't poke out your raw
and cloven tongue at me!--

XXIX

"I know, without no symptoms but
them _injarubber-shoes_
You promised me to never putt
a fool-foot in ner use
At purril o' your life!" he said.
"And I won't save you _now_,
Onless--here on your dyin' bed--
you consecrate your vow!"

XXX

Without a-claimin' _any creed_,
Doc's rail religious views
Nobody knows--ner got no _need_
o' knowin' whilse he choose
To be heerd not of man, ner raise
no loud, vainglorious prayers
In crowded marts, er public ways,
er--i jucks, _any_wheres!--

[Illustration]

XXXI

'Less 'n it _is_ away deep down
in his own heart, at night,
Facin' the storm, when all the town
's a-sleepin' snug and tight--
Him splashin' hence from scenes o' pride
and sloth and gilded show,
To some pore sufferer's bedside
o' anguish, don't you know!

XXXII

Er maybe dead o' _winter_--makes
no odds to _Doc_,--he's got
To face the weather ef it takes
the hide off! 'cause he'll not
_Lie_ out o' goin' and p'tend
he's sick hisse'f--like _some_
'At I could name 'at folks might send
fer and they'd _never_ come!

[Illustration]

XXXIII

Like pore Phin Hoover--when he goes
to that last dance o' his!
That Chris'mus when his feet wuz froze--
and Doc saved all they is
Left of 'em--"'Nough," as Phin say now,
"to _track_ me by, and be
A adver_tise_ment, anyhow,
o' what Doc's done fer me!--

XXXIV

"When _he_ come--knife-and-saw"--Phin say,
"I knowed, ef I'd the spunk,
'At Doc 'ud fix me up _some_ way,
ef nothin' but my _trunk_
Wuz left, he'd fasten _casters_ in,
and have me, spick-and-span,
A-skootin' round the streets ag'in
as spry as any man!"

XXXV

Doc sees a patient's _got_ to quit--
he'll ease him down serene
As dozin' off to sleep, and yit
not dope him with mor-_pheen_.--
He won't tell _what_--jes 'lows 'at he
has "airn't the right to sing
'O grave, where is thy victery!
O death, where is thy sting!'"

XXXVI

And, mind ye now!--it's not in scoff
and scorn, by long degree,
'At Doc gits things like that-un off:
it's jes his _shority_
And total faith in