Stanzas LI–LX

LI
And then, "A-talkin' furder 'bout
that line o' thought," says he,
"Ef we'll jes do the work cut out
and give' to you and me,
We'll lack no joy, ner appetite,
ner all we'd ort to eat,
And sleep like childern ever' night--
as puore and ca'm and sweet."

LII
Doc has bin 'cused o' offishness
and lack o' talkin' free
And extry friendly; but he says,
"I'm 'feard o' talk," says he,--
"I've got," he says, "a natchurl turn
fer talkin' fit to kill.--
The best and hardest thing to learn
is trick o' keepin' still."

LIII
Doc kin smoke, and I s'pose he might
drink licker--jes fer fun.
He says, "You smoke, you drink all right;
but I don't--neether one"--
Says, "I like whiskey--'good old rye'--
but like it in its place,
Like that-air warter in your eye,
er nose there on your face."

LIV
Doc's bound to have his joke! The day
he got that off on me
I jes had sold a load o' hay
at "Scofield's Livery,"
And tolled Doc in the shed they kep'
the hears't in, where I'd hid
The stuff 'at got me "out o' step,"
as Sifers said it did.

LV
Doc hain't, to say, no "rollin' stone,"
and yit he hain't no hand
Fer 'cumulatin'.--Home's his own,
and scrap o' farmin'-land--
Enough to keep him out the way
when folks is tuk down sick
The suddentest--'most any day
they want him 'special quick.

LVI
And yit Doc loves his practice; ner
don't, wilful, want to slight
No call--no matter who--how fur
away--er day er night.--
He loves his work--he loves his friends--
June, Winter, Fall, and Spring:
His lovin'--facts is--never ends;
he loves jes ever'thing....

LVII
'Cept--keepin' books. He never sets
down no accounts.--He hates,
The worst of all, collectin' debts--
the worst, the more he waits.--
I've knowed him, when at last he had
to dun a man, to end
By makin' him a loan--and mad
he hadn't more to lend.

LVIII
When Pence's Drug Store ust to be
in full blast, they wuz some
Doc's patients got things frekantly
there, charged to him, i gum!--
Doc run a bill there, don't you know,
and allus when he squared,
He never questioned nothin',--so
he had his feelin's spared.

LIX
Now sich as that, I hold and claim,
hain't 'scusable--it's not
Perfessional!--It's jes a shame
'at Doc hisse'f hain't got
No better business-sense! That's why
lots 'd respect him more,
And not give him the clean go-by
fer other doctors. Shore!

LX
This-here Doc Glenn, fer instance;
er this little jack-leg Hall;--
They're business--folks respects
'em fer their business more 'n all
They ever knowed, er ever will,
'bout medicine.--Yit they
Collect their money, k-yore er kill.--
They're business, anyway!