Always, during his later years, when he felt the
least bit ill, he refused to prescribe for himself, saying that a
doctor, if he knew anything at all, was never such a fool as to take any
of his own medicine. Instead, and in sequence to this humorous attitude,
he would always send for one of the younger men of the vicinity who were
beginning to practice here, one, for instance, who having other merits
needed some assurance and a bit of superior recognition occasionally to
help him along. On this occasion he called in a very sober young doctor,
one who was greatly admired but had very little practice as yet, and
saying, "Doctor, I'm sick today," lay back on his bed and waited for
further developments.

The latter, owing to Dr. Gridley's great repute and knowledge, was very
much flustered, so much so that he scarcely knew what to do.

"Well, Doctor," he finally said, after looking at his tongue, taking his
pulse and feeling his forehead, "you're really a better judge of your
own condition than I am, I'm sure. What do you think I ought to give
you?"

"Now, Doctor," replied Gridley sweetly, "I'm your patient, and you're my
doctor. I wouldn't prescribe for myself for anything in the world, and
I'm going to take whatever you give me. That's why I called you in. Now,
you just give me what you think my condition requires, and I'll take
it."

The young doctor, meditating on all that was new or faddistic, decided
at last that just for variation's sake he would give the doctor
something of which he had only recently heard, a sample of which he had
with him and which had been acclaimed in the medical papers as very
effective. Without asking the doctor whether he had ever heard of it, or
what he thought, he merely prescribed it.

"Well, now, I like that," commented Gridley solemnly. "I never heard of
that before in my life, but it sounds plausible. I'll take it, and we'll
see. What's more, I like a young doctor like yourself who thinks up ways
of his own--" and, according to his daughter, he did take it, and was
helped, saying always that what young doctors needed to do was to keep
abreast of the latest medical developments, that medicine was changing,
and perhaps it was just as well that old doctors died! He was so old and
feeble, however, that he did not long survive, and when the time came
was really glad to go.

One of the sweetest and most interesting of all his mental phases was,
as I have reason to know, his attitude t