'Mongst _all_ the women--mild er rough, splendifferous er plain, Er them _with_ sense, er not enough to come in out the rain,-- Jes ever' shape and build and style o' women, fat er slim-- They all like Doc, and got a smile and pleasant word fer _him_! XI Ner hain't no horse I've ever saw but what'll neigh and try To sidle up to him, and paw, and sense him, ear-and-eye: Then jes a tetch o' Doc's old pa'm, to pat 'em, er to shove Along their nose--and they're as ca'm as any cooin' dove! XII And same with _dogs_,--take any breed, er strain, er pedigree, Er racial caste 'at can't concede no use fer you er me,-- They'll putt all predju-dice aside in _Doc's_ case and go in Kahoots with him, as satisfied as he wuz kith-and-kin! XIII And Doc's a wonder, trainin' pets!-- He's got a chicken-hawk, In kind o' half-cage, where he sets out in the gyarden-walk, And got that wild bird trained so tame, he'll loose him, and he'll fly Clean to the woods!--Doc calls his name-- and he'll come, by-and-by! [Illustration] XIV Some says no money down ud buy that bird o' Doc.--Ner no Inducement to the _bird_, says I, 'at _he'd_ let _Sifers_ go! And Doc _he_ say 'at _he's_ content-- long as a bird o' prey Kin 'bide _him_, it's a _compliment_, and takes it thataway. XV But, gittin' back to _docterin'_--all the sick and in distress, And old and pore, and weak and small, and lone and motherless,-- I jes tell _you_ I 'preciate the man 'at 's got the love To "go ye forth and ministrate!" as Scriptur' tells us of. XVI _Dull_ times, Doc jes _mi_anders round, in that old rig o' his: And hain't no tellin' where he's bound ner guessin' where he is; He'll drive, they tell, jes thataway fer maybe six er eight Days at a stretch; and neighbers say he's bin clean round the State. XVII He picked a' old tramp up, one trip, 'bout eighty mile'd from here, And fetched him home and k-yored his hip, and kep' him 'bout a year; And feller said--in all _his_ ja'nts round this terreschul ball 'At no man wuz a _circumstance_ to _Doc_!--he topped 'em all!-- [Illustration] XVIII Said, bark o' trees 's a' open book to Doc, and vines and moss He read like writin'--with a look knowed ever' dot and cross: Said, stars at night wuz jes as good 's a compass: said, he s'pose You couldn't lose Doc in the woods the darkest night that blows! XIX