Chapter 23 country doctor

I was in a great embarrassment: I had to set off immediately to visit a seriously ill patient in a village ten miles away, but the wild wind and snow blocked the vast field between me and him.I have a light carriage, with large wheels, which is fine for our country roads.I put on my fur coat and bag and stood in the yard ready to go, but there was no horse, no more horses, my own horse died from overwork during the cold winter night yesterday.My maid is now running about the village trying to borrow a horse, but I know it's all useless.The snow was getting thicker and thicker, and walking became more and more difficult. I stood there blankly.Then the girl appeared at the door, alone, shaking the lantern.Of course, who would lend his horse on an errand at such a time?I paced up and down in the yard again, at a loss.Distraught and distressed, I kicked the broken door of the pigsty that had not been used for many years.The door opened, swinging back and forth until the hinges slapped.There was a hot, horselike smell, and a stable lamp dangled from a rope inside; in the low pen was a figure crouched, blue eyes wide open.He crawled over and asked, "Would you like me to harness the horse?" I didn't know what to say, so I just bent down to see if there was anything else in the circle.The maid stood beside me and said, "People don't know what's in their house." We both laughed.

"Hey, brother! Hey, girl!" the groom shouted, and two strong fat horses appeared in an embrace, their legs pressed against their bodies, and the beautiful horses hung down like camels, relying only on their bodies to move The strength squeezed out one by one from the door opening that was about the same size as them, but immediately they all stood upright, with long limbs, and the whole body exuded heat. "Go and help him," I said, and the obedient maid hurried over to give the groom the harness.But before she could come nearer, the groom embraced her and pressed his face to hers.She screamed and ran to me, leaving two deep red teeth marks on her cheeks. "Bastard!" I shouted angrily, "Do you want to be whipped?" But then I thought, he is a stranger, I don't know where he came from, and he volunteered to help me when everyone rejected me.He seemed to know what I was thinking, so he didn't care about my threat. He just turned his body towards me and kept holding the carriage in his hand. "Get in the car," he said.That's right, everything is ready.I found the carriage to be very handsome, as I have never been in such a carriage.I happily got into the car and said, "However, I will drive the car, because you don't know the way." "Of course," he said, "I won't go with you at all. I'll stay with Rosa." "No !” Rosa shouted, and then, sensing the inescapable doom, ran into the house.Then I heard the jingle of the chain as she fastened the door, and heard the lock being locked; and I saw her turn off the light in the corridor, and go swiftly through several rooms, putting out all the lights, and to hide oneself from being found. "Come with me," I said to the groom, "or I won't go, no matter how urgent. I can't imagine giving you the girl for the trip."

"Drive!" He yelled and clapped his hands again. Immediately, the carriage rushed out like a block of wood in the torrent.I heard the crack of the door as the groom rushed into my house, and then my eyes, my ears, and all my senses felt nothing but a whistling, but it was fleeting, because the patient's yard seemed like Next to the courtyard gate of my house, I have arrived.The horse stood there quietly, and the snow did not fall, only the moonlight filled the earth.The patient's parents came out in a hurry, followed by his sister.I was almost lifted out of the car.They were talking all over the place, but I didn't know what to say.The air in the patient's room was unbreathable, and the old stove was smoking.I want to push open the window, but first I need to see the sick.He was thin, had no fever, was neither cold nor hot, and had dull eyes.The young man was shirtless and covered with a duvet.He sat up, put his arms around my neck, and whispered into my ear, "Doctor, let me die." I looked around, but no one heard the words.The patient's parents bowed and stood aside, waiting for my diagnosis.His sister moved a chair for me to put down the medical bag.I open the bag and look for tools.The boy kept crawling towards me from under the covers, reminding me of his request.I grabbed a pair of tweezers, tried it by candlelight, then put it back. "Yes," I thought blasphemously, "the gods help in such a case, and send the needed horse, and a second because of the urgency of the matter, and what's more, the groom— "At this time, I thought of Rosa again.Ten miles away from her, and the horses that pull the cart cannot be steered, in this situation, how can we save her, how can we pull her out of the groom?Now that the two horses had somehow let go and the windows had been pushed open from the outside, each put his head through a window, undisturbed by the family, and observed the sick man. "I'm going back at once," I thought, as if the horses were urging me on.But I let his sister take off my fur coat, she thought I was too hot.The old man brought me a glass of rum and patted me on the shoulder.Giving something dear shows his trust in me.I shook my head, refusing to drink the drink because of the discomfort I felt in the old man's narrow mind.His mother stood by the bed and called me over, and I went and laid my head on the lad's chest, and he trembled under my damp beard.Over there, a horse neighed loudly against the roof.What I knew was proven: the lad was healthy, but a little hypostrained, and his worried mother had given him too much coffee.Yet he was healthy, and it was best to just throw him out of bed.I am not the savior, let him lie down.I served in the district, faithfully, even excessively; my salary was small, but I was generous, willing to help the poor, and besides, I was responsible for Rosa's life.So maybe the boy was right, and I wanted to die too.What am I doing here in this long winter!My horse died, and no one in the village lent me one.I have to pull the horse out of the pigsty, and if I hadn't got the horse by accident, I would have used the pig to pull the cart.That's the way it is.I nod to the family.They don't know anything about it, and if they knew, they wouldn't believe it.It is easy to prescribe a prescription, but it is difficult to communicate with these people.Now, it's time for my visitation to end.I'm used to people making my trip for nothing, yet again.People from this district always ring the doorbell at night, which tortures me a lot.This time, however, Rosa had to be picked up.This pretty girl had lived in my home for years with little attention from me--that was too high a price.I had to think it over right away, so as not to be angry with the family, although they would not give Rosa back to me anyway.But as I pack my kit and reach for my fur coat, the family stands together, father sniffs the glass of rum in his hand, mother may be deeply disappointed in me - yeah, what do you want What do you want? —she was in tears, biting her lip; his sister was fiddling with a bloodstained handkerchief, and I was ready, if necessary, to admit that the lad might really be ill.I walked up to him, and he smiled at me as if I had brought him the most delicious soup—ah, then both horses barked, which must have been arranged to help me Examining the sick—and that's when I discovered: Indeed, the lad is ill.A palm-sized wound was found on the right side of his body near his buttocks, rose red, with many dark spots, black in the depth, pale around the periphery, like soft particles, bruised unevenly, like an open-pit coal mine open.This is the case when viewed from a distance, but it is even more serious when viewed up close.Who would see this without screaming?In the depths of the wound, there were many chrysalis the size of my little finger. Their bodies were purple and stained with blood. They were crawling towards the light with their small white heads and countless legs.Poor boy, you are hopeless.I found your great wound, this flower in your body sent you to death.The whole family was very happy. They watched me go about my business. My sister told my mother about it, and my mother told my father. My father told some guests.The men were walking on tiptoe, arms outstretched for balance, through the moonlight into the open door. "Will you save me?" the young man asked me in a weeping whisper, dazed by the life squirming in the wound.That's what we do here, always asking the doctor for the impossible.They had lost their old faith, and the priests, sitting at home, tore off their vestments one by one, while they asked the doctors to rejuvenate and save everything.Let them have their way, then: I did not come uninvited, and if you ask me to take the priesthood, I must obey.I am an old country doctor, and the maid has been robbed, what better thing can I hope for!At this time, the family and the elders in the village came over and took off my clothes; a student chorus, led by the teacher, stood in front of the house and sang the lyrics in a very simple tone:

"Take off his clothes, and he will be healed, If he doesn't heal, he will die! He's just a doctor, he's just a doctor. " Then, I was stripped naked, stroked my beard with my fingers, and watched the crowd quietly.I was calmer than anyone else, even though I was alone, held my head, grabbed my feet, and pinned me down on the bed.They put me down against the wall, next to the patient's wound, and then they all exited the hut and closed the door; the singing stopped abruptly, and the moon was covered by clouds, and the warm quilt was wrapped around me, and the horse's head was in the window hole Shaking flickeringly. "You know," I heard someone say in my ear, "I don't trust you, and you've just been abandoned somewhere and can't save yourself. Instead of helping me, you've made my sickbed smaller. I I'd love to gouge your eyes out." "Yes," I said, "it's a disgrace. But I'm a doctor now, and what do you want from me? Believe me, it's not easy for me." "Is this Will an apology satisfy me? Well, maybe that's all I have to do, I've always been content. I came into this world with a beautiful wound, and that's my whole dowry." "Young friend," said I, "Your shortcoming is that you can't see the whole situation. I have been to all the nearby wards, and I can tell you that your wound is not that terrible. The wound is relatively deep, caused by two blows with an axe. Many people cut half Standing in the woods, you can hardly hear the sound of the axes in the woods, let alone the axes approaching them." "Is this really the case? Or are you trying to deceive me while I have a fever?" "Indeed. Please take a If the staff doctor uses his honor to guarantee it, go." He believed it, and quieted down.However, now is the time for me to consider self-rescue.The horses remained faithfully in place, and I quickly gathered my clothes, fur coat, and doctor's bag, and I didn't bother to dress.If the horse is as fast as it came, then in a way I'm jumping from this bed to mine.A horse meekly backed its head out of the window.I threw my bag into the car, the parka was far away, hanging tight by one sleeve on a hook.That's it.I flew on the horse.The reins were slack, the horses were not harnessed to each other, and the wagon wobbled along behind, with fur coats trailing in the snow. "Drive!" I shouted, but the horse did not gallop, and we drove slowly like old men across the snow field, with the new and false song of the children's gate echoing in our ears for a long time: "Be happy, sick gate, doctor Has been laid down on your bed!"

I've never walked into a house like this.I lost my thriving practice and a successor took it.But it doesn't help because he can't replace me.Rosa is the victim of the tyranny of the hideous groom in my house.I can't bear to think about it.In the harsh winter of this most unfortunate time, I am an old man, naked, sitting in a human cart while driving an inhuman horse, running around, suffering from severe cold.My fur coat was hanging on the back of the carriage, but I couldn't reach it, and the nimble patients wouldn't lift a finger to help me.cheated!cheated!Just once to be tricked by the night bell--it can never be undone.