must die with every one of them if we take no pains to save it. I hope
you are wise about getting hold of as much as possible. You doctors
ought to be our historians, for you alone see the old country folks
familiarly and can talk with them without restraint."

"But we haven't time to do any writing," the guest replied. "That is
why our books amount to so little for the most part. The active men,
who are really to be depended upon as practitioners, are kept so busy
that they are too tired to use the separate gift for writing, even if
they possess it, which many do not. And the literary doctors, the
medical scholars, are a different class, who have not had the
experience which alone can make their advice reliable. I mean of
course in practical matters, not anatomy and physiology. But we have
to work our way and depend upon ourselves, we country doctors, to whom
a consultation is more or less a downfall of pride. Whenever I hear
that an old doctor is dead I sigh to think what treasures of wisdom
are lost instead of being added to the general fund. That was one
advantage of putting the young men with the elder practitioners; many
valuable suggestions were handed down in that way."

"I am very well contented with my doctor," said Mrs. Graham, with
enthusiasm, at this first convenient opportunity. "And it is very wise
of you all to keep up our confidence in the face of such facts as
these. You can hardly have the heart to scold any more about the
malpractice of patients when we believe in you so humbly and so
ignorantly. You are always safe though, for our consciences are
usually smarting under the remembrance of some transgression which
might have hindered you if it did not. Poor humanity," she added in a
tone of compassion. "It has to grope its way through a deal of
darkness."