Astounding British Edition, Vol. 9, No. 10 — page 5: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

middle-aged son tried to stay out of the doctor’s way. The patient was in pain and was complaining. “We'll have to do something for that pain,” Dr. Harmon said. He took her blood pressure because she expected it, felt of the lumpy mass that was part of her stomach, gave her a mild sedative from his kit, and told her a joke. When he left, her spirits were up. His were down. He knew that she was dying slowly of cancer and that the con- dition was inoperable. In his office that day, Dr. Harmon and his busy nurse saw a_ succession of patients. He set a broken arm, prescribed for a rash on a baby and reassured the frantic mother, and told burly Jason Kemper, who hadn’t worked a day in years but who complained that something was wrong with his stomach, to “cut down the whiskey to just a pint a day, as a Starter.” Kemper left in a huff. Working out his back door, Harmon mended the tail of a puppy named Bow- ser who had made a mistake in judging how fast and hard a screen door could close. He also mopped up the puppy’s owner, Donna Culver, aged six, and stuffed her with candy, giving two pieces to the puppy, “because he needs some- thing in his stomach to help him forget about his tail.” : : As he went about his routine, he was vaguely aware that the tent on the vacant lot was attracting a number of curious onlookers. It was his intention, later in the day, to go over and meet these peddlers. His secret opinion, which he never dared voice in public, was that some of the so-called quack remedies sometimes had curative qualities that modern medicine could well investigate and possibly use to advantage. His grand- mother had her home remedies, and she had not been a fool. Eomichbooks,. co