He Filled the Prescription...

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 85, 15 February 1902, Page 17

He Filled the Prescription...

JONLS is an old-fashioned sett lei m the Foitj-Mile Bush good-hearted and well-meaning though distractedly absent-minded He caxiu to Wellington the other da\ on purpose to do tlie annual shopping ior the familj , and some of the neighbours, and he wai going to spend the night with his son Dick who lives out at New town Now, John," said his good wife Man at the breakfast table that morning, there are a tew extra things I want 3011 to get for me this jeai You know things are so much cheapei 111 town." All right, Mary," he returned, goodnaturedly, "you just make a list of what you want and I'll fetch 'em to you So just before Jones stepped into the tia which was waiting to take him to the station from the f ami Ins wife hurried out and handed him a slip of paper. "I didn't ha,ve time to think of all the things I needed m the house but heio are a few," she said. Mr. Jones put the piece of paper 111 his vest pocket, kissed his wite and was gone. It was (juite an event foi him to go to Wellington Therefore when he did go. preparations weie made to receive him. Dick's wife met him at the train, and went about on his shoppang tour with him But he forgot the slip his wife had given him. When he thought thev had finished they went to a confectioner's and had some gingeiale and took luncheon with Mrs Dick '' In the afternoon the\ went

to Kilbmnt "NA luk thc\ weie looknig <tt the monkeys tin- old man was taken witJi cramps It must be the ginger-ale, Jennie," he said to his daughter-in-law, and she, feaaing that lie had typhoid fevei, 01 something quite a,s malignant, irnmechatoh called a cab and hurried him off to the nearest pin sician Now this dispensei oi knowledge and ach ice on all things medical was a shmnig light in the community in which he Ined He boasted of the tact that (lining the h\e yeais hei had piactised he liad lost onlv se\en cases. Those, he said w ere turned o\ ei to him aftei it n as too late Never when he had been gi\en first chance at a patient he was wont to sa\ ha,d he failed t.o furnish relief When Dick & wife and hei aged father-in-law armed the doctor was reading a paper He diagnosed the ca.se and said it w asn't anything serious His er^ manner was convincing and both the \ isitors were relieved I can fix vou up m about two minutes m\ man was his cheering remark as he- wrote out a prescription Mrs Dick" had so much confidence in the physician's opinion that her husband's father was not going to be seriously ill' that, she consented to his going alone to the chemist's- to have the prescription filled while she went on home to superintend the preparation of the « \ emng meal I w ant this filled " said old Mi Jones to the young man behind the counter taking a «ilip of paper fiomhi<«

pocket and handing it to him. The jouth looked worried, as he looked at the paper. "Want it filled, dad you say?" he asked Yes, want it Mled," was the answei. The doctor just gave it to me." It s the oddest prescription I ever put up," said the chemist, "but I suppose the doctor knows. Guebs he means equal parts, though he don't say so," he added. He went to the back of the partition, and soon returned with the bottle filled with a blown mixture. Theie aie no directions with this," lie said, as he 1 wrapped a paper around it but I suppose you can take it as vou would an ordinary tonic — a teaspoonful m half a glass of water half an hour before each meal and before you go to bed. I wouldn't take any more of it than I had to however," he continued, as he handed the old man the bottle. That ev-ning, Mr. Jones fell bright and cheer 1 ul. He had taken two doses of the medicine, notwithstanding the ada ice of the clerk, and his cramps had gone. 'Tha' nust be fine stuff the doctor gave me," he said to Dick's wife. "Guess I'll get another bottle, and take it home in case am of the folks get taken with pains " On the wav home the next dav, he stopped at the chemist's, and called the shop-assistaait to him. Young man, did you keep that prescnption I gave vou yesterday, and had filled here?" I did " said the obliging young man ; just a moment Here, is this it?" he saad lptuining from the rear of the shop and handing the Forty-mile Bushei the slip of paper "Did vou want a

copy of it " he asked as the old man took it in his hand. "No, I don't exactly want that," he said, 'but I would like another bottle of the mixture It's fine stuff. Great Scott'" exclaimed the old man, "is that what you put up forme? Why, that's Mary's list— sugar, lemons, and rhubarb." They haven't decided yet who the joke was on — the old man or the physician.