see: one drive out and two calls. I guess
it'll be about eleven dollars in all, Lena."

"I dunno ve can pay you yoost a little w'ile, doctor."

Kennicott lumbered over to her, patted her shoulder, roared, "Why, Lord
love you, sister, I won't worry if I never get it! You pay me next fall,
when you get your crop. . . . Carrie! Suppose you or Bea could shake up
a cup of coffee and some cold lamb for the Nelsons? They got a long cold
drive ahead."

III

He had been gone since morning; her eyes ached with reading; Vida
Sherwin could not come to tea. She wandered through the house, empty as
the bleary street without. The problem of "Will the doctor be home in
time for supper, or shall I sit down without him?" was important in
the household. Six was the rigid, the canonical supper-hour, but at
half-past six he had not come. Much speculation with Bea: Had the
obstetrical case taken longer than he had expected? Had he been called
somewhere else? Was the snow much heavier out in the country, so that he
should have taken a buggy, or even a cutter, instead of the car? Here in
town it had melted a lot, but still----

A honking, a shout, the motor engine raced before it was shut off.

She hurried to the window. The car was a monster at rest after furious
adventures. The headlights blazed on the clots of ice in the road so
that the tiniest lumps gave mountainous shadows, and the taillight cast
a circle of ruby on the snow behind. Kennicott was opening the door,
crying, "Here we are, old girl! Got stuck couple times, but we made it,
by golly, we made it, and here we be! Come on! Food! Eatin's!"

She rushed to him, patted his fur coat, the long hairs smooth but chilly
to her fingers. She joyously summoned Bea, "All right! He's here! We'll
sit right down!"

IV

There were, to inform the doctor's wife of his successes no clapping
audiences nor book-reviews nor honorary degrees. But there was a
letter written by a German farmer recently moved from Minnesota to
Saskatchewan:

Dear sor, as you haf bin treading mee for a fue Weaks dis Somer and
seen wat is rong wit mee so in Regarding to dat i wont to tank you. the
Doctor heir say wat shot bee rong wit mee and day give mee som Madsin
but it diten halp mee like wat you dit. Now day glaim dat i Woten Neet
aney Madsin ad all wat you tink?

Well i haven ben tacking aney ting for about one & 1/2 Mont but i dont
get better so i like to heir Wat you tink about it i feel like