A CLOSE THING

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 87, 27 January 1947, Page 5

A CLOSE THING

A druggist and his friend were whiling away the hours on a rainy night in the prescription room of the former’s store. It was after clos-/ ' ing time, aiid since it was chilly outside, the cronies took a couple ‘ of snifters and began to get rather mellow. Just then the night bell rang and a little girl came in asking for 15 cents’s worth of spirits of nitre for her sick baby brother. The druggist gave her the medicine and she disappeared into the rainy night: Several minutes later, as they were laughing and joking, the druggist suddenly stopped short, noted the stain on his fingertops, and cried out: “Great thunder —I gave that child citric acid instead of spir- „ its of nitre!” His friend suggested hurrying out and looking for the girl, but 'the druggist had never seen her before and said he’d never recognise her. He was dazed, frantic, a pitiful sight, ready to collapse. He visualised the suffering of the ill child, its struggles and its death. 31 The liquor was dulling his senses, and he sat there, unable to move. Then, the night bell rang again, and the two men braced themselves i for the worst. They opened the door. It was the little girl. x Rain-soaked, her eyes red from crying, she stood there and wept. “Oh, mister,” she said, “something awful has happened.” The druggist gripped the counter. “I fell in a puddle of water on. my.way home and broke the bottle. Mother will punish me. I haven’t 15 cents. Won’t you please give me some more nitre?” The child screamed at the sudden-, ness with which the druggist engulfed her in his arms.