“Now, Elmer,” she began in unctuous tones, “you set right down here and eat a mite o’ ham----” She already had him by the sleeve of his canvas jacket. She grasped a smoking fry-pan in the other hand. The smoke from it blew into Odell’s face. “Leggo,” he grunted, jerking his arm free. Mrs. Hagan encountered Mazie’s slanting black eyes, narrow with derision: “Elmer don’t want to eat; he wants to see Fanny,” said Mazie Lister. And added: “Your ham’s burning, Mrs. Hagan.” “Where’s Doc Wand?” demanded Odell heavily. Mrs. Hagan savagely snatched the answer from Mazie’s red lips: “Oh, Elmer,” she burst out, “he’s went and called in old Doc Benson; and Benson he fetched a train nurse from Summit----” Smoke from the burning ham strangled her. Odell left her coughing, and strode toward the sitting room. “Dang it!” he muttered, “what next!” It was cool and dusky in the sitting room. He halted in the golden gloom, sullenly apprehensive, listening for any sound from the bed-room overhead. After a little while Dr. Wand came downstairs. He was haggard and white, but when he caught sight of Odell he went to him with a smile. The village folk feared and trusted Dr. Wand. They feared his sarcasm and trusted his skill. But, with the self-assertion of inferiority, they all called him “Fred” or “Doc.” “Well, Elmer,” he said, “the baby’s doing nicely.... I thought I’d like to have Dr. Benson look at Fanny.... A fine baby, Elmer.... Fanny asked me to think up some uncommon and pretty name for your little girl----” “Name her anything,” said Odell thickly.... “Dang it, I waited twenty years for a boy. And now look what I get! It all comes to once. White Rose drops me a bull-caaf, too. But I can veal _that_!” “Better luck next time----” “No,” he interrupted fiercely, “I’m done!” He turned and stared at the sun-bars on the lowered shade, his tanned features working. “It’s like the herd,” he said. “Either the cow or the herd-bull’s to blame for every dinged bull-caaf. And I can’t afford to breed ’em together more’n twice.... Twenty years I been lookin’ for a boy, Doc. No, I’m done. And that’s that!” “You’d better go and eat,” suggested the doctor. Odell nodded: “Fanny awright?” “We’re watching her. Perhaps you’d better stay around this afternoon, Elmer----” “I gotta spread manure----” “I want you within calling distance,” repeated the doctor mildly. Odell looked up. After a moment’s hesitation: “Awright, Doc. I guess I can work around nearby. You must be dead-beat. Eat a snack with us?” “Not now. I can’t leave your wife.” “Do you mean that Fanny’s kinda bad?” “Yes.... Your wife is very, very ill, Elmer. Dr. Benson is with her now.” * * * * * Breaking ground for a new kitchen garden that afternoon, Odell found the soil so infested with quack-root, horse-radish, and parsnip that he gave it up and told Lister that they’d fence the place as cheaply as possible and turn the hogs on it.