174 DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 



We were delighted to meet a friend of our doctor 

 while among so many strangers, and, having told him 

 this, I asked who were the owners of the happy faces 

 that surrounded him. They were all Scottish, I found, 

 and were made up of Dr Henderson, in practice at 

 Kirkcaldy, four newly-fledged surgeons — one the 

 great star of promise of his year — a young clergyman, 

 an accountant, and a student of singing. This happy 

 group seemed happiest when the members of it were 

 butting at each other with some laughing reminiscence. 

 I had been so puzzled by the Helminthologist joke 

 that curiosity prompted me to aisk its meaning. It 

 was the reverend gentleman, the recipient of one of 

 Dr Rorie's digs, that told me in flavoured Scotch the 

 following tale : — 



*I must tell you, Mr Chairman, that the doctor 

 is a man of whom we are very proud. We are proud 

 of him from his every side, but particularly so for his 

 wonderful abilities at diagnosis. If he has a failing 

 it is his dislike to long tales of woes; he wants to see 

 the woes and to guess the tales. Now a son of a poor 

 neighbour of ours had the misfortune to trip back- 

 wards and sit in a pail of scalding water. When our 

 dear friend, the doctor, was fetched he gave the mother 

 no chance of telling him anything of the pail of scalding 

 water but said at once, "Now, my lad, show me what's 

 troubling you," and, when he got a view, pronounced 

 it the biggest ring^A^orm he had ever seen.' 



This rnade it the doctor's turn. 'That tale will soon 

 be needing patches; but you told it well, Douglas, and 

 it will be only fair to let the company hear of one of 

 your recent triumphs.' 



The Rev. Mr Baird,' he said, 'went to offer consola- 

 tion to a dying man, and, as he was especially obdurate, 

 the clergyman tried to harrow his feelings with a threat 

 of the King of Terrors, but was soon discouraged by, 

 "Hoots, toots, mon, I'm no scairt at the King of 

 Terrors; I've been leeving with the Queen of them these 



