It's an odd phrasing, but I found some help in an annotated version of the book: "A colloquial phrase that means to do the civil or proper thing." Considering that the speaker is planning to visit people, "civil" is an appropriate choice here.

This is not something you hear in normal English conversation. I'm guessing here but I would think this meant 'Do the right thing'. Being civil is to act with good manners or being polite.