[_Enter a Doctor, looking worried and fatigued._] ~The Doctor.~~ Old woman, can you tell me if I have come to the right house? I am a doctor with a large practice, and many patients to visit, so that I sometimes make mistakes. First I am called to one house, and then to another--only to find that the first house is empty, and the second one inhabited by a colony of idiots! Have I come to the right place _this_ time? ~The Old Woman.~~ I do not know. ~The Doctor.~~ Well, I will consult my memorandum-book. Have you a child with the croup and a sore throat? ~The Old Woman.~~ No. ~The Doctor.~~ Then have you a man with a broken leg? ~The Old Woman.~~ No. ~The Doctor.~~ Or a man who has gone out of his mind and attacked his wife and children with a hatchet--four patients in all? ~The Old Woman.~~ No.. ~The Doctor.~~ Then have you a young girl with palpitation of the heart? Do not lie to me, old woman, for I am almost sure that this is where I was to attend her. ~The Old Woman.~~ No. ~The Doctor.~~ No? Well, I believe you, for you speak with such conviction. Let me look in my book again. Have you a young gentleman who has had his head broken with a stone, and now lies at death's door? ~The Old Woman.~~ Yes. Step through that door on the left, and mind the rats don't eat you. ~The Doctor.~~ Very well, I will attend the young gentleman. Oh dear, oh dear! I am for ever being sent for, for ever being sent for--day and night alike! This time it is night, and though the street lamps have long ago been put out, I have to trot away all the same. Thus I often make mistakes, old woman. [_Exit through the door on the left._ ~The Old Woman.~~ Already one doctor has been to attend the boy, without doing him any good, and now here comes another one--to do him about as little, I reckon. Well, what of that? The boy will die, and we shall go on living without him--that is all. I shall go on sitting in my kitchen as before, without a soul to keep me company, and think; and one room the more will be left empty for the rats to scamper and squeak in. Well, _let_ them scamper, and _let_ them squeak: it is all one to me.