"Oh, but you mustn't," protested the nurse,--"not today. It really wouldn't do. And anyway they must be almost through. Dr. Parkman works so rapidly." It was a very disheartened Ernestine who sat there then alone. "What will Dr. Parkman think of me?" she bewailed to herself. "He will never want to have anything more to do with me. He will be so disgusted that he will let me alone now. And how am I to get along without him? Oh, _why_ am I such a fool?" The whole day had been hard, she was tired out when she came, and this was too much. So she just lay back on the couch and cried. It was so that Dr. Parkman found her when he came briskly in at the close of the operation. "Why, what's the matter?" he demanded. "Heard some bad news?" "_Bad_--news!" she choked out; "no, I haven't heard any bad news--except that I'm an utterly worthless, weak-minded fool!" "And where did you hear that?" he pursued. "Oh, doctor--I'm so ashamed! But if you'll only give me another chance! If you'll just not give me up for a little while yet!" "Give you up! Now what kind of reviving fluid did Miss Lewis produce for you? What in the world are you talking about? Do you think you're any grand exception in not seeing your first operation through? Hum! Ask some of these nurses around here. Some of the doctors too, only they won't tell the truth. My first day in the dissecting room was a day of about thirty minutes. So you see you have plenty of company in your weak-mindedness." She brightened then to the extent of looking willing to be comforted. "But it's humiliating, doctor, to think you're going to accomplish some big thing and then be absolutely overcome by a little incidental thing that doesn't happen to appeal to your senses. It's awful to have your senses get ahead of your soul like that," she laughed. "Hum!"--Dr. Parkman had a "hum" all his own. "There's nothing unique in that experience, either. The spirit is willing, but the stomach is weak--to put it in exact terms. As a matter of fact, that's what life is made up of--having great purposes overthrown by minor inconveniences. Many a man can get hold of a great idea, but very few of them can stick by it through the things that make them uncomfortable. That's the reason most dreamers fail--they're not willing to come down out of the clouds and get to work at things that turn their stomachs!" "Well, I'm not like that!" she flashed back at him.