“I don’t care. You were so long that my pain all went away, and I don’t need the medicine now. You’re a lazy boy, Dan Hardy, my brother says so! The idea of keeping me suffering while you loitered on the road.”
“I did not loiter. I came as quickly as I could.”
“I don’t believe you. You did it on purpose to make me suffer. I’ll tell my brother.”
By this time the man had opened the door, and had taken the bottle of medicine.
“Mr. Savage says it will be a dollar and a half,” said Dan, giving the message he had been instructed to deliver.
“What’s that?” inquired Mrs. Randall from above. “A dollar and a half? You can take it right back again. I’ll never pay a dollar and a half for medicine, and you can tell my brother so. Give it right back to him, Sam, I insist on it.”
The man did not seem to know what to do, but stood holding the medicine in one hand, and a lamp in the other.
“Do you hear?” called Mrs. Randall. “Give it right back to that lazy boy, and he can take it home again. If it had come in time to do me any good I’d a kept it, but I won’t now. My pain is all gone, and I’m not going to waste a dollar and a half. Give it back, I say.”
Looking rather ashamed the man handed the bottle to Dan.
“I guess you’ll have to take it back,” he said.