self to
a German university, and Brady to a business career in Bison, a
flourishing town of the great Northwest, wherein he too had flourished
mightily, and whence he sent imploring messages to Flint, begging him
not to waste his life in the effete civilization of New York, but to
come out and get a view of real folks in the fresh new world of the
West.

To these messages Flint had replied with more candor than courtesy,
that the only fault he had to find with New York was its lack of
civilization, that he was saving every nickel in hopes of getting away
from it to eastward, and that if he were condemned to spend his life
in Bison, or any other prairie town, he would make short work of
matters with a derringer.

This slight difference of opinion had not at all interfered with the
attachment of the two; and few things would have roused Flint to such
enthusiasm as this expectation of a fortnight--a leisurely,
gossiping, garrulous, quarrelsome fortnight--with his old friend. The
prospect of the visit was a better tonic than any contained in the
little doctor's black-box. Indeed it drove all thoughts of doctors and
their medicines so completely out of his head that he was quite
surprised when, having dressed and descended to the ground-floor, he
saw Dr. Cricket standing at the foot of the stairs, wiping the
perspiration off his forehead with a large silk handkerchief.

The Doctor looked fiercely at him from under his shaggy eyebrows.

"Is this Mr. Flint?" he asked, as if unable to believe the testimony
of his eyes.

"It is," Flint answered with unconcern.

"Why did you get up?"

"Because I formed the habit in my youth."

"Didn't I tell you to lie in bed till I came?"

"I don't remember."

The Doctor quivered with rage.

"I am an old man, sir," he said, "and I've walked a mile in the heat
of this devilish sun, and all for a patient who is determined to kill
himself, and such a fool that it doesn't matter much whether he does
or not."

Flint smiled.

"Every man, you know, must be either a fool or a physician when he
reaches maturity. Some may be both. However, since you were kind
enough to come to my assistance last night, I cannot be induced to
quarrel with you this morning, and you ought to be the last man to
find fault with me for feeling the benefit of your medicine sooner
than you expected."

Dr. Cricket was as easy to be placated as to be stirred to anger; and
when Flint urged him to come into the s