Tales and Trails of Wakarusa — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Tales and Trails of Wakarusa
John Stuart Mill · en
When a babe was to be born anywhere for miles around, she was there.
Sometimes she was the lone attendant, and again she helped Dr.
Taylor, who had been in the valley from the beginning; and more than
once she worked with some young doctor who was so panicky because the
baby didn't hurry that she would have to tell him to keep his feet on
the ground, and that millions of babies had been born before a doctor
or a medical college had ever been discovered. One night at midnight
she waked up one of the boys, and told him that his father was out
saddling the pony, and that he must go for Dr. Woods, who lived about
five miles to the west. The boy finally wakened up and got his
clothes on, and found that she was just ready to leave with a
neighbor for his home, and that someone must go for the doctor. The
pony had been saddled by that time, and was tied with a heavy rope to
a tree near the door. The boy put on plenty of clothes and then
mounted the pony, while his father held the little beast to keep him
from standing on his head. The father pointed to the seven stars then
showing up in the southern sky and told the boy to keep them to his
left and to ride until he had crossed the railroad, and then go up to
the first house and yell until someone came out so that he could
inquire for the home of Dr. Woods. The directions being given, the
pony was untied and turned loose, with the end of the rope fastened
to the horn of the saddle. Of course the pony ran off for about a
mile, but the boy kept him headed in the right direction, and after a
while he slowed down and made the journey in good shape. When Dr.
Woods was roused he made the boy come in and get warm while he got
his horse, and together they rode back, and long before day the
doctor had joined Mother Newcomer at the neighbor's house.
Dr. Taylor still lives at his old home about three miles north of the
stone bridge. He is a fine type of the pioneer doctor, and he not
only knows the books, but he knows men and women, and especially
Kansas men and women; and more than that, he knows Kansas and its
climate, its tricks, and its good moods and its bad ones. For nearly
fifty years he has ministered to the sick and the afflicted, and
those who thought they were sick or afflicted, along the roads and
trails of Wakarusa; and none could do it better or more faithfully.
Doctor Woods was of the same type. He always traveled horseback,
usually riding a large, strong, rough horse; and he knew the
bridle-paths, and where to ford the streams.