'
"The other boys looked at Pa with astonishment, and I said 'Well, we
bought you for dead, and the coroner's jury said you were dead, and by the
eternal we ain't going to be fooled out of a corpse when we buy one, are
we Doc?' My chum said not if he knowed his self, and the other students
said, 'Of course he is dead. He thinks he is alive, but he died day before
yesterday, fell dead on the street, and his folks said he had been a
nuisance and they wouldn't claim the corpse, and we bought it at the
morgue.' Then I drew the icicle across him again, and I said, 'I don't
know about this, doctor. I find that blood follows the scalpel as I cut
through the cuticle. Hand me the blood sponge please.' Pa began to wiggle
around, and we looked at him, and my chum raised his eye-lid, and looked
solemn, and Pa said, 'Hold on gentlemen. Don't cut into me any more, and I
can explain this matter. This is all a mistake. I was only drunk.' We went
in a corner and whispered, and Pa kept talking all the time. He said if we
would postpone the hog killing he could send and get witnesses to prove
that he was not dead, but that he was a respectable citizen, and had a
family. After we held a consultation I went to Pa and told him that what
he said about being alive might possibly be true, though we had our
doubts.
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