this cool, austere, self-contained
life; whether there would not be somewhere a volcanic eruption. But if
there was any sea of molten lava beneath, the world did not discover it.
Wild boys were sick of having Small held up to them as the most
immaculate of men[18].

Ralph had failed to get two schools for which he had applied, and had
attributed both failures to certain shrugs of Dr. Small. And now, when
he found Small at the house of Granny Sanders, the center of
intelligence as well as of ignorance for the neighborhood, he trembled.
Not that Small would say anything. He never said anything. He damned
people by a silence worse than words.

Granny Sanders was not a little flattered by the visit.

"Why, doctor, howdy, howdy! Come in, take a cheer. I am glad to see you.
I 'lowed you'd come. Old Dr. Flounder used to say he larnt lots o'
things of me. But most of the doctors sence hez been kinder stuck up,
you know. But I know'd you fer a man of intelligence."

Meantime, Small, by his grave silence and attention, had almost
smothered the old hag with flattery. "Many's the case I've cured with
yarbs and things. Nigh upon twenty year ago they was a man lived over on
Wild Cat Run as had a breakin'-out on his side. 'Twas the left side, jes
below the waist. Doctor couldn't do nothin'. 'Twas Doctor Peacham. He
never would have nothin' to do with 'ole woman's cures.' Well, the man
was goin' to die. Everybody seed that. And they come a-drivin' away over
here all the way from the Wild Cat. Think of that air! I never was so
flustered. But as soon as I laid eyes on that air man, I says, says
I, that air man, says I, has got the shingles, says I. I know'd the
minute I seed it. And if they'd gone clean around, nothing could a saved
him. I says, says I, git me a black cat. So I jist killed a black cat,
and let the blood run all over the swellin'. I tell you, doctor, they's
nothin' like it. That man was well in a month."

[Illustration: MRS. MEANS]

"Did you use the blood warm?" asked Small, with a solemnity most
edifying.

These were almost the only words he had uttered since he entered the
cabin.

"Laws, yes; I jest let it run right out of the cat's tail onto the
breakin'-out. And fer airesipelus, I don't know nothin' so good as the
blood of a black hen."

"How old?" asked the doctor.

"There you showed yer science, doctor! They's no power in a pullet. The
older the black hen the better. And you know the cure fer rheumatiz?