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Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909

"A Country Doctor and Selected Stories and Sketches"

I
have felt so strongly about that since I have grown up, for you know
Dr. Leslie, my guardian, has done everything for me. Aunt Nancy gave
me money every year, but I never spent any of it until I went away to
school, and then I insisted upon taking that and what my grandmother
left me. But my later studies have more than used it all. Dr. Leslie
is so kind to me, like an own father, and I am looking forward to my
life with him most eagerly. After the next year or two I shall be at
home all the time, and I am so glad to think I can really help him,
and that we are interested in the same things."
Miss Eunice was a little incredulous, though she did not dare to say
so. In the first place, she could not be persuaded that a woman could
possibly know as much about diseases and their remedies as a man, and
she wondered if even the rural inhabitants of Oldfields would
cheerfully accept the change from their trusted physician to his young
ward, no matter what sails of diplomas she might spread to the breeze.
But Nan's perfect faith and confidence were not to be lightly
disputed; and if the practice of medicine by women could be made
honorable, it certainly was in able hands here, as far as an admiring
friend could decide. Nan was anything but self-asserting, and she had
no noisy fashion of thrusting herself before the public gaze, but
everybody trusted her who knew her; she had the rare and noble faculty
of inspiring confidence.
There was no excuse for a longer absence from the parlor, where Mrs.


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