"Oh yes, please!" said Willie; "I'm almost sure I'm right this time."
"No, Willie; what the clergyman calls the heart is the nearest to the man himself."
"No, no," persisted Willie. "The heart you've got to do with is the man himself. So of course the doctor's heart is the nearer to the man."
Mr Shepherd laughed a low, pleasant laugh.
"You're quite right, Willie. You've got the best of it. I'm very pleased. But then, Willie, doesn't it strike you that after all there might be a closer way of helping men than the doctor's way?"
Again Willie thought a while.
"There would be," he said, at length, "if you could give them medicine to make them happy when they are miserable."
"Even the doctor can do a little at that," returned Mr Shepherd; "for when in good health people are much happier than when they are ill."
"If you could give them what would make them good when they are bad then," said Willie.
"Ah, there you have it!" rejoined Mr Shepherd. "That is the very closest way of helping men."