Stanzas XXXI–XL

XXXI
'Less 'n it is away deep down
in his own heart, at night,
Facin' the storm, when all the town
's a-sleepin' snug and tight--
Him splashin' hence from scenes o' pride
and sloth and gilded show,
To some pore sufferer's bedside
o' anguish, don't you know!

XXXII
Er maybe dead o' winter--makes
no odds to Doc,--he's got
To face the weather ef it takes
the hide off! 'cause he'll not
Lie out o' goin' and p'tend
he's sick hisse'f--like some
'At I could name 'at folks might send
fer and they'd never come!

XXXIII
Like pore Phin Hoover--when he goes
to that last dance o' his!
That Chris'mus when his feet wuz froze--
and Doc saved all they is
Left of 'em--"'Nough," as Phin say now,
"to track me by, and be
A advertisement, anyhow,
o' what Doc's done fer me!--

XXXIV
"When he come--knife-and-saw"--Phin say,
"I knowed, ef I'd the spunk,
'At Doc 'ud fix me up some way,
ef nothin' but my trunk
Wuz left, he'd fasten casters in,
and have me, spick-and-span,
A-skootin' round the streets ag'in
as spry as any man!"

XXXV
Doc sees a patient's got to quit--
he'll ease him down serene
As dozin' off to sleep, and yit
not dope him with mor-pheen.--
He won't tell what--jes 'lows 'at he
has "airn't the right to sing
'O grave, where is thy victery!
O death, where is thy sting!'"

XXXVI
And, mind ye now!--it's not in scoff
and scorn, by long degree,
'At Doc gits things like that-un off:
it's jes his shority
And total faith in Life to Come,--
w'y, "from that Land o' Bliss,"
He says, "we'll haf to chuckle some,
a-lookin' back at this!"

XXXVII
And, still in p'int, I mind, one night
o' 'nitiation at
Some secert lodge, 'at Doc set right
down on 'em, square and flat,
When they mixed up some Scriptur' and
wuz funnin'-like--w'y, he
Lit in 'em with a rep'imand
'at ripped 'em, A to Z!

XXXVIII
And onc't--when gineral loafin'-place
wuz old Shoe-Shop--and all
The gang 'ud git in there and brace
their backs ag'inst the wall
And settle questions that had went
onsettled long enough,--
Like "wuz no Heav'n--ner no torment"--
jes talkin' awful rough!

XXXIX
There wuz Sloke Haines and old Ike Knight
and Coonrod Simmes--all three
Ag'inst the Bible and the Light,
and scoutin' Deity.
"Science," says Ike, "it dimonstrates--
it takes nobody's word--
Scriptur' er not,--it 'vestigates
ef sich things could occurred!"

XL
Well, Doc he heerd this,--he'd drapped in
a minute, fer to git
A tore-off heel pegged on agin,--
and, as he stood on it
And stomped and grinned, he says to Ike,
"I s'pose now, purty soon
Some lightnin'-bug, indignant-like,
'll ''vestigate' the moon!...