“It is a relief,” replied the doctor. “If the strain had kept on much longer, Mrs. Duwell would have had a long term of illness.”
IV. The Doctor, a Hero
The doctor and nurse watched by the baby’s bedside until the danger was passed. Both wore happy smiles when the doctor assured the tired Duwell family that the baby would live.
“Oh, doctor, money cannot pay you for your kindness,” said Mrs. Duwell. “Through rain and snow storms, at midnight and at daybreak, you have come to help us. How tired you must often be.”
“It is true, doctor,” Mr. Duwell added; “you risk your life as willingly as a soldier does, every time you go into danger.”
“We doctors don’t think anything about that,” replied Doctor Marcy modestly. “We are so anxious to have people get well.”
“Why, doctors are heroes like soldiers!” exclaimed Wallace, looking at the doctor with new respect. “I never thought of that before!”
“Nurses are, too,” whispered Ruth; but Doctor Marcy overheard.
“That is right, Ruth,” he said. “Nurses are, too.”