“What are you doing? Burying one of your patients, or what?”

“Oh, there’s been water seeping up through the floor,” said the Doctor. “I figured it might be some spring opened up or something.”

“You don’t say!” said Bud, assuming instantly the high ethical standpoint of the realtor. “Gee, Doc, I sold you this property. Don’t say I fixed you up with a dump where there’s an underground spring.”

“There was water,” said the Doctor.

“Yes, but, Doc, you can look on that geological map the Kiwanis Club got up. There’s not a better section of subsoil in the town.”

“Looks like he sold you a pup,” said Buck, grinning.

“No,” said Bud. “Look. When the Doc came here he was green. You’ll admit he was green. The things he didn’t know!”

“He bought Ted Webber’s jalopy,” said Buck.

“He’d have bought the Jessop place if I’d let him,” said Bud. “But I wouldn’t give him a bum steer.”

“Not the poor, simple city slicker from Poughkeepsie,” said Buck.

“Some people would have taken him,” said Bud. “Maybe some people did. Not me. I recommended this property. He and Irene moved straight in as soon as they were married. I wouldn’t have put the Doc on to a dump where there’d be a spring under the foundations.”

“Oh, forget it,” said the Doctor, embarrassed by this conscientiousness. “I guess it was just the heavy rains.”

“By gosh!” Buck said, glancing at the besmeared point of the pickaxe. “You certainly went deep enough. Right down into the clay, huh?”

“That’s four feet down, the clay,” Bud said.

“Eighteen inches,” said the Doctor.

“Four feet,” said Bud. “I can show you the map.”

“Come on. No arguments,” said Buck. “How’s about it, Doc? An hour or two at the creek, eh? They’re biting.”

“Can’t do it, boys,” said the Doctor. “I’ve got to see a patient or two.”

“Aw, live and let live, Doc,” Bud said. “Give ‘em a chance to get better. Are you going to depopulate the whole darn town?”

The Doctor looked down, smiled, and muttered, as he always did when this particular jest was trotted out. “Sorry, boys,” he said. “I can’t make it.”

“Well,” said Bud, disappointed, “I suppose we’d better get along. How’s Irene?”

“Irene?” said the Doctor. “Never better. She’s gone visiting. Albany.