“I don’t tell tales about my patients, but there is no sense in a rule that isn’t transgressed once in a while. You wouldn’t know it was a rule! And I do believe you girls will enjoy this and never tell.”
“You ‘give us credit for more discretion than you have, yourself?’” quoted Catherine.
“If you like to put it that way! I was overtaken on my way home to greet these visitors by a messenger from Mrs. Swinburne, saying that Elsmere was very ill. It is a wonder that he has lived as long as he has, with his reckless tendencies and such erratic care. So I hastened over to the house. Mrs. Swinburne was in a mild state of hysterics, and it was some time before I could quiet her enough to learn the difficulty. Then my alarm vanished, changed to wrath, would perhaps be more accurate. Elsmere had eaten all her pills! They were pills that would not have hurt a cat. Mrs. Swinburne’s ailments are of a nature to require very weak remedies.”
“Bread and butter?” asked Dot, with a twinkle as merry as the doctor’s own.
“Something of that sort! But Elsmere did not 161 know that. They might have been morphia or arsenic for all he knew. The principle in his case was the same. His mother said ‘no symptoms had set in as yet,’ but she wanted me to administer an antidote at once. I couldn’t refuse her!”
“Mother! What did you do?”
“First I caused the patient to be removed to his own room and the doors to be closed. Then I gave him a sound scolding and a good smart spanking.”
“O dear Doctor Helen!” sighed Polly softly, while Dot clapped her hands with glee, and even Catherine showed signs of satisfaction.
“Did his mother hear you?”
“If she had, I was prepared to tell her it was necessary to restore the circulation. I was afraid the child might howl, but it was a new experience to him and he took it so very pleasantly that I am now worried for fear he liked it!” Dr Helen set down her teacup and turned to Frieda. “You will think me a barbarous physician, Frieda, but really this boy has needed discipline for a long time, and there is no one to give it to him. His pranks are often dangerous.”