' me all benumbed with morphine. An' I s'pose what
put the feather-bed in my head was on account of it bein' goose-pickin'
time, an' she was werrited with windy weather, an' she tryin' to fill
the feather-beds. No, I won't never try to deceive her ag'in. It never
has seemed to me thet she could have the same respect for me after
ketchin' me at it, though she 'ain't never referred to it but once-t,
an' that was the time I was elected deacon, an' even then she didn't do
it outspoke. She seemed mighty tender over it, an' didn't no mo'n remind
me thet a officer in a Christian church ought to examine hisself mighty
conscientious an' be sure he was free of deceit, which, seemed to me,
showed a heap 'o' consideration. She 'ain't got a deceitful bone in her
body, doctor."

[Illustration: "SAYS SHE, 'OPEN YORE MOUTH.' AN' OF CO'SE I OPENED
IT"]

"Why, bless her old soul, Enoch, you know thet I think the world an' all
o' Grandma Gregg! She's the salt o' the earth--an' rock-salt at that.
She's saved too many o' my patients by her good nursin', in spite o' my
poor doctorin', for me not to appreciate her. But that don't reconcile
me to the way she doses you for her worries."

"It took me a long time to see that myself, doctor. But I've reasoned it
out this a-way: I s'pose when she feels her temper a-risin' she's 'feerd
thet she might be so took up with her troubles thet she'd neglect my
health, an' so she wards off any attackt thet might be comin' on. I
taken notice that time her strawberry preserves all soured on her hands,
an' she painted my face with iodine, a man did die o' the erysipelas
down here at Battle Creek, an' likely ez not she'd heerd of it. Sir? No,
I didn't mention it at the time for fear she'd think best to lay on
another coat, an' I felt sort o' disfiggured with it. Wife ain't a
scoldin' woman, I'm thankful for that. An' some o' the peppermints an'
things she keeps to dole out to me when she's fretted with little
things--maybe her yeast'll refuse to rise, or a thunder-storm'll kill a
settin' of eggs--why, they're so disguised thet _'cep'n thet I know
they're medicine_--"

"Well, Kitty, I reckon we better be a-goin'." The doctor tapped his
horse. "Be shore to give my love to grandma, Enoch. An' ef you're bound
to take that pill--of co'se I can't no mo'n speculate about it at this
distance, but I'd advise you to keep clear o' sours an' acids for a day
or so. Don't think, because your teeth are adjustable, the