98 THE ITINERANT HORSE PHYSICIAN 



feet, the old fellow was any younger man's equal. 

 It has always been a wonder to me that he could 

 live in that country as long as he did. He had 

 been there six years when I went into partner- 

 ship with him. 



****** 



I had been with Dr. Asa a couple of weeks and 

 aside from a few little "misunderstandings" we 

 were getting along fine. These little "misunder- 

 standings" arose from the fact that Asa would 

 never make a call alone ; he always insisted on my 

 accompanying him. I tried to argue with him 

 that there was no advantage in a partnership 

 conducted on those lines, because the two of us 

 could do no more than one man alone. Nearly 

 every time we made a call together we lost money 

 by missing a job or two that came to the office 

 while we were gone. I tried to show him that if 

 one of us would "hang around" the office we 

 could get all the business. But he would not see 

 it my way. The only reason for his attitude on 

 this point that I could ever figure out was that 

 the old scoundrel feared I might "double-cross" 

 him in some way. 



We kept no books on the partnership and 

 "squared up" after every job we did, each 

 receiving half of all money taken in. When rent 

 was due, or a drug bill had to be paid, each of us 

 reached in our pocket for half the amount. 



One reason for this way of keeping our 

 finances straight was that both of us were "hard 

 up." The other reason was that we did not trust 

 each other; that's a fact. Asa feared I was too 



