1
An Ounce of Cure, by Alan Edward Nourse
The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Ounce of Cure, by Alan Edward Nourse This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: An Ounce of Cure
Author: Alan Edward Nourse
Release Date: October 3, 2007 [EBook #22866]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN OUNCE OF CURE ***
Produced by Greg Weeks, LN Yaddanapudi and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
An Ounce of Cure
The doctor's office was shiny and modern. Behind the desk the doctor smiled down at James Wheatley through thick glasses. "Now, then! What seems to be the trouble?"
Wheatley had been palpitating for five days straight at the prospect of coming here. "I know it's silly," he said. "But I've been having a pain in my toe."
"Indeed!" said the doctor. "Well, now! How long have you had this pain, my man?"
"About six months now, I'd say. Just now and then, you know. It's never really been bad. Until last week. You see--"
"I see," said the doctor. "Getting worse all the time, you say."
Wheatley wiggled the painful toe reflectively. "Well--you might say that. You see, when I first--"
"How old did you say you were, Mr. Wheatley?"
"Fifty-five."
"Fifty-five!" The doctor leafed through the medical record on his desk. "But this is incredible. You haven't had a checkup in almost ten years!"
"I guess I hav