Page:From the West to the West.djvu/154

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ney who far outrank the Alexanders, Washingtons, and Napoleons of any of our school histories. Yonder's a herald coming to announce another case! Will you accompany me, mamma? I can ask Captain Ranger to stay with Mr. Bums."

"Not to-night. Daphne. I am very tired. And you know I have no patience with a woman doctor, anyway. Women were seen and not heard when I was a girl."

XX

THE TEAMSTERS DESERT

OU seem to be in trouble, my little man. What can I do to help you?" asked the Little Doctor, as a shocky-headed, freckle-faced child, ragged, barefoot, and dirty, paused in her presence, balancing himself first on one foot and then on the other, and occasionally rubbing his eyes with a grimy shirt-sleeve, open at the wrist and badly out at elbow.

"I hearn tell that you was a doctor, mum. Can you come to see my mam? She's sick, awful."

The child led the way to a rickety wagon, which had halted at an inconvenient distance from the creek, in the blazing sunshine, though a friendly tree stood near that might have afforded a grateful shade for an hour or more if the head of the family had thought to stop the wagon in the right spot before unhitching his team. Three or four sallow, barefoot, and ragged little children were playing in the sand. The scant remains of a most uninviting repast littered the ground. A half-dozen hungry dogs, tied to the wagon-wheels, out of reach of the poor remains of food, whined piteously.

A loose- jointed man shambled aimlessly about, wiping his tear-stained face on the buttonless sleeve of a v