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Journal of Katherine Mansfield

July

July.

Tedious Brief Adventure of K.M.
A Doctor who came from Jamaica
Said: “This time I'll mend her or break her.
I'll plug her with serum;
And if she can't bear 'em
I'll call in the next undertaker.”

His locum tenens, Doctor Byam,
Said: “Right oh, old fellow, we'll try 'em,
For I'm an adept, O,
At pumping in strepto
Since I was a surgeon in Siam.”

page 128

The patient, who hailed from New Zealing,
Said: “Pray don't consider my feeling,
Provided you're certain
'Twill not go on hurtin',
I'll lie here and smile at the ceiling.”

These two very bloodthirsty men
Injected five million, then ten,
But found that the strepto
Had suddenly crept to
Her feet—and the worst happened then!

Any day you may happen to meet
Her alone in the Hampstead High Street
In a box on four wheels
With a whistle that squeals;
And her hands do the job of her feet.

[In September 1919 K.M. went to San Remo, and, after a few weeks, took a little furnished cottage—the “Casetta”—at Ospedaletti near by. I was with her in San Remo, but returned to England to my work as editor of The Athenæum as soon as she was settled into the “Casetta” with L.M. For a time K.M. was very happy; but then illness and isolation and the everlasting sound of the sea began to depress her.]