Page:The ransom of Red Chief and other O. Henry stories for boys.djvu/88

70 I'm about to die. Can't you do nothing for me?'

Mr. Mayor,' says I, 'I'm not a regular preordained disciple of S. Q. Lapius. I never took a course in a medical college,' says I. 'I've just come as a fellow man to see if I could be of assistance.'

I'm deeply obliged,' says he. 'Doc Waugh-hoo, this is my nephew, Mr. Biddle. He has tried to alleviate my distress, but without success. Oh, Lordy! Ow-ow-ow!!' he sings out.

"I nods at Mr. Biddle and sets down by the bed and feels the Mayor's pulse. 'Let me see your liver—your tongue, I mean,' says I. Then I turns up the lids of his eyes and looks close at the pupils of 'em.

How long have you been sick?' I asked.

I was taken down—ow-ouch—last night,' says the Mayor. 'Gimme something for it, doc, won't you?'

Mr. Fiddle,' says I, 'raise the window shade a bit, will you?'

Biddle,' says the young man. 'Do you feel like you could eat some ham and eggs, Uncle James?'

Mr. Mayor,' says I, after laying my ear