two or three times a year and w'ile he's there he must
have a tailor take his measure and then make him a suit
to order. They cost pretty near twice as much, but they
fit a whole lot better than if you just bought them in a
store.
For a w'ile everybody was wonderin' why a young doctor
like Doc Stair should come to a town like this where we
already got old Doc Gamble and Doc Foote that's both
been here for years and all the practice in town was
always divided between the two of them.
Then they was a story got round that Doc Stair's gal had
throwed him over, a gal up in the Northern Peninsula
somewheres, and the reason he come here was to
hide himself away and forget it. He said himself that
he thought they wasn't nothin' like general practice in
a place like ours to fit a man to be a good all round
doctor. And that's why he'd came.
Anyways, it wasn't long before he was makin' enough to
live on, though they tell me that he never dunned nobody
for what they owed him, and the folks here certainly
has got the owin' habit, even in my business. If I had all
that was comin' to me for just shaves alone, I could go
to Carterville and put up at the Mercer for a week and
see a different picture every night. For instance, they's
old George Purdy—but I guess I shouldn't ought to be
gossipin'.
HYLAND
