ld and claim,
hain't _'scusable_--it's not
_Perfessional!_--It's jes a shame
'at Doc hisse'f hain't got
No better _business_-sense! That's why
lots 'd respect him more,
And not give him the clean go-by
fer _other_ doctors. Shore!

[Illustration]

LX

This-here Doc _Glenn_, fer instance;
er this little jack-leg _Hall_;--
They're _business_--folks respects
'em fer their _business_ more 'n all
They ever knowed, er ever _will_,
'bout _medicine_.--Yit they
Collect their money, k-yore er kill.--
They're _business_, anyway!

[Illustration]

LXI

You ast Jake Dunn;--he's worked it out
in _figgers_.--He kin show
_Stastistics_ how Doc's airnt about
_three_ fortunes in a row,--
Ever' ten-year' hand-runnin' straight--
_three_ of 'em--_thirty_ year'
'At Jake kin count and 'lucidate
o' Sifers' practice here.

LXII

Yit--"Praise the Lord," says Doc,
"we've got our little home!" says he--
"(It's railly _Winniferd's_, but
what she owns, she sheers with me.)
We' got our little gyarden-spot,
and peach- and apple-trees,
And stable, too, and chicken-lot,
and eighteen hive' o' bees."

[Illustration]

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LXIII

_You_ call it anything you please,
but it's _witchcraft_--the power
'At Sifers has o' handlin' bees!--
He'll watch 'em by the hour--
Mix right amongst 'em, mad and hot
and swarmin'!--yit they won't
Sting _him_, er _want_ to--_'pear_ to not,--
at least I know they _don't_.

LXIV

With _me_ and bees they's no _p'tense_
o' social-bility--
A dad-burn bee 'u'd climb a fence
to git a whack at _me_!
I s'pose no thing 'at's _got_ a sting
is railly satisfied
It's _sharp_ enough, ontel, i jing!
he's honed it on my hide!

LXV

And Doc he's allus had a knack
_inventin'_ things.--Dee-vised
A windlass wound its own se'f back
as it run down: and s'prised
Their new hired girl with _clothes-line_, too,
and _clothes-pins_, all in _one_:
Purt'-nigh all left fer _her_ to do
wuz git her _primpin'_ done!

LXVI

And onc't, I mind, in airly Spring,
and tappin' sugar-trees,
Doc made a dad-burn little thing
to sharpen _spiles_ with--these-
He