Stanzas LXXXI–XC

LXXXI
"Of this vast audience, I fain
would make inquiry cle'r,
And learn, find out, and ascertain--
Is Doctor Sifers here?"
And when some fool-voice bellers down:
"He is! He's settin' in
Full view o' ye!" "Then," says the Clown,
"the circus may begin!"

LXXXII
Doc's got a temper; but, he says,
he's learnt it which is boss,
Yit has to watch it, more er less....
I never seen him cross
But onc't, enough to make him swear;--
milch-cow stepped on his toe,
And Doc ripped out "I doggies!"--There's
the only case I know.

LXXXIII
Doc says that's what your temper's fer--
to hold back out o' view,
And learn it never to occur
on out ahead o' you.--
"You lead the way," says Sifers--"git
your temper back in line--
And furdest back the best, ef it's
as mean a one as mine!"

LXXXIV
He hates contentions--can't abide
a wrangle er dispute
O' any kind; and he 'ull slide
out of a crowd and skoot
Up some back-alley 'fore he'll stand
and listen to a furse
When ary one's got upper-hand
and t' other one's got worse.

LXXXV
Doc says: "I 'spise, when pore and weak
and awk'ard talkers fails,
To see it's them with hardest cheek
and loudest mouth prevails.--
A' all-one-sided quarr'l'll make
me biased, mighty near,--
'Cause ginerly the side I take's
the one I never hear."

LXXXVI
What 'peals to Doc the most and best
is "seein' folks agreed,
And takin' ekal interest
and universal heed
O' ever'body else's words
and idies--same as we
Wuz glad and chirpy as the birds--
jes as we'd ort to be!"

LXXXVII
And paterotic! Like to git
Doc started, full and fair,
About the war, and why 't 'uz fit,
and what wuz 'complished there;
"And who wuz wrong," says Doc, "er
right, 't 'uz waste o' blood and tears,
All prophesied in Black and White fer
years and years and years!"

LXXXVIII
And then he'll likely kind o' tetch
on old John Brown, and dwell
On what his warnin's wuz; and ketch
his breath and cough, and tell
On down to Lincoln's death. And then--
well, he jes chokes and quits
With "I must go now, gentlemen!"
and grabs his hat, and gits!

LXXXIX
Doc's own war-rickord wuzn't won
so much in line o' fight
As line o' work and nussin' done
the wownded, day and night.--
His wuz the hand, through dark and dawn,
'at bound their wownds, and laid
As soft as their own mother's on
their forreds when they prayed....

XC
His wuz the face they saw the first--
all dim, but smilin' bright,
As they come to and knowed the worst,
yit saw the old Red-White-
And-Blue where Doc had fixed it where
they'd see it wavin' still,
Out through the open tent-flap there,
er 'cros't the winder-sill.