ould not lie longer in bed. The father
and mother commanded he lie until the doctor assured them danger had
passed. The doctor called, and Alfred assured him he was all well and
wanted to get up and go to work that very day. The doctor said: "Well,
you ought to know how you feel. Have you any soreness in your joints or
muscles?"

"No, sir; Jack Beckley rubbed all the soreness out of me last night."

"Turn over, let me see if there is any evidence of bruises." The doctor
seemed deeply interested. Alfred could not see his face but he seemed to
be critically examining him. He would tap various places on the bruised
part of Alfred's anatomy. "Does that hurt? Does that pain you?" would be
the question after each tap, to which Alfred would invariably answer:
"No, sir; no, sir."

After studying a few moments the doctor passed into another part of the
house; he was evidently conferring with the mother. Returning he again
took Alfred's temperature, examining the tongue even more carefully than
previously. The doctor remarked, as if to himself: "It's curious. Did
you sleep; have you no pain?" Again he turned Alfred over and gazed long
at the parts of the body supposed to be bruised.

Alfred began to get interested: "What's the matter, Doc; have you found
any bones broken?"

"No, no, nothing of that kind. But the bruises; have you no soreness."

Alfred assured him that he had not.

"I will be back in an hour," was the conclusion of the doctor's
instructions to Lin.

When Lin entered the room Alfred's first anxious query was: "What's the
matter with the doctor, he wants to make you sick whether you are or
not. I'm going to get out of this bed this day; I'll not lay here any
longer."

Here the mother entered cautioning Alfred to remain entirely quiet. "I'm
going over to see grandmother; she is not well. I will bring your father
home with me; the doctor will return by that time and we will know what
to do for you."

Later Mrs. Wagner came, a good-natured, motherly, old German woman, a
near neighbor. Among her neighbors, she was esteemed as one whose
knowledge was invaluable in the sick room. She insisted upon examining
Alfred's condition. Although he insisted he was all right the old lady
was permitted to examine his bruises. She left the room, returning soon
with a large, hot poultice, applying it. Alfred grew rapidly worse.

The doctor soon returned. At every pressure of his fingers he found a
new sore spot. "Does tha