118 THE ITINERANT HORSE PHYSICIAN 



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piece of my mind. He showed fight, and I had 

 to threaten him with a heavy molar cutter which 

 I spied in an open suit case in a corner of the 

 room. 



When he got somewhat more tame again, he 

 threw himself on the bed and fell asleep. After 

 making arrangements for something to eat for 

 the madam and youngsters, I left, with instruc- 

 tions to the madam to telephone me as soon as 

 Asa woke up. 



As I received no message by two in the after- 

 noon I thought I would go over and see how 

 things were. Asa had just come alive when I 

 entered and he was the sickest, most dejected 

 man I ever saw. He obeyed my every com- 

 mand, and promised to stay in the room until I 

 should call for him in time for the train to 

 Las Cruces. And he did. 



We left on the Santa Fe that evening, having 

 made arrangements for Mrs. Asa and the chil- 

 dren to remain at the boarding house in El Paso. 



We arrived at Las Cruces about nine o'clock 

 and spent an hour or two getting "the lay of the 

 land" before we went to bed. 



Arising early the next morning, we had a good 

 breakfast and then we went to work. The fact 

 that I was acquainted with a few people in the 

 town made it easy to get started. By noon we 

 had about a hundred dollars worth of work "in 

 sight" and old Dr. Asa felt pretty good about it. 

 He decided that Las Cruces just about suited 

 him and that he would locate there permanently ; 

 I was to return to El Paso and ship his family to 



