John Leonard

One day and a very good day it was there came a young man into his doctor's office where he was greeted with "hello!"s all around by the staff and led into the examining room itself where the nurse said "hello!" by way of preface to other business and then the doctor came in, "hello!" (the man answering all these salutations in kind) until then the nurse having already left the doctor said he must go and look at another patient saying as he left "goodbye!" but assuring him he would be back soon leaving the man alone in the room but nevertheless the man heard again in a new voice "goodbye!" though he could not tell from where, confusing him, perhaps he should leave now, and just as he decided he must have heard something from the hallway or the like there came again "goodbye!" unmistakably from within the room, so he got up and looked about for what might be its origin and there it was again, "goodbye!" seeming to come from a cabinet which he approached and was wondering should he open it (it being, after all, a doctor's cabinet, not his own, filled with who knows what) and hearing "goodbye!" now quite distinctly from within the cabinet he reached out towards the handle to open the door when in came the doctor and the man feeling quite sheepish explained what had happened "Oh!", said the doctor, "that's nothing to worry about, it's just this", opening the cabinet and taking out a jar labeled SALVE.