"Where is Babe?" Dr. McAlister asked, one noon in late May.
"Here." Phebe's voice came from the piazza outside.
"Can you ride over to Bannook Bars, this afternoon?"
"Yes, I suppose so. What for?"
"As substitute for me. Mrs. Richardson has consumed all her pills, and she wants some more."
"Why doesn't she get them, then? You're not an apothecary."
"She refuses to take them, unless I inspect them personally. These are the patients who try one's soul, Babe. I would rather deal with Asiatic cholera than with one fussy old woman with a digestion. They eat hot bread and fried steak, and then they eat pepsin."
"Start a cooking crusade," Phebe suggested lazily. "Well, I'll go."
"Thank you. You need the ride anyway; it will do you good, for you have been working too hard lately. I don't want my apprentice to wear herself out." The doctor patted her shoulder with a fatherly caress; then he turned to go into the house.
"Give me leave to prescribe for Mrs. Richardson?" she called after him.