The doctor wanted to feel where my spine got broke, but I opened my eyes
and had a vacant kind of stare, like a woman who leads a dog by a string,
and looked as though my mind was wandering, and I told the doctor there
was no use setting my spine, as it was broke in several places,
and I wouldn't let him feel of the dried bladder. I told Pa I was going to
die, and I wanted him to promise me two things on my dying bed. He cried
and said he would, and I told him to promise me he would quit drinking,
and attend church regular, and he said he would never drink another drop,
and would go to church every Sunday. I made him get down on his knees
beside me and swear it, and the doc. witnessed it, and Ma said she was so
glad, and Ma called the doctor out in the hall and told him the joke, and
the doc. came in and told Pa he was afraid Pa's presence would excite the
patient, and for him to put on his coat and go out and walk around the
block, or go to church, and Ma and he would remove me to another room, and
do all that was possible to make my last hours pleasant. Pa he cried, and
said he would put on his plug hat and go to church, and he kissed me, and
got flour on his nose, and I came near laughing right out, to see the
white flour on his red nose, when I thought how the people in church would
laugh at Pa.
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