Doctor Nursey

Away down South in Dixio, near our Station ïwo (raih'oads ara scarce with us), there lives n personage known as Doctor Nursey - the Doctor being a title conceded to her as a kind of roward of inerit by her colored fnends. Nursey yvus a mettrumynie -we ohildren gave her in antebellum times, -,vhen her lap was " heaaquarters tor infantry," her anus a refugo trom all childish grievanees. Shall we introduce her? You would be Burprised at her polished ïnanner, her soft, sweet voice her self-posession as she drops you a lowly courtesy, and exehanges the salutations of the day. She Iiuö au air oí' relinement about lier from her gay turban to her softly slippered t'eet ; her very presence in a sick-rooni is a harbinger of rest, acd, as she deftly I)asses her hand over the fevered head, or gentiy rubs the aching limbs, you would ay, as we have ot'ten told her : " Ah, N ursey, you havo virtue in your hands," and hear the quiet repsonse : " Yes, missis, I sniothered a mole in iuy hands ; and, when I rubs, I alwaysbring the niisery straight along out ; 1 never rubs up - thüt turns it back again." Uulike Mrs. Dr. Mary Walker, Dr. Nursey is no gradúate, although her íields for learning compare favorably, in ex tent at leas, with any of hor témale competitors. Her " materia medica " lies open before her; she einphatically belongs to the old field school, circumscribed by no man's limits. Like the Mikado of Japan, who proposes to promúlgate a new religión to suit all classes, Dr. Kursey proposes a new order of physic, and her sable worshipurs likewise regard her as an incarnate deity. When one of thom has been " tricked or hunted," they repair straightway to Nursey, who, armed by couiiterspells, "charras tUuir fears," and away they go, making the pine-woods ring with the refrain of "There is a balm in Gideon." She has uot yet set up her shinglo, as our backwoodspeople cali a doctor'e sign ; but as you enter her door, look closely, and, nailed to the wall, you will flnd two buzzards'-heads, with the feathers removed so that the sun may havo f uil pluy in extracting the oil ; under them, suspended by a string, hangs a paregoric bottle to catch tho drippings ; this is one of her most efficaoious remediís, and, as Dr. ïubb remarked, " it has a fiue, venomous smell, and ought to be good for Bomething." It certainly would rank any of Lubin's extracts : and although not quite so agroeaole to the ouaetories as " Kiss nio quiek," the " Go-my-honey " oiiitment would, I ftm sure, be so highly appreciated, that the professor would not tuke a Imudred cents for bis dollar's worth. Dr. Nursey is palronized by all kinds of putients, tho blind, the lamo, and thoso incurables, the lazy ; sbe has so rnuch confidence in her skill, that sho refuses none ; espeeially does she pride herself on her succoss as an oculist. One patiënt who visited her Ithought would test her in that line, ho having lost the sight of ono eyo trom cataraefc ; but no ! she was still mistress of the situation Were not her instruinonts of the best construction 'í No one would doubt it were th-y to seo them. Had she nerve enough ? Without doubt ! So the patiënt being seated, with the aid of her linger and thumb she dexterously "tore the fllluni," as she expressed it, from his eyo. If it did not prove a final cure, it certaiüly luodified the diseaso from a cataraet to a waterfall (of tears). Enpastent, we can say the patiënt carne seeing nothing, but lett af ter " seeing sights." Thf ineurablu&i the lazy, nuraerically as well as pliysically the stronger party, come in droves, Nursey, aiways politie, lias found a name for their chronic disease ; she discreetly calis it " sloepy staggers." As a well wisher of Dr Jíursey, I write this 6hort notiee of her vocation and whereabouts, in liopes that soino learned gradúate may visit her for the purpose of placing within reaoh of the public her valuable " intment ; " the medical fraternity being noted for such condesoensions, owing to their well-known belief "in auld wives' tables." -