“Now, ain't that too bad!” said Peter. “Just when I've got to get started down river this afternoon. Things always happen like that, don't they?”
He led the way across the frozen corn-field to his shanty-boat, and opened the door. Buddy had managed to turn the table upside down and was “riding a boat” in it. The doctor gave the boy and the cabin one glance and had Peter classed as one of the shiftless shanty-boatmen before he had pulled off his fur gloves. Then he turned to the woman. She was lying with her face toward the wall. He bent over her, and when he straightened his back and turned to Peter his face was very serious.
“Your wife is dead,” he said.
Peter's pale blue eyes stared at the doctor vacantly.
“Dead?” he stammered. “My wife? Why, doctor, she ain't—”
“Yes,” said the doctor, not waiting to hear the conclusion of Peter's sentence. “She has been dead an hour, at least. A weak heart, overtaxed, I should say. What do you mean by leaving her in these damp clothes? I should have been called long ago.”
“Now, ain't that too bad! Ain't that too bad!” said Peter regretfully. “It ain't nobody's fault but mine. I ought to have gone for you last night, and there I was, a-sleepin' away as comfortable as could be!”
“She should have been under treatment for some time,” said the doctor severely. He was a young doctor, and important, and not inclined to spare the feelings of a mere shanty-boatman. Here he could be severe, who had to be suave and politic with better people. He told Peter brutally that the woman had not been properly cared for; that with her constitution, she should have had delicacies and comforts and kindness. “If you want my candid opinion, you as much as killed her,” said Dr. Roth.
He was nettled by Peter's apparent heartlessness, for while Peter showed that the death had shocked him, he gave way to no outburst of sorrow such as might be expected from a bereaved husband. But now deep regret in Peter's eyes touched him.
“I shouldn't have said that,” he said more kindly. “I might not have been able to do anything. Probably not much after all. But if you don't want the boy to go the same way, treat him better. You have him left.”