A Country Doctor summary; The story is narrated by an eld | English literature 📚

A Country Doctor
summary;

The story is narrated by an elderly country doctor, who is summoned one winter night to visit a boy who is unwell. The boy is in a village some ten miles away, and the story recounts the doctor’s struggles in making the journey to visit the boy.

First, he learns his horse has died of exposure to the cold, but a mysterious groom appears in his pigsty and produces two strong horses for the doctor to use in his journey. The groom makes it clear he wishes to have his way with the doctor’s servant girl, Rose.

The doctor makes the journey to the village, at which he appears to arrive in a suspiciously short amount of time. But the boy who is supposedly unwell appears to be fine. The doctor believes the boy should get up and stop malingering, but the boy begs the doctor to let him die. Shortly after this, the doctor notices a towel soaked with blood in the boy’s sister’s hand, and decides to re-examine the patient. He discovers a wound in the boy’s body, from which worms start to appear, and realises the boy is dying, after all.

The family of the boy undress the doctor and place him in bed alongside the patient. He reassures the boy that his wound is not that bad and he will be all right, before opening the bedroom window and climbing down onto one of his horses and riding for home. However, in contrast to the swift outward journey, the ride home proceeds at a very slow pace, and the doctor’s thoughts keep returning to his maid, who is at risk of being molested by the mysterious groom back home. The doctor regrets answering the call, which he likens to a false alarm.

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