“Just ten days.”

“Pretty fine, isn't he?”

“You bet! I wouldn't take all the farms in these United States for him.”

“To be sure. To be sure,” laughed the doctor. He picked up a little volume lying open on the table. “Do you like Omar?” he asked, aimlessly turning the pages.

“Very much. I don't always get the old Persian's meaning exactly. Take this verse,” he reached for the book and turning back a few pages read:

“The moving finger writes; and having writ,

Moves on; nor all your piety nor wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a line,

Nor all your tears wash out a word of it.

That sounds pretty but it has something in it that almost scares a fellow—he doesn't know why.”