"You see, the reason why we always wait for the doctor in this formal way,"
said Putney, "is that he isn't in here more than seven nights of the week,
and he rather stands on his dignity. Hand round the doctor's plate, my
son," he added to the boy, and he took it from Annie, to whom the boy gave
it, and began to heap it from the various dishes. "Think you can lift that
much back to the doctor, Win?"
"I guess so," said the boy coolly.
"What is flooring Win at present," said his father, "and getting him down
and rolling him over, is that problem of the robin that eats half a pint of
grasshoppers and then doesn't weigh a bit more than he did before."
"When he gets a little older," said the doctor, shaking over his plateful,
"he'll be interested to trace the processes of his father's thought from a
guest and half a peck of stewed chicken, to a robin and half a pint of--"
"Don't, doctor!" pleaded Mrs. Putney. "He won't have the least trouble if
he'll keep to the surface."
Putney laughed impartially, and said: "Well, we'll take the doctor out and
weigh him when he gets done. We expected Brother Peck here this evening,"
he explained to Dr. Morrell. "You're our sober second thought--Well,"
he broke off, looking across the table at his wife with mock anxiety.
"Anything wrong about that, Ellen?"
"Not as far as I'm concerned, Mrs. Putney," interposed the doctor. "I'm
glad to be here on any terms. Go on, Putney."
"Oh, there isn't anything more. You know how Miss Kilburn here has been
round throwing ridicule on Brother Peck, because he wants the shop-hands
treated with common decency, and my idea was to get the two together and
see how she would feel."
Dr. Morrell laughed at this with what Annie thought was unnecessary malice;
but he stopped suddenly, after a glance at her, and Putney went on-"Brother Peck pleaded another engagement. Said he had to go off into
the country to see a sick woman that wasn't expected to live. You don't
remember the Merrifields, do you, Annie? Well, it doesn't matter. One of
'em married West, and her husband left her, and she came home here and
got a divorce; I got it for her. She's the one. As a consumptive, she had
superior attractions for Brother Peck. It isn't a case that admits of
jealousy exactly, but it wouldn't matter to Brother Peck anyway. If he saw
a chance to do a good action, he'd wade through blood."