320 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



SHE WISHED TO SING. 



BY WILLIAM L1GHTFOOT VISSCHEK 



There are just three persons of 

 importance in this history though 

 we may need a fourth before it is 

 quite concluded. The fourth will 

 depend upon how the girl is going 

 to act, for the history will chase 

 her for a time. That she is going 

 to do some very spirited and inde- 

 pendent things is certain . She is 

 a spirited and independent sort of 

 girl. 



The other two persons to start 

 with, are Henry Hamilton Mays 

 and Dr. James Lewis. 



Mays is a young man of twenty- 

 seven, and handsome, as well as 

 educated; clear-headed and ambi- 

 tious. Moreover, he is of good 

 blood. Almost anyone who gives 

 some attention to pedigree would 

 know that, and in the region where 

 Mays has lately settled, to practice 

 law, much attention is given to 

 pedigree. The people, generally, 

 are fond of horses and fine cattle. 

 They are particular as to the pedi- 

 gree of these, and they say: "If 

 there is anything in the pedigree 

 good blood of stock, why should 

 not that hold good with men and 

 women?" 



The somewhat small city where 

 Mays practices law is not far from 

 the town in which he was "born 

 and raised" and educated, except 

 that the finishing of his education 

 was done at a distant university 

 from which he obtained his two 

 degrees, master of arts and bache- 

 lor of laws. Thus the people of 

 his city the good people were 

 familiar with the Henrys and the 

 Hamiltons and the Mays of Benton 



county, and it was from these that 

 Henry Hamilton Mays got his ped- 

 igree and his name. 



Dr. Lewis was brought up in the 

 city where Mays settled, but it was 

 at the university that Lewis and 

 Mays became acquainted and, also, 

 devoted friends, though Lewis is 

 five or six years older than Mays. 

 They graduated in their respective 

 professions one year apart, Lewis 

 having advantage of the year. 



Somehow a young physician does 

 not like to start in to practice 

 among the people who have known 

 him from boyhood. He thinks, 

 very naturally, that the persons who 

 have seen him playing "knucks" 

 in a vacant lot, or "skinning the 

 cat" on every horizontal pole that 

 would permit of such a perform- 

 ance, and that he could reach; who 

 have seen him paddle, barefoot, in 

 the gutters after a summer shower 

 and "sqush" mud between his toes 

 while standing before an irate pa- 

 rent, and have seen him double and 

 agonize after a gorge of green 

 apples, and, in short, have watched 

 him through all the idiocies of ad- 

 olescence, are not going to sudden- 

 ly accept him as their guide 

 through a dangerous spell of ill- 

 ness, either of themselves or their 

 loved ones, even if he came home 

 with diplomas enough to paper the 

 walls of his office. Hence Dr. Just- 

 Prom-School generally goes forth- 

 with, elsewhere to try his maiden 

 pills and things, and if he has good 

 sense enough, in his early, light 

 cases, to use placeboes make-be- 

 lievesquite extensively, until he 

 has become intimately familiar 

 with prognosis, diagnosis and 

 symptoms, and the judicious route 



