Morton set out for Portland the next morning, leaving Rich glad and grateful, and in the best of spirits himself, arising from the conviction that better days were in store both for Rich and his parents. He took his seat on the box, and was still more confirmed in this opinion by the conversation with the driver, of whom he had inquired the way to Mr. Richardson's shop the afternoon of his arrival.
"Then you didn't have any trouble finding Richardson's shop t'other day: git, git, git along there, you white horse."
"No, I found it without the least difficulty."
"Thought you would. Belong in these parts? What you 'bout there, old Dick?" Crack, crack, crack!
"No, I belong up back of Portland."
"Buxton, praps."
"No."
"Maybe you're from Conway."
"Thereabouts."
"Fine men them ere two Richardsons."
"Yes, but they have met with a great misfortune."
"That's so; and it's made a great stir and talk, and a great feelin'; for they was two men that was master sot by in this place, and desarved to be; folks are both glad and sorry."
"I shouldn't think people would be glad if they were generally liked."
"Well, that's what I call a kernondrum. Ha, ha!—Whey there, Tom; what you foolin' for?—People ain't glad that they lost their property; no, no; everybody's sorry for that, and they could hire any amount of money, and go on again, if they would; but you see they're the greatest blacksmiths; there never was anybody in these parts could temper any kind of an edge tool like as Clement Richardson, 'cept his old dad afore him; and he, they said, took it up in his own head. You take notice 'tis born in 'em, same as a cat carries her navigation in her head. So people say, 'Now Clem Richardson has gone to work agin, we shall have good tools;' and so they feel kind of glad about that ere. They'll have a master sight of work as soon as it's known round, and they'll rise agin. Squire Walker says 'they're bound to.' I heard him tell Dr. Jones. 'Quainted with Dr. Jones?"
"I haven't that pleasure."
"First-rate man. I heard him say with myown ears (that is, the squire), says he, 'Doctor, you can't kill one of them Richardsons, not if you cut their head off;' and the doctor, he says, 'The young sprig, that's been thought to be a sort of baby, is jest as good grit as the old ones, and comes right up to the collar.' Them isn't jestly his words, but that's the upshot on 'em. Then there's two of 'em, and they can carry on both parts of the work. There's only one family to support, 'cause Bob's an old bach, and they're not only brothers in name, but in natur, are well matched, and step alike, jest like them ere leaders of mine; about as good going horses as a man need wish to drive. Reckon you're some kin to the Richardsons."
"No, none at all."
"Maybe you're sparkin' one of the gals."
"No, I never had the courage."
"Reckon you're a college-larnt man, like young Richardson; praps you're a doctor or lawyer, or some sich."
"No, I'm in abusiness."
"Du tell. What kind of a business?"
"One that pays the best the closer it's followed."
"I reckon that's so with most all business."
"I've invented something—something that will make my fortune."
"Maybe you'd be willing to tell a feller what it is."
"It is a hog-sty that will fat hogs without corn."
"Massy sakes! How does it do it?"
"That's the secret."
"On course you'll make a lot; that's the master. How many on 'em you sold in this town?"
"I haven't got to work yet."
The next day the story was all over town that the stranger who was visiting at Richardson's was worth a mint of money, that he had invented a hog-sty to fat hogs without corn, and came to offer himself to Mary Richardson, but his courage failed, and he went off without doing it.
What a pity! people said: it would have been such a nice thing for the Richardsons, just as they were situated.
A good many thought Rich would write to the young man, and invite him to come again.
At this period the country around the head waters of the rivers was one unbroken forest. The lumbering operations, previous to this, had extended but a short distance from the sea-coast; but now vast numbers of men and teams were sent into the woods in all directions. The character of Clement Richardson as a superior axe and edge-tool maker was well known everywhere, and the news that he had resumed work soon spread among the lumbermen who were laying their plans and arranging to put teams into the woods the coming winter.
As early as the tenth of July orders for axes began to pour in upon the Richardsons. The mills formerly belonging to them, shattered in the freshet, were repaired, and new ones built upon the sites of those entirely destroyed, occasioning a good deal of blacksmith work, as new mill-chains, dogs, hooks, bands, bolts, and pintles were to be made. Horse and ox-shoeing, and carriage work, also increased with the increase of business.
The result of this was, that Andrew Montague enlarged the shop, built two new chimneys and forges, and the Richardsons not only bought the old tools, but also two pairs of bellows, anvils and other tools, for the new forges. They now moved into their father's old house, vacated by Coleman, hired journeymen and took two apprentices, Clement giving his attention entirely to the manufacture of edge tools, and Robert to horse-shoeing and carriage work, ox-shoeing and tiring of heavy wheels. The Richardsons now found themselves in comfortable circumstances; they had a good house rent free, as Montague absolutely refused to receive any rent, either for the house or shop, until the expiration of a year from the time of occupancy, saying that they would want one year to get fairly started, and all their money to buy coal, iron, and tools.
In consequence of this increase of work, Rich was able to leave home sooner than he hadsupposed possible at the period of Morton's visit, and accordingly wrote to Perk that he would be with him in a week after the commencement of the fall term.
He found Perk at the public house, waiting to welcome him, as the stage drove up about sundown. It was the first time they had met since the morning they left Radcliffe Hall. Our readers, who are apprised of the relations existing between these two boys in college, and the temperament of each, can imagine the nature of the greeting. It is sufficient to say that it was not remarkably formal. This, however, was not in the least objectionable to a band of academy boys (who, in expectation of his arrival, had assembled to have a look at their new teacher, and whom Perk now presented to Rich as a portion of his scholars), if we may judge from the talk among themselves as they went away, arm-in-arm, a boy every now and then breaking rank, and walking backwards, those at the end of the file keeping about two steps in advance, in order to face the rest, and impress their own sentiments more forcibly upon their companions of less sanguine temperaments.
They were scarcely out of ear-shot, when Dan Clemens, breaking with a jump from the midst, and walking backwards, with one hand on the shoulder of Ned Baker, and the other on that of Frank Merrill, shouted as though he was afraid some other would get the start of him,—
"Ned, Frank, all of you! I know I shall like that man; can't help liking him. I'mboundto like him."
"I'm the same way!" shouted Horace Williams from the extreme right. "Didn't you see, boys, how he and Mr. Perkins caught hold of each other? That's what took me down. There's some soul in that man, I tell you."
"O, he's a bully man!" roared Clinton Blanchard from the extreme left; "a fellow can tell by the looks of him; he shows it right out in his face."
"You might know he's a first-rate man," cried Phil Greely; "else Mr. Perkins wouldn't love him so. I thought I never should like anybody else as Master Perkins; but I guess this man is just like him, and I mean to tell all the fellows I know."
By this time, as boy after boy kept stepping out, they had got into a circle, and further progress was necessarily arrested: not so, however, the expression of opinions.
"He has not a very scholarly look," said Edward Randolph, who was a very proper boy; "not at all the air of a close student. His hands are rough and hard; he hurt me when he shook my hand."
"You shut up,—will you?" retorted Dan. "You've got the dyspepsy."
"No, I haven't, neither."
"Well, you want to have it," said Frank Merrill.
It was evident that in respect to popularity among these boys, the star of Rich was in the ascendant, and before nine o'clock the next morning they had brought the rest of the school to the same opinion.
First impressions go a great way with all persons, especially with the young. Had Rich gone deliberately to work to win the hearts of his future scholars, he could have devised no method so effectual as this unconscious manifestation of his true nature in their presence.
"The first thing for me to do, Perk," said Rich, "is to look up a boarding-place; till that is done I shall stay here."
"No, you won't stay here; you are not going to stop here; you are going home with me to stop, to-night, at my boarding-place, and I think you will conclude to remain there."
When they reached the house, Perk introduced Rich to the mistress of it, who he at the same time informed him was his aunt.
A few minutes after they sat down to supper, her son came, in whom Rich recognized Dan Clemens, one of the boys Perk had introduced to him at thetavern. Hotels were not in fashion in that section of Maine.
After the repast they went to Perk's room. The first thing that attracted the attention of Rich was a large picture hung over the mantle-piece.
"I should like to know, Perk, where you got that."
"Stole it out of Mort's desk. I was afraid if I didn't he'd give it to you; but I told him of it, and he gave it to me afterwards. Isn't that something to call up old friends and old associations?" It was the original sketch of James Trafton as a negro, drawn at midnight by Morton in Radcliffe.
"It is so, Perk. How that brings the whole thing back! It seems to me I can see you scrubbing his face, that was as white as your own, with soap and ashes, and hear him say, 'Does it come off, Perk?'"
"I tell you what tickled me most, Rich—to see Savage spreading ink on that poultice, and Trafton thinking it came off his own face."
"Those were pleasant days, Perk; but they can come back only in recollection; and I feel like applying to that production of Mort's the language of Burns,—
'Thou mind'st me of departed joys,Departed never to return.'"
'Thou mind'st me of departed joys,Departed never to return.'"
'Thou mind'st me of departed joys,Departed never to return.'"
'Thou mind'st me of departed joys,
Departed never to return.'"
"Rich, kick off your boots and put on these slippers." Rich obeyed. "Now put on this study-gown."
Perk then pulled a lounge up to the fire, and they sat down to talk.
After reviewing the past, which old class-matesare as sure to do as is an old sailor to overhaul his chest, and take everything out of it (sometimes a very light job), as soon as he gets to sea, Perk said,—
"I didn't expect you so soon, Rich."
"I was able to leave sooner than I expected when I wrote you. Might, indeed, have come before; but it took me a week to clean up. Look at these." He spread out his hands, that were hard, the palms and the edges of the forefingers and thumbs a rusty brown, and cracked.
"It is not dirt, but stains from iron and from coal dust; and that, too, after using on them a quart of linseed oil, not to mention vinegar, soap, and rye meal."
"How are you pleased with my aunt, Rich?"
"Very much indeed. The boy at table is one of those I met at the stage tavern. Is he your cousin?"
"Yes, and a downright good boy he is, too, and a real comfort to my aunt, who is a widow. He is dead in love with you."
"Perhaps he will change his mind; boys are not wont to cherish a very fervent love for teachers."
"You'll find yourself mistaken in that respect. Dan, and a crony of his, Horace Williams, will take to you, and cling to you, just as Ned Austin and Will Montgomery did to you and Mort. You can stimulate them, and they will leap under it as a high-spirited horse catches the excitement of its rider, especially if he loves him."
"In the morning, Perk, I want you to help me about finding a boarding-place, or some room that I can hire cheap, and board myself. I should prefer a garret, as that will be the cheapest. There"—laying a two-dollar bill on the table—"is every cent of money I possess in the world; and if I study medicine I must have books, that come very high, instruments by and by, and instruction from an experienced physician. I am, to be sure, well clothed. I have clothing sufficient, with economy, to last for years, but money I have none."
"I know I am not capable of giving you advice, and cannot expect that you will receive it from me as you would from Mort; but I beg of you, whatever you do, don't go to starving yourself; it will be a losing game in the end. If you are going to work hard all day in school, and then study when out of it, you need, and must have, good, nourishing food, and plenty of it. There was Eckford, of our class, lived on watergruel and molasses, and roast potatoes, and made out to graduate. But what did he ever amount to, more than sweetened water?"
"He never was more than half alive, to begin with. I am in good case, and must economize the last cent."
"Economize, with a vengeance! Saving at the tap, and spilling at the bung-hole. A precious doctor you'll make. Going to dry up the juices, both of body and brain, by starvation. Now let me plan. My aunt has considerable land and other property, and needs some one to aid her in the care of it. Dan is a mere boy, and it brings a good deal of care upon her. If you will see to her affairs, cut the wood, take care of the garden in the summer (Dan milks, and takes care of the cow and horse), keep her accounts, and just do what pertains to the house (if there is anything beyond that, she will hire other help), you can stay in this room, have your board, fuel, and a horse to ride occasionally, you can borrow medical books of Dr. Ryan, practice on my aunt, who is in delicate health, dearly loves to take medicine, wears a Burgundy pitch plaster between her shoulders, reads Buchan's Domestic Medicine, and Parson Meek will pray for you. I think this will be a great deal better than your starvation plan, unless you think it would be derogatory to your character, and injure yourinfluence as principal of the academy, if it should be known that you cut wood and did chores."
"Derogatory!" cried Rich, jumping up. "I don't value the opinion of any who think honest labor derogatorythat," snapping his fingers. "If they don't like it, they may dislike it. I can earn as much at the anvil as I can here, and all the reason I prefer it is, I can study when I have done my day's work here; and after I have been at work in the shop all day I am tired and sleepy. I will most gladly fall in with the offer of your aunt, and do all or anything she wants done."
"Rich, you are no more like a fellow we used to callRichin Radcliffe, than chalk's like cheese."
"I've been through a 'discipline,' as President Appleton would say. Then, I used to dip my fingers in rose water of a morning, and dress my hair with pomatum. Since that, I've had to wash in an iron-hooped bucket, and wipe on a tow towel cousin german to a nutmeg grater. Sweat and coal dust have taken the place of pomatum. It didn't last, however, longer than the first term of the freshman year. I caught an expression on Mort's face one day, when I was fixing up before the glass, that made me, as soon as his back was turned, fling the rose water and pomatum into the slop pail. I tell you, Perk, there's no tonic equal to iron. I mean to give lots of it when I am a doctor."
"So I think; but I like to take it best in the shape of a gun barrel, a fish-hook, or a pair of skates."
The number of pupils in the academy was quite large, and, as was customary in those days, they consisted of both sexes, ranging in age from ten to nineteen, and even twenty years. There were boys fitting for college, and others pursuing English studies. Some of the older scholars studied surveying, book-keeping, and navigation.
Rich gave himself wholly to his work, and speedily created among his scholars not merely an attachment to himself, but enthusiasm in study, and desire to excel. It was soon evident, both to the trustees and more advanced scholars, that their present teacher was greatly superior in every department, not only to Perk, but any instructor who had preceded him.
The fact that he did chores, and attended to business matters, in order to defray the expense of his board, so far from proving derogatory, as Perk had hinted, operated in precisely the opposite manner. Had he resorted to this method of reducing his expenses from penuriousness, and an overweening desire to accumulate, such, doubtless, would have been the result, and the proceeding would have excited both ridicule and contempt.
The instincts of the boys, however, divined that this was not his character. They feltthemselves drawn towards him by that magnetic influence that his college mates confessed, and were proud of his scholarship and commanding ability, that even those who could not appreciate felt. In addition to this they were not long in discovering that, although he did chores, and even cleaned out the pig-sty, he was the best dressed man in the town on the Sabbath, which was to them a sore puzzle. But when it leaked out, probably through Perk, that he had been reared in affluence, was now flung upon his own resources, struggling to obtain a professional education, and that his style of dress was merely the remnant of better days, and not occasioned by mere love of display, the knowledge produced universal sympathy and respect, the whole community vying with each other in the manifestation of it.
Although practising the most rigid economy, husbanding every moment of time, and performing a great deal of labor, the noble nature of Rich manifested itself in a thousand ways; and strange it is how this unwritten, unspoken language of the heart is generally felt and understood. He was patient with the dull, encouraged the industrious, and stimulated to the utmost those scholars possessed of superior ability, while the mere desire to merit his esteem and affection roused indolent and wayward boys to persevering effort, and inspired them with a love of study and spirit of emulation they had never felt before.
But when Granny Fluker (after he went into the blacksmith's shop, made a new crank to her flax wheel, mended the cover of her Dutch oven, that was broke in two, by drilling holes in it, and putting wrought iron cleats across, fastened with rivets, and made a new bail to the oven) exclaimed, "God bless the young gentleman for condescending to sich a poor old worn-out critter as I am, that have to be helped by the town. Well, it's allers the way, in this world; them what's got the biggest hearts to do allers have the least to dowith. But if the prayers of a poor old lone body like me can do him any good, he'll sartain have 'em."
She expressed the universal sentiment of the whole community.
To increase still more the estimation in which Rich was held, it was ascertained that he was an excellent singer. The parish choir was in a most wretched condition. A maiden lady, who had long been distinguished as a singer, began to show unmistakable signs of age, and her voice cracked. She received from the younger members sundry hints to leave. These she took in high dugeon, and left, together with a brother and two sisters, who were fine singers, and who espoused her quarrel. Before the new members who were introduced upon their leaving could be drilled, the chorister, who had made a great part of the disturbance, left town, taking his bass-viol with him.
In this condition of things, Rich was invited to take the lead of the choir, and accepted, established choir meetings, and soon put matters to rights; while the refractory brother and his two sisters, finding that they were not necessary, got over their huff, and came back.
The younger portion of the choir, ascertaining from Dan Clemens that Rich played the violin, persuaded him to bring it to church the next Sunday. The moment Rich drew the bow across the strings, Deacon Starkweather got up, slamming the pew door after him, left the church, and going into the pasture, out of sight and sound of the ungodly thing, sat down on a stump, in a snow-storm, till he judged it was time for the sermon to begin, when he returned, as he had no quarrel with Parson Meek, and merely wished to show his displeasure, and enter a protest against the fiddle. Rich, however, smoothed all asperities, and reconciled the worthy deacon, by persuading the members of the parish most interested in music to purchase a bass-viol, upon which he performed to the satisfaction of all; Deacon Starkweather inviting Rich, and all the members of the choir, to tea, when he explained to them that he had never cherished the least hardness against any member of the choir, but that his action was in reference to theinstrument, and the associations connected with that exponent of folly, and concluded with a most generouscontribution toward the purchase of the bass-viol. Thus was the affair that at one time threatened to break up the parish most happily settled. Rich earned the reputation of a peacemaker, and young man of excellent judgment, and the deacon, through his device delivered from an uncomfortable position (as his conduct by no means met with general approbation), became the staunch friend of Rich, declaring, upon every proper occasion, that "he was a young man that had the root of the matter in him."
The period at which Rich began the study of medicine was the commencement of a great revolution in medical theory and practice, both in relation to the treatment of disease and surgery; young and earnest men were struggling in every direction for light; new discoveries were made, reverence for the past was gradually wearing off, and the old theories of practice were subjected to a most searching and often irreverent scrutiny.
Dr. Ryan by no means belonged to that class of mind sometimes designated by the term, "The sword frets out the scabbard." On the other hand, he was hale and hearty, possessed of a noble frame, hair slightly tinged with gray, but ruddy cheeks, a fine set of teeth of pearly whiteness, and a frank, hearty manner, betokening real goodness of heart.
Though possessed of very moderate abilities, the doctor was a man of sterling worth, great integrity, and kind and sympathizing nature. Heenjoyed a large practice, being the only physician in the place. The poor loved him, because he was ever as ready to attend to their wants as to those of his more wealthy patients, often put shoes on the feet of a barefooted child, and did not hesitate to bestow flannels and fuel, when he felt that they were more necessary than medicine. The utmost confidence was reposed in him, as his more intelligent patients, if disposed to doubt his skill in difficult cases, knew perfectly well that he would not hesitate a moment in calling in more competent persons, when he felt their aid was required.
At this period the spirit of inquiry was abroad. There were rumors in the air, and forebodings of a radical reform in medical practice. Practitioners of the doctor's age, who were either too indolent, prejudiced, or too far advanced in life to receive and act upon new ideas, were by no means to be envied, being somewhat in the position of one upon a ledge in the sea, cut off by the tide, that, constantly rising, rendered his passing into oblivion merely a question of time.
The old physicians stigmatized these disturbers of the peace of antiquity and their own as quacks, new lights, upstarts, and utterly unsafe as experimenters with human life. The advocates of the improved practice, on the other hand, were by no means backward in denouncing their seniors as fossils, petrifactions, enemies to all progress,and only desirous of retailing drugs at ninety per cent. profit, and fattening the graveyards; of promoting gangrene, and needless amputations, through their ignorance of the first principles of surgery; multiplying cripples by malpractice and ignorance of anatomy; that they had one mode of treatment for all disorders; and the time-honored allusion to "Procrustes' bed" was lavishly applied to their opponents.
The good doctor, firmly wedded to the ancient practice, felt all the animosity his genial nature permitted him to indulge in respect to the new lights; and when he heard that a young man thoroughly impregnated (as he could not doubt) with radical notions, was about to take the academy, and had already commenced the study of medicine, he felt very much as an old crower, who has walked in state, and lorded it over his dames, might be supposed to feel when he sees a young rooster suddenly flung down in the barn-yard, and inwardly resolved that the young upstart should receive neither aid, comfort, nor countenance from him.
While in this irritable and pugnacious temper it chanced most fortunately that the doctor did not happen to fall in with Rich; and when he did, being in a different state of mind, matters wore quite another aspect.
The doctor was remarkably fond of music, and no mean performer himself upon the clarionet. Being at meeting for the first time since the arrival of Rich on the Sabbath when Deacon Starkweather made his exit, he was mightily tickled with the whole proceedings; said the deacon ought to have his head shaved, and a blister drawn on it, and was consequently inclined to feel more kindly disposed towards Rich. While his prejudices were thus somewhat weakened, he was introduced to the latter by Perk, and was so much charmed with the modest appearance, intelligence, and address of Rich, that he received him with all the cordiality of a parent.
"This young gentleman, Mr. Perkins," said the doctor to Perk the next morning, "is a verydifferent person from the great majority of those who profess to study medicine, having some respect for age and experience, and as amendable to counsel as he is intelligent and refined in his manners."
The doctor was not dependent upon his practice for a living, having inherited an ample property from his grandfather. His library was large, consisting of all the medical works then esteemed, and a complete set of the instruments then used in this country. It is safe to say that the doctor consulted the length of his purse in the choice of books, rather than his mental needs, as Rich, after looking over, found a great portion of them with the leaves still uncut, although they had been ten, and some of them twenty, years in the doctor's possession.
Most physicians at that period were provided with more or less bones for the study of anatomy, generally of the limbs, as they were most liable to be broken or dislocated: very few went beyond this. Dr. Ryan, however, had not even all these—only the bones of the lower extremities; but the deficiency was in some manner supplied by plates contained in the anatomical works in his library; indeed, he felt very little interest in surgery, dreading nothing so much as being called to set a bone, amputate a limb, or reduce a dislocation, and frequently advised his patients to send for Dr. Slaughter, who excelled as a surgeon.
In the course of his long practice, he had rendered many cripples for life by sheer carelessness in bandaging limbs that had been properly set, and once made a blunder that would have proved fatal to one less beloved.
He was called to a man who had recently moved into the place, who was afflicted with a tumor in his ham; the doctor, after examining, shoved his lancet into it. To his terror and astonishment, the blood spurted in his face; he had cut an artery! The new lights represented that he was so frightened the patient bled to death while he sent for his instruments. It was not so; yet not much better. The doctor clapped his thumb on the artery, and instructed the family to arrest the blood, in the meanwhile sent for his instruments and took up the artery; but the coats of the artery, where he applied the ligature, being diseased, sloughed in the night; and in a short time the ligature came away, and the man bled to death.
It was an old false aneurism, in which so many concentric layers of coagulum had accumulated that no pulsation could be perceived. Had the doctor inquired into the history of it, he would have found that it had pulsated in the past; but neglecting to do this, and unable to perceive the throb of the artery, he mistook it for an abscess. Notwithstanding his lack of surgical skill, he was versed in the properties and operation ofmedicines, a close observer, could detect the nature of disease, and had acquired a great amount of experimental knowledge.
He made an agreement with Rich to superintend his studies, permit him the use of his library, with opportunities to visit patients, for thirty dollars a year.
It was now that Rich began to realize the deep-seated affection cherished for him by his scholars. There were many young men, the sons of farmers, from nineteen to twenty-one, who attended the academy in the winter term; in March they came together, and cut up the whole year's stock of wood for Mrs. Clemens, and put it under cover, thus relieving Rich, and affording him time for study. Dan Clemens and his mates also performed their part in smaller matters, so that Rich had really no more to do than sufficed for exercise.
There could not be a greater contrast than existed between Rich, earnest, ambitious, still farther stimulated by the pressure of poverty, and the genial old doctor, who loved a good story and a good joke, had an abundance of this world's goods, and cared very little whether his practice increased or decreased, so that it was not intruded upon by the new lights.
Yet they were great friends. Rich loved the doctor, though soon made aware of his deficiencies, and treated him with the greatest deference; while the latter obstinately shut his eyes to the fact,often brought to view by his fellow-physician, Dr. Slaughter, that he was nourishing a most thorough-going radical and new light in his own bosom, although never obtruding his heresies; for if ever there was a boy bound to go to the root of principles, that boy was Rich.
Mrs. Clemens was a lady after the doctor's own heart. She was intelligent, refined, benevolent, and universally esteemed. Like most persons in delicate health, she was fond of having a physician round her, consulted the doctor in respect to every trifling indisposition, and was very conservative in her notions. She had one weak point, as who has not. This was a perfect passion for reading medical works and practising upon herself and the members of her family—a sentiment fostered by her delicate state of health.
This rendered it quite difficult for her to keep a hired girl, for though they liked her, and received good wages, they were not fond of the medicines she insisted upon their taking to keep them from being sick. Next to the Holy Scriptures, she reverenced Buchan's Domestic Medicine,—a copy of which, elegantly bound, lay on her table beside the Bible,—abhorred innovations in medical practice, and would much rather have died under the hands of a regular physician than been cured by a quack.
"Doctor," she said, one day, "how mysterious it seems, that my dear husband, who was a great,stout, healthy man, the very picture of health, and used to take care of me just like a baby, should be in his grave, and I still spared!"
"Invalids, ma'am, live the longest of any people in the world."
"How can that be, doctor?"
"Because they take care of themselves."
The good lady, indeed, took excellent care of herself; but she was sadly tried in regard to taking care of her son Dan.
Dan was a robust, red-cheeked boy, sound to the core, of fearless, sanguine temperament, and it was the hardest work in the world for Dan to sit on a bench and apply himself to study. Nothing but their attachment to Rich would have induced him and his sworn friends, Ned Baker and Frank Merrill, to attempt and accomplish it. But much as Dan loved his mother, he did abhor medicine, and to be coddled up.
Richardson was often placed between the two horns of a dilemma, as Mrs. Clemens invariably appealed to him when Dan proved refractory.
One morning his mother insisted that he had taken cold, and Dan as stoutly maintained the negative.
"Daniel, you must wear your great coat to school; your face is flushed, and I think you are feverish."
"It's always flushed, mother. I haven't one mite of cold, and I can't stand it to wear a coat this pleasant morning."
"Yes, you must, dear; your tongue is coated. I'll ask Mr. Richardson."
But Rich, who had overheard the conversation, made a bolt for the door, and escaped that time. In the course of an hour, Betty Gookins, the help, came in, bringing in her hand a garment.
"Only look here, ma'am. I went to pump a pail of water, and I couldn't, cause Dan's coat was in the pump-nose."
"O, dear, how that boy does try me! Well, I shall soon be in my grave."
But as the good lady had said the same for the last thirty years, there was evidently hope in the case. Dan, however, was not to escape so easily the watchful care of his mother. That night, when he came in to supper, he was regaled with the odor of salts and senna simmering in the corner.
"O, dear!" he said to himself; "have I got to take that awful, sickish, nasty stuff?"
The next morning, about half an hour before school-time, Rich wanted Dan.
"The poor child is not well, Mr. Richardson, and has gone into the unfinished room to take some medicine. He says he can take it better if he is alone, and nobody looking at him. I wish he didn't dislike to take medicine so much; if it was not such a trial to him, I should give him 'picra.'"
When Rich entered the room, Dan had got upa brick in the hearth, and was administering the salts and senna to the cross-sill beneath. He started like a guilty thing when the door opened, but, seeing who it was, completed his purpose.
"What are you about, Daniel?"
"Taking salts and senna, sir."
"Is that the way you always take them?"
"I never took any so before; but this is the way I mean to take them for the future. I expect to pour gallons into this hole."
"Are you well enough to get me a big log out of the wood-pile?"
"Certainly, Mr. Richardson. I never was weller in my life."
"But your mother said yesterday that your tongue was coated."
"So it was. I had been breaking a pan of cream. Mother don't like to have her cream disturbed after it is set. I licked the cream off my lips, but left it on my tongue."
"I think your mother'll have the best of it if she gives you salts and senna. She thinks highly of assafœtida, and may give you that."
"I never will take that; I'll leave home first."
The next evening, as Rich was passing through the kitchen with an armful of wood for his evening fire, he noticed Mrs. Clemens seated before the fire, in her lap a pair of old-fashioned kitchen bellows, on a chair beside her a skillet full of hot coals, a roll of sheep-skin, a junk of Burgundypitch, and a knife. After cutting from the skin a piece of the right size for a plaster, she placed on it a piece of the pitch, put both on the flat side of the bellows, made the knife hot in the coals, and spread the plaster; while Dan, with no very joyous expression of countenance, sat awaiting the result.
"I am going to put this plaster between Daniel's shoulders, Mr. Richardson," said she; "it is a sovereign remedy for a cold; doesn't open the pores like a sweat, and expose one to take more cold."
The next morning the good lady declared the plaster had worked wonders; that Daniel's cold was very much better, and would soon be well.
"Perhaps I had better take it off, my son, wipe it, and wipe the perspiration from your back. The plaster will draw better, and it will prevent its itching and annoying you in school."
"O, no, mother; I shall be late. It don't itch one mite."
And he rushed from the house.
"It is very singular," replied his mother, looking after him, "myplasters always itch, and are very troublesome. I think they don't do much good except they itch."
Mrs. Clemens would have been less surprised had she known that the plaster began to itch the moment Dan was warm in bed. After enduring it awhile, he pulled it off and tucked it upchimney. So he told Frank Merrill, with whom, on the way to school, he shared some guava jelly given him by his mother, after taking the salts and senna, to take the taste out of his mouth.
Directly upon commencing the study of anatomy, Rich began to feel the need of something more than the plates contained in the books.
It was some distance to go, for the study of bones, to the doctor's house, and he wanted something that he could keep in his room, and have at hand to refer to; besides, the doctor had none of the bones of the trunk—only the skull and part of the limbs. He likewise wished to dissect and study muscles, tendons, the structure of skin, bone, veins, arteries, and internal organs, in their natural state, since for him to procure a human subject was at that time out of the question, as he was without means to purchase even a skeleton.
In these circumstances he conceived that much might be learned by a careful study and dissection of the bodies of animals in connection with the plates found in the books.
Mr. Clemens, the husband of Rich's landlady, owned and worked a large breadth of land, whichnecessitated the keeping of many horses, as he did all his farm work with horses; but after his decease the greater part of the land, and all the horses except one, were sold. On the lower floor of the stable was a small room, once devoted to storing and oiling harnesses, in which was a fireplace, and at one corner, a large closet without shelves, and very broad, where the more valuable riding harnesses, not in constant use, were hung, to defend them from dust. There were also some harness-maker's tools, old straps, thorough-braces, and a large leather boot, that had survived the vehicle to which it was once attached.
Fire-wood in those days was made but small account of, especially by Mrs. Clemens, who could not consume half of the decaying and downwood on her land.
"Mrs. Clemens," said Rich, "are you willing I should clear out the old harness-room, and make a fire there occasionally?"
"What for, Mr. Richardson? If you want more room in the house you can have it. It will certainly be more comfortable than the barn; besides, I am afraid you will take cold."
"Indeed, Mrs. Clemens, I need not hesitate to tell a lady of your respect for and appreciation of the medical profession, that as I proceed in my studies, I shall want to dissect and experiment upon the bodies of animals. You know that, although the courts and the community are everready to prosecute a physician to the extent of the law for a mistake in setting a bone, they throw every obstacle in the way of his obtaining any accurate knowledge of the machine he is expected to repair." The law in respect to this matter was more stringent then than at present.
"But, Mr. Richardson, if you should lose a mother, sister, or dear friend,—Mr. Perkins, for instance,—and had placed them in the earth, with all the respect nature dictates, could you bear to feel that they were taken from the grave, exposed upon a table, and cut to pieces by students smoking cigars, and laughing, and jesting, as though to fit and harden them for their profession by driving every spark of feeling and humanity out of their bosoms?"
"No, I could not. I don't believe, however, that there is the least necessity of this hardening process you have referred to; if I believed that, by devoting myself to the study of medicine, I should lose one particle of kindly feeling that I now possess, should harden my heart and curtail my sympathies, or change in any respect, except in obtaining self-command that I might discharge more efficiently my duty, I would relinquish study and go back to the anvil to-morrow. If a doctor is rough and unfeeling, it is to be attributed to his natural temper, and want of culture, not to his profession."
"Then I suppose you are just the one whoought to be a doctor, though I think it is strange that you should choose that profession. As I was telling Mrs. Merrill the other day, I observed you was so sensitive you nevercoulddo some of those dreadful things doctors were obliged to perform. But as for the harness-room, you may do whatever you like with it; there's a padlock in the house belongs to the outside door, and a key to the lock on the closet. If there is anything there worth saving, put it in the loft, and any old rubbish you can burn up."
"But the wood, I will pay for that."
"By no means, there's wood enough."
After clearing out the place, and cleansing it thoroughly, Rich made a table, and put iron rings into it, in order that he might fasten any animal that he wished to operate upon. He then procured buckles and waxed ends, and from the boot of the old chaise made straps of different lengths for the same purpose, and put a lock on the door in lieu of the padlock. As the stern, patient smith of the wilderness, amid the melancholy moan of pine forests, and the roar of the stream, wrought out by sheer pluck and perseverance, a mechanical trade, so his earnest grandson, completely absorbed in his chosen pursuit, strove to verify, by experiment upon the bodies of such animals as he could procure, the theories he studied.
In short, under the intoxication of a dominantimpulse, he did things that, had they come to the knowledge of Mrs. Clemens, she would no longer have doubted of his adaptedness to the medical profession on the score of sensitiveness; so impervious to emotion in certain directions will an absorbing idea render a person otherwise most impressible.
He dissected frogs to observe the muscles of the thigh, and irritated the muscular tissue of animals, thus creating inflammation, in order to watch its progress. Though there are striking differences between the composition of man and the animal, still there is correspondence enough to admit of much being learned; and in default of a human subject, he resorted to this method, as his grandfather, unable to procure an anvil, made a stone answer the purpose. The lungs of a hog are very similar to those of a man, and he found no difficulty in procuring these. If a stray dog came along, he was most kindly welcomed by Rich; but it was observed that no stray dog, having once entered Mrs. Clemens's yard, was ever seen to come out again.
Marvelous was the industry of Rich, only equalled by his ingenuity. He soon had the large closet in the stable filled to overflowing with the skeletons of various animals he had dissected and wired together with great skill. He was much attached to Dan, who procured him animals to operate upon, while he, in turn mountedbirds and squirrels for Dan—a matter in which Rich was very skilful.
He had been for a long time desirous of examining the structure of the eye, but could not procure a suitable subject. Mrs. Clemens possessed a cat of beautiful color and proportions, affectionate disposition, intelligent, and perfectly trained. Between this member of the family and Dan the affections of the good lady were about equally divided. When, as occasionally happened, Gertrude was unwell, the good lady was at her wits' end, as she would have nothing from Buchan, and eschewed Burgundy pitch plasters, salts, and senna. Indeed, she had much rather Dan would be sick, than Gertrude, for she knew what to do for Dan, while Gertrude would have nothing but catnip. At every meal she sat beside Mrs. Clemens in a high chair, and never offered to take anything from the table, waiting the leisure of her mistress. Dan also loved Gertrude dearly, and had taught her a great many tricks. Rich likewise conceived a fondness for the cat, being naturally fond of pets.
Gertrude was exceedingly social in her disposition, rejoiced in a numerous circle of friends, and was not in the least stuck up.
There was a large Thomas cat—an enormous creature—that often came to call upon Gertrude, in a friendly way, and spend a sociable evening. Silver-gray along the back, annular stripes on thetail, white feet, snow-white breast, large, lustrous, prominent eyes, and a magnificent pair ofwhiskers; in short, this Thomas cat was a splendid creature, and, as Rich thought, would afford him, if in his possession, an excellent opportunity to observe the structure of the eye. Dan, Frank Merrill, and Horace Williams, did their best to take the creature, dead or alive, but in vain.
A door opened from the wood-shed into the stable, and a passage was left to this door in piling the wood that was tiered up on either side to the height of five, and on one side seven, feet. Several times the boys had got the Thomas cat in this passage; but the wily creature either went over the top of the wood, or ran through a small hole beside the door, that it would seem no catcouldget through. Rich nailed the mouth of a meal-bag to this hole on the stable side, and placed a board on the other, ready to put up to prevent the cat's return.
One Wednesday Horace Williams came over to spend the afternoon and take tea with Dan. Just before the tea hour, Dan, coming in, whispered to Rich, "The cat's in the passage. I can see his eyes shine just like balls of fire." Armed with sticks of wood, they approached the end of the passage, gave a fearful howl and let the wood fly; the globes of fire vanished, and they knew by the sound the cat had not gone over the wood-pile.
"He's in the bag, I know," said Dan. "I heard him squeeze through the hole. O, crimini!" and he ran to put up the piece of board. Rich and Horace lost no time in putting a string round the bag in which the cat was struggling, tearing it from the hole, and immersing it in a tub of water. Just as the struggling ceased the bell rang for supper, and flinging the bag and its contents into a horse-stall to drip and dry, they sat down to eat.
Dan sat on his mother's right hand, next to him Horace, and on her left was Gertrude's high chair; but it was empty.
"Where can Gertrude be?" said Mrs. Clemens, after pouring out the tea; "for seven years she has never before been absent from my side at meals unless sick."
A fearful suspicion crossed the mind of Rich, and catching the eye of Dan, he saw that he was similarly affected.
Hastening to the stable when the meal was over, with a light, they turned out the contents of the bag, and lo! it was poor Gertrude, that in the dark they had mistaken for the Thomas cat and drowned. Rich was very much distressed; so was Dan, as, aside from his sorrow for his mother, the cat was a favorite pet of his, and had grown up with him.
Placing the dead body of Gertrude upon the dissecting table, they locked the door forconsultation. At first they thought of owning up, but finally concluded to keep the secret, and, as long as she was dead, thought they might as well make the remains of some advantage to science. Richardson possessed already one skeleton of a cat, and only cared for the eyes. Dan therefore persuaded him to mount Gertrude for him. This Rich did, making a small incision, turning the body through it, and replacing the skull and leg bones, after removing the brains and flesh, supplying the rest of the skeleton, so far as was needed, with wire.
Having already mounted several birds for Dan, he made a tree, put the birds in the branches, and having furnished Gertrude with eyes of colored glass, placed her under the tree in a natural attitude, as though watching a squirrel, the wire in the limbs enabling him to bend them in any direction. A red squirrel was also placed half way up the tree, as though alarmed by the cat. Dan was delighted, and thought he had much rather have his pet dead than alive.
All these operations were performed with closed doors, and the birds and animals placed under lock and key in the closet.
Mrs. Clemens mourned for her cat, and refused to be comforted. Gertrude's empty chair was always placed beside her; at table she often recounted the virtues of the departed, considered and spoke of the event as one of those mysteriousdispensations of Providence, to which, though we cannot fathom, it is our duty to submit.
"I do wish my mother would bury that cat," said Dan. "I'm sick and tired of hearing about her—should think she might pick up another kitten."
Month after month passed, and still Mrs. Clemens mourned the loss of her pet. At the expiration of this period, Fred Evans, a cousin of Dan, came to visit him. One afternoon Dan persuaded Rich to put all the things on the table, make a grand show, and let Fred see them. To this Rich consented; the door was locked, and Fred sworn to secrecy.
On the table was placed the tree set in a block, with birds in its branches; half way up the trunk a red squirrel looking down and chattering at the cat, crouched at the roots as in act to spring.
Disposed around the tree that occupied the centre were the skeletons of various animals, wired together, and in an upright position, fastened to blocks—rabbits, dogs, a cat, wood-chuck, rooster, and pig. The tree was formed with great ingenuity, by placing a real branch in a thick block of pine, carving the spur roots from the substance of the block, and covering with moss, dried leaves, and twigs, confined with glue, while Gertrude, seated on the moss, seemed actually alive.
Horace Williams was invited, being already inthe secret, to help entertain Fred, and as an intimate friend of Dan.
Rich wanted a shingle to put under one leg of the table, the floor being uneven, and sent Horace after it, who forgot to lock the door at his return.
Mrs. Clemens, having occasion for Dan, and not finding him in the house or yard, sought him in the harness-room, where she knew he spent much of his leisure time.
Opening the door upon the startled group, the first object that arrested her attention was the long lost and bitterly lamented Gertrude, as she verily thought, alive, and in the act of springing upon a squirrel. Exclaiming, "Gertrude!myGertrude! where have you been?" she clasped the effigy to her breast. Alas! there was no answering caress; there was no "speculation" in those eyes of stained glass, and the dried skin rattled in her fond embrace. It was astuffedcat. "What does this mean?" she cried, permitting the imposture to drop on the floor, thoroughly overcome and faint with this sudden blasting of new-born hopes. She would have fallen to the floor; but Rich and Dan conveyed her to the house, where, after seeing her safely placed in the easy-chair, Rich took to flight, feeling thatDancould settle the affair far better than himself.