"Next morning I went to see him again. Bill, by arrangement, met me at
the corner of the street and took me to the wounded man's room, in and
out, by the same route we had taken the night before. I found he had
passed a good night, had no fever, and was all right. I left some
medicine and directions, got my ten dollars, and never went again.
"Last month, some two days before Christmas, I was sitting here
reading--it was after twelve o'clock--when I heard a tap on the
window-pane. I pushed aside the shade and looked out a thick-set man
motioned me to open the door. When he got inside the hall he said:
"'Ain't forgot me again, have you, "Doc"!'
"'No, you're the man I fixed up in Washington Street last fall.'
"'Yea, that's right, "Doc"; that's me. Can I come in? I got something
for you.'
"I brought him in and he sat down on that sofa. Then he pulled out a
package from his inside pocket.
"'"Doc,"' he began, 'I was thinking to-night of what you done for me and
how you did it, and how decent you've been about it always, and I
thought maybe you wouldn't feel offended if I brought you this bunch of
scarfpins to take your pick from'--and he unwrapped the bundle. 'There's
a pearl one--that might please you--and here's another that
sparkles--take your pick, "Doc." It would please me a heap if you
would'--and he handed me half a dozen scarfpins stuck in a flannel
rag--some of them of great value.
"I didn't know what to say at first. I couldn't get mad. I saw he was in
dead earnest, and I saw, too, that it was pure gratitude on his part
that prompted him to do it. That's a kind of human feeling you don't
want to crush out in a man. When he's got that, no matter what else he
lacks, you've got something to build on. I pulled out the pearl pin from
the others. I wanted to get time to make up my mind as to what I really
ought to do.
"'Very nice pin,' I said.
"'Yes, I thought so. I got it on a Sixth Avenue car. Maybe you'll like
the gold one better; take your pick, it's all the same to me. That one
you've got in your hand is a good one.' I was slowly looking them over,
making up my mind how I would refuse them and not hurt his feelings.
"'How did you get this one?' I asked, holding up the pearl pin.
"'I picked it up outside Cooper Union.'
"'On the sidewalk?'
"'No, from a feller's scarf. I held the cab door for him.' He spoke
exactly as if he had been a collector who had been roaming the world for
curios. 'Take 'em both, "Doc"--or all of 'em--I mean it.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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