Dr. Mayo told me to come over at two o’clock and register. ...  I stood in line and was duly registered, telling name, and other such facts, non-medical.  Then a special guide took me to Dr. Mayo, who had already heard my story at the hotel but who, wished it in writing.  Accordingly, I was presented to a group of the staff and one man assigned as my escort.  I answered him a thousand questions, touching my physical life for fifty-six years.  Then to the tonsil man, who saw a distinct “focus,” now there, a focus in the tonsils!  Nose and ears without focus or focii or focuses.  Down an elevator, through a labyrinth of halls, down an inclined plane, up a flight of steps, two turns to the left and then a group of the grumpiest girls I ever saw or heard or felt.  They were good looking, too, but they didn’t care to win favor with mere males.  They had a higher purpose, no doubt.  They openly sneered at my doctor escort.  They lifted their eyebrows at my good-looking young son, and they told me precisely where to sit down.  I was not spoken to further.  My ear was punched and blood was taken in tubes and on slides by young ladies who did not care how much of my blood they spilled or extracted.  They were so business-like, so mechanical, so dehumanized, these young ladies with microscopes!  One said cryptically “57,” another said “53.”  I was full of curiosity but I did not ask a question.  They tapped me as if I were a spring—­a fountain filled with blood—­and gave me neither information, gaiety or entertainment in exchange.  Each one I am convinced has by this life of near-crime, which she pursues for a living, become capable of actual murder.

Thus has my first day gone.  It is cold here—­slushy underfoot, snow dirty, sky dark.  How different from a place we know!

There are one hundred and fifty physicians and surgeons in the clinic, and Heaven knows how many hundred employees.  No hospitals are owned and run by the Mayos; all these are private, outside affairs.  The side tracks are filled with private cars of the wealthy.  Scores of residences, large, small, fine, and shabby are little hospitals.  The town has grown 5,000 in five years, all on account of the Mayos, these two sons of a great country doctor who without a college education have gathered the world’s talent to them.

I am tomorrow to be medically examined further, to the revealing of my terrible past, my perturbed present, and pacific future.  The result of which necromancy I shall duly report.  I am afraid that they will not find that an operation will do good, if so I shall truly despair.  And if they decide for the knife, I shall go to the guillotine like the gayest Marquis of the ancient regime.  Yes, I should do better for I have my chance, and he, poor chap, had none.

I received your Christmas present in the spirit that sent it.  I can’t say “No!  No!”—­for I preach mixing pleasure with business.  Things are all wrong when we don’t.  I will never repay you.  If I could, or did, you would receive none of the blessings that come from giving gifts.  The truth is, we knew each other years ago, perhaps centuries ago, and you have done a good turn to an old friend for which the old friend is glad, because it makes the tie more binding.