AMATEUR THEATRICALS 175 



I admired and pitied the doctor and loaned 

 him everything I could think of in the way of 

 tools and supplies and cheerful comment and 

 disinterested advice, and physical assistance in 

 the way of personal services of myself, my wife 

 and children, my horses and my cow and the 

 stranger within my gate. 



I also introduced him to every one I could, and 

 spoke of him as an eminent practitioner, and did 

 every thing I could to advance his interests, with- 

 out of course sacrificing my own. 



But the doctor, while working like a cart-horse 

 in the dusty present, was living in the future. 

 What if his hands were blistered and grimy, his 

 hat dusty and dented, his trousers, once immacu- 

 lately creased, worn to transparency at the knees, 

 his lungs clogged with dust, his throat hoarse 

 with powdered plaster, cellar-damp and the 

 raucous hissing out of anathemas on various 

 things, he was happy, because he was working 

 for some one. 



His preparations advanced toward the goal of 

 completion, and the doctor announced a vaca- 

 tion for a week, after which he would bring the 

 attractive young lady to visit her new home be- 

 fore the wedding-day arrived. Upon this we 

 promptly asked him to bring her to our house, but 

 found that our neighbor Daniel had stolen a 

 march on us. We contented ourselves with find- 



