Kennicott drew from the injured leg the thick red “German sock,” the innumerous other socks of gray and white wool, then the spiral bandage.  The leg was of an unwholesome dead white, with the black hairs feeble and thin and flattened, and the scar a puckered line of crimson.  Surely, Carol shuddered, this was not human flesh, the rosy shining tissue of the amorous poets.

Kennicott examined the scar, smiled at Halvor and his wife, chanted, “Fine, b’ gosh!  Couldn’t be better!”

The Nelsons looked deprecating.  The farmer nodded a cue to his wife and she mourned: 

“Vell, how much ve going to owe you, doctor?”

“I guess it’ll be——­Let’s see:  one drive out and two calls.  I guess it’ll be about eleven dollars in all, Lena.”

“I dunno ve can pay you yoost a little w’ile, doctor.”

Kennicott lumbered over to her, patted her shoulder, roared, “Why, Lord love you, sister, I won’t worry if I never get it!  You pay me next fall, when you get your crop. . . .  Carrie!  Suppose you or Bea could shake up a cup of coffee and some cold lamb for the Nelsons?  They got a long cold drive ahead.”

III

He had been gone since morning; her eyes ached with reading; Vida Sherwin could not come to tea.  She wandered through the house, empty as the bleary street without.  The problem of “Will the doctor be home in time for supper, or shall I sit down without him?” was important in the household.  Six was the rigid, the canonical supper-hour, but at half-past six he had not come.  Much speculation with Bea:  Had the obstetrical case taken longer than he had expected?  Had he been called somewhere else?  Was the snow much heavier out in the country, so that he should have taken a buggy, or even a cutter, instead of the car?  Here in town it had melted a lot, but still——­

A honking, a shout, the motor engine raced before it was shut off.

She hurried to the window.  The car was a monster at rest after furious adventures.  The headlights blazed on the clots of ice in the road so that the tiniest lumps gave mountainous shadows, and the taillight cast a circle of ruby on the snow behind.  Kennicott was opening the door, crying, “Here we are, old girl!  Got stuck couple times, but we made it, by golly, we made it, and here we be!  Come on!  Food!  Eatin’s!”

She rushed to him, patted his fur coat, the long hairs smooth but chilly to her fingers.  She joyously summoned Bea, “All right!  He’s here!  We’ll sit right down!”

IV

There were, to inform the doctor’s wife of his successes no clapping audiences nor book-reviews nor honorary degrees.  But there was a letter written by a German farmer recently moved from Minnesota to Saskatchewan: 

Dear sor, as you haf bin treading mee for a fue Weaks dis Somer and seen wat is rong wit mee so in Regarding to dat i wont to tank you. the Doctor heir say wat shot bee rong wit mee and day give mee som Madsin but it diten halp mee like wat you dit.  Now day glaim dat i Woten Neet aney Madsin ad all wat you tink?