Her body relaxed under his grip. She smiled again and gasped:

“May-I-please-have-a-drink-of-water?”

When the glass was empty Cub eased her into the pillows and she laughed:

“I didn’t mean to hiss in your ear, Doctor, but if I hadn’t completed the sentence in one breath, you’d have yelped: ‘NO!’”

Dr. Sterling ignored the remark and asked:

“Is that comfortable?”

Then Cub barked:

“You ought to have better sense than to antagonize your doctor!”

The patient responded:

“Extremely comfortable, thank you.”