"
"But he will promise, doctor; won't you now, Benny dear?" eagerly asked
the mother.
"Yaas!" groaned the sufferer, with a new hot cloth on him; "yaas; I
guess I'll have to."
Then, the perfidious doctor emptied his flask into a glass, and poured
in enough oil to disguise its taste. Adding a little water, he gave the
dose as medicine to the unconscious victim, who took it off manfully,
and naturally felt almost himself again.
"Have you plenty coal-oil in the house, Mrs. Toner?" enquired the family
physician; and the widow replied that she had. "Rub the afflicted parts
with it, till they will absorb no more; then let him sleep till morning,
when he can get up and go about light work. But, mind, there's to be no
lifting of heavy weights for three days, and no whiskey at all."
With these words, Coristine received the woman's warm expressions of
gratitude, and departed.
Tommy had gone, so the lawyer had to go back to the Inn alone, and in
the dark. He turned the barn, before which one bundle of grindstones
still lay, the one, apparently, that had floored Ben. Then he made his
way along a path bordered with dewy grass, that did not seem quite
familiar, so that he rejoiced when he arrived at the road and the
bridge.
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