s all over with ol'
Monody.

I sat by the bed a long time thinkin' it over, an' then I went out into
the settin' room. Jabez an' a couple o' the boys was there an' I told
'em it was over. I went out into the night to have a look at the stars.
Whenever somethin' has happened in my little wobbly life down here I
like to get out an' see the same old stars in their same old places,
calm an' steady an' true. That was one thing which allus drew me to the
child Barbie,--she was a star-worshiper too, same as me.

When I got back I see the little doctor explainin' somethin' to Jabez.
I thought he had gone long ago, but the hooked-nosed buzzard couldn't
leave without satisfyin' his curiosity. "What do you reckon was the
reason your friend wouldn't let himself be examined?" sez he, with a
leer.

"It wasn't nowise my business," sez I, "so I didn't think about it at
all."

"Well, it was because he wasn't a man at all--he was a woman."

For a moment I stood an' looked at him, while a lot o' things became
clear as day to me. A woman--ol' Monody was a woman! When I thought of
what a girl is, an' what it must have took to make one want to really
be a man, I felt plumb ashamed o' my sex; but here was another creature
in man's clothes standin' an' grinnin' into my face as though he had
done somethin' smart.

"How do you know?" I sez soft an' steady.

"I went in an' examined--it was my professional duty. She had been shot
in the abdomen and the bullet had lodged in the spine. She had stuffed
a rag into the hole an' all the bleedin' was internal. I found that--"

"Who was with you?" I asked him.

"Nobody," he said with pride; "I went in alone an' I found--"

"I'm obliged to ya, Boys," sez I, "an' I'll be obliged to you still
more if you'll just stand to one side an' watch me make an examination.
I only got one arm, so it's perfectly fair. It seems to be the fashion
now days to examine human beings who wear men's clothes--but who ain't
men--so I feel it my PROFESSIONAL DUTY to examine this here speciment
before us."

The grin kind o' left his face when I started for him. He wasn't near
my size, but me only havin' one workin' arm made it fair. He looked to
the boys to help him, but they was unusual placid. I reached out an'
grabbed him by the collar an' put my knee in his stomach as a brace; he
struck me in the face an' in my wounded shoulder, but in about one
minute I had his clothes off him, an' there he stood the shamedest
t