h I was getting plumb
lonesome. I was even a-hankering after that Tom Mayberry what I left
not over two hours ago."

"Has the Doctor come back from the City this soon?" demanded the singer
lady, with a queer thump in her cardiac region that almost smothered
her voice.

"Well now, to tell the truth, Tom Mayberry haven't been to no City,"
answered his mother with a chuckle as she looked at Miss Wingate over
Martin Luther's head on her shoulder where he had buried it with a
demand for "milk, milk, thank ma'am, please." "I don't think he wants
you to know what he have been having happen to him, but I can't keep
from telling you 'cause I'm tickled clean to my funny bone. Dave Hanks
come over here at daylight wanting a doctor quick, and I had a cramp in
my leg what I forgot to tie a yarn string around before I went to bed,
so I had to let Tom hurry on over there 'count of the push they was in.
Then I got to studying it over and while I knewed how Tom had had a lot
of practice in such things in a hospital, I thought it was just as well
to let him get a little Harpeth experience along that line and sorter
prove his character to Squire Tutt and the rest. About dinner time,
though, I got sorry for him and hitched up and went over there to see
how they was a-getting along, without telling you or Cindy anything
about it. And what did I find? That Tom Mayberry and Dave Hanks out on
the back porch, Dave taking a drink outen a bottle and Tom with two
babies wrapped up in a shawl showing 'em to a neighbor woman, proud as
a peacock over 'em. He most dropped 'em when he seen me and I promised
not to tell you about it at all, but if you coulder seen him!" And the
tried and proven young AEsculapius' mother fairly rolled in her chair
with mirth at the recollection.

"Oh," gasped the singer girl, as she sank weakly down upon the top step
and leaned her head against the convenient post. "It was awful--I--I--"
she caught herself quickly in the expression of the intensity of her
relief.

"No, it wasn't awful," answered Mother Mayberry, fortunately losing the
trend of the exclamation. "They are mighty sweet little babies, both
girls. The joke is mostly on me getting uneasy and following Tom up.
When I pick out his wife, I must be sure and see she are a girl what
don't worry none about what he is up to. A trouble-hunting wife is a
rock sinker to any man, but around a doctor's neck she'll finish him
quick. Don't let on to the shame-faced thin