The road trip was a long and tough one; more draws than wins, and continued exhaustion. Billy slept the entire time on the train back to St. Paul. The day after he returned, Doctor Hereford called and asked Billy to come to his office to talk. Billy did not tell Marie. Instead, George went with him.

Billy sat in Doctor Hereford’s office and waited for him to finish writing in his medical journal. Doctor Tom Hereford was an old friend of Billy’s father. During the summer when Tom was home from college, he worked on the Miske farm, earning money, although not that much, for his studies at the University of Chicago. His medical knowledge came in handy a few times when a cow or some other farm animal fell sick. It was a lot cheaper than calling on the only veterinarian within a fifty-mile...

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