. It’s surely good-by to the Gilberts for me." Doctor Preston was fit for the beat society in the village, but he did not eeek It He could ♦ accept of no invitations without meeting the two young ladles who had a grievance, and it ■would be embarrassing to both sides. He had three or four patients and effected speedy cures, when there came m lazy day and he got out the horse and sulky for a make-believe call to some farmer’s house. Of course, you Know that this is a little trick practiced by all village doctors when working up a practice. They order their boy to harness up with the speed of lightning —rush out as if a dozen men were at death’s door —climb into the sulky, and with a “g’lkng” and I a cut » of the whip they are off like a tornado. “Some one must be badly hurt or ■very sick," remarked a dozen people, and about the time they were remarking the horse is being pulled down to a walk, half a mile away. Doctor Preston had jogged along for three or four miles to kill time, and was thinking that the blacksmith’s trade held out many possibilities for a brainy man, when he got a sudden jolt. Coming towards him on the bsead highway was a pony and cart

driven by a girt. No, not driven, because the driver had lost the lines and they were squirming under the pony's feet, while she was clinging to the seat like grim death. ’ No screaming with terror! No calls for help! Just a pale-faced girl, with tight-shut teeth—just Nina Gilbert! There was time for the doctor to turn out and leave the runaway a clear road, but there was the bridge he had just crossed. If the pony swerved so much as a foot when he struck the bridge there must be a smash. To spring from the sulky and poise to jump out on the runaway for a bridle-hold meant taking a hundred chances to one. The doctor threw up a hand to tell the girl to brace herself, and then wheeled his rig square across the road. He hadnH five seconds to spare before the crash came. The pony never raised a foot to leap the obstruction, bht struck the horse like a cannon ball, and there was a grand smash. Seen in a moving picture show, it surely would have captured the kids. When Doctor Preston sat up and wondered where he was at, both horses and vehicles were mixed up. His horse was dead, and the other had a broken leg. His sulky was kindling wood, and the pony cart needed hundreds of repairs. It slowly dawned on the doctor that there was something else. He had no broken bones, though he had been badly jolted. He got to his feet, staggered around to see Miss Nina Gilbert lying unconscious in the road. The sight aroused him and <gave him strength. After a brief examination lie said to himself: “Left arm broken; scalp wound; right cheek gashed; probably half a dozen bad bruises; unconscious, but not so badly hurt.” A f&rmer came driving along in a hiifl r c r v Mugw* zj-

‘T’ve got to borrow your rig to get this patient home,” said the doctor. » “Runaway?” was queried. “As you see.” “Who is the gal ?” • , “Miss Gilbert of the village.” “Then you don’t borrow no rig of mine! She’s a high-flyer. She drives around the country crowding humble folks like me into the ditch-” Doctor Preston had to thrash the farmer to gain his point, but it was well and cheerfully done. Thfen he threatened to do it over again unless he lent a hand to lift the patient up. Miss Nina regained consciousness barely five minutes before reaching home. Her first words after recognizing the doctor were: “I—l thought you’d surely be killed!” “Ohly a few bruises. You got the worst of it” “Am I badly hurt?” “A broken arm is the worst. You will want to send to the city for a doctor, I suppose?" —“No, sir, I won’t!” was the spirited reply. “It’s your case, and you’ll tend tp it.” “But—” “That’s aH, please,” and then to her father and mother, who came rushing out of the house: “Don’t make such a fuss over it please. Poor Billy saw a tramp asleep •by the roadside and bolted with me. I lost the lines the very first thing.” “I will telephone at once to —” began the father, but he was halted by: “I have already arranged with Doctor Preston to attend my case.” It was while the doctor was at his office to get the things needed to with that Miss Nina, despite her sufferings, told the brief but thrilling story. That was why the young medico found two hands stretched out to Kim on his return. The broken arm Was set, the scalp wound sewed up, and next day when old Doctor Blfss accompanied the young doctor to Inspect the work, he said to the parents: "Couldn’t have been done better by any city surgeon." c The villagers did not hear of Doctor Preston's quick wit and heroism from his own lips, but when it was known he was kept very busy shaking hands. In a day or two another horse and sulky were driven around to replace his loss, and the old doctor shook hands with him and said: ■ “My boy, you are beginning far betten than where I left off. Will you do something for me?” "Anything I can.” "Then marry Nina Gilbert!” (Copyright, IMS. by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.)