"Yes, sir, I promised Mrs. Alden."

"That's the best promise you ever made, and to the best woman that God
ever made."

Old Doctor Hissong sat in his big armchair, his spectacles tilted high
on his nose as he looked at Shawn, who was leaning against the
mantel-board. Old Brad, a negro who had been the doctor's servant for
many years, sat in a hickory chair near the back door. Brad, aside from
taking care of the doctor's office, gave some of his time to preaching,
although it was a matter of some speculation as to whether his general
habits warranted his ministerial fulfillments.

The old office was dingy with its medicine bottles ranging along the
shelves, and cobwebs and dust were in evidence all about them. Over in
the corner was a pair of saddlebags, and a pair of jean legging hung
over a chair. In another corner was a tall book-case, the glass front
broken out, and the books scattered about on the shelves. On the top of
the book-case was an object which had long been a source of discomfort
to Shawn and Brad--a grinning skull.

A doctor's office, in the old days, without a skull peering out from
some hidden recess, was not considered complete--it contributed a kind
of mysterious power to the man of medicine, and lent the impression that
he had dipped deeply into the science of healing.

"Look at the slate, Shawn."

Shawn went out and took down the slate which hung by the office door.
"Old man Stivers has been writing on the slate," said Shawn.

"Huh," said Brad, "I reckun he 'cided to cum an' git you to cum out an'
see his wife, now dat he done rin up a bill wid ole doc' Poleen, an'
carn't git him to cum no mo'."

"Yes, Brad, it's strange--the man who loses sleep and health to save
others has a hard time getting his pay. They look to the doctor mighty
anxiously in the hour of trouble, and in the hour of suffering and death
the doctor is a power of comfort."

"I see dat Bill Hugers scratchin' on de slate las' night," said Brad,
"yo' hain' gwine to see him no mo', is yo', wid him owin' yo' a big
bill?"

"Bill was one of my best friends when I made the race for the
Legislature," said the doctor.

Brad scratched his head. He recalled the time when the doctor went to
Frankfort as the representative of his county, and he remembered the
scuffling he had to do during the doctor's absence--the yearning for
many comforts which did not come. He recalled how the doctors picked up
old Hissong's practice while he w