Poker Jim, Gentleman, and Other Tales and SketchesLydston, G. Frank (George Frank)
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Poker Jim, Gentleman, and Other Tales and Sketches
Lydston, G. Frank (George Frank)
American fiction; Short stories, American
“If Ethel was right about Harry going to Heaven, I hope there’s room
for dogs and cats up there. Poor old Towser fell sick and died soon
after the baby went, and I would feel better about the little one’s
death if I knew that Towser was with him. The faithful old dog used to
take such good care of the dear little pet. Then, too, I might see them
again some day, and we could live the old happy days over again. Don’t
mind my emotion, Fido, I loved Harry very dearly. Bless my whiskers,
old chap, if you are not crying too!
“After they had put our sweet little blossom into a cruel white,
frosted looking box and taken him away, the house seemed as gloomy as
an old cellar. Nobody ever seemed to be happy again. Ethel and Johnny
mourned after little Harry all the time, and many a time I caught the
doctor crying softly to himself when he thought no one was looking. He
didn’t think I understood, poor fellow.
“The doctor appeared to be more like his old self again, after a time,
but he seemed to work harder than ever before. He sat up very late o’
nights reading and writing--that is, when he had no patients to attend
to. My! how he used to slave over those people! And half of ’em never
paid their bills, either. The doctor didn’t mind the poor ones, but he
used to say that ‘God’s patients’ never gave him half so much trouble
as ‘the devil’s patients.’ Sometimes I half suspected that the doctor
was working hard just to get little Harry off his mind, but perhaps I
was not a good judge of such things.
“Well, a man is not a horse; he can’t carry a big load very long
without breaking down, and the doctor soon showed signs of exhaustion.
It grieved me to see him going to pieces, but I was helpless. I felt
that it would be a very delicate matter to even attempt to advise him.
And so I was obliged to watch my unfortunate master dying by inches
before my very eyes.
“The end was not long delayed. The doctor finally contracted an attack
of that new-fangled disease--let me see, what do they call it? Oh
yes, ‘La Grippe.’ Instead of going to bed, as he should have done, he
slopped about in all sorts of weather until he got pneumonia. It was
all up with my poor master then--he died within a week.
“I had always supposed that doctors were all rich men, until I lived
with one. My master left a lot of bad accounts and a little life
insurance; that was all. Why, his wife even had to sell his books and
instruments to defray his funeral expenses.
“After the doctor died, everything was changed. The end of my happy
home-life was not far distant. The children were sent away to
boarding school after a while, and their mamma soon went to live at a
fashionable hotel. The home was completely broken up. I can’t tell you
how bad I felt when I saw all the furniture and things that the doctor
used to prize so highly hauled away to be sold.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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