I did not like its looks; but I blundered up an alley and into a back
room, where I fell over somebody, and was cursed and told to lie down
and keep easy, or somebody, meaning the man stumbled over, would make
me. At last I lit on a staircase which led into the alley, and, after
much useless inquiry, got as high as the garret. People hereabout did
not know one another, or did not want to know, so that it was of little
avail to ask questions. At length I saw a light through the cracks in
the attic door, and walked in. To my amazement, the first person I saw
was a woman of about thirty-five, in pearl-gray Quaker dress--one of
your quiet, good-looking people. She was seated on a stool beside a
straw mattress upon which lay a black woman. There were three others
crowded close around a small stove, which was red-hot--an unusual
spectacle in this street. Altogether a most nasty den.

As I came in, the little Quaker woman got up and said: "I took the
liberty of sending for thee to look at this poor woman. I am afraid she
has the smallpox. Will thee be so kind as to look at her?" And with this
she held down the candle toward the bed.

"Good gracious!" I said hastily, seeing how the creature was speckled "I
didn't understand this, or I would not have come. I have important cases
which I cannot subject to the risk of contagion. Best let her alone,
miss," I added, "or send her to the smallpox hospital."

Upon my word, I was astonished at the little woman's indignation. She
said just those things which make you feel as if somebody had been
calling you names or kicking you--Was I really a doctor? and so on.
It did not gain by being put in the ungrammatical tongue of Quakers.
However, I never did fancy smallpox, and what could a fellow get by
doctoring wretches like these? So I held my tongue and went away. About