9

Alabama 9
of all. And as the years have gone by, she has penetrated her husband; together
with the years, she has impressed him with a pious life.

Every night Doc has to get up from his bed, go into the side roads to
deliver babies, care for constipation, lung trouble, and malaria.

But his worries and troubles have never been economic; for he has always
made money, and owns as much property as anyone in town. He has built an
expensive home for his son, built a home for his daughter and her husband.
His worries have come from son and daughter, not from poverty.

Now, he worries about nothing. Past is the time when his son sued for
divorce, his daughter quit her husband. Past are the days of educating his
children.

Looking at him now, one would never guess that passion and anger had
whipped that stodgy body. One would never guess the hard, profane, fighting
words that had blazed from those lips. He has called a card a card in his day,
and not even his patients have been free from his temper.

But now, he sits and grunts comfortably, having about him the air of
physical well-being, serene mental attitudes. He is not soft now, but he
seems to have slumped, the muscles loosened, the arms dropped---he seems
to have slumped into physical ease and objective thought.
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