CHAPTER XXI.

THE DOCTOR AND HIS WIFE ON A FISHING EXCURSION--THE LAW OF THE
CASE--STRONG-MINDED WOMEN.


The right to the glory of having killed the bear being settled, the
Doctor, addressing himself to Spalding, remarked--"There was something
in H----'s appeal to you about the law of his case, that reminded me
of a little scene between my wife and myself, many years ago, when we
were both younger than we are now, and certainly had never anticipated
the dark years of trial, through which we were unexpectedly called
upon to pass. You know that I started in life, like Smith here, a
gentleman of fortune, calculating, like him, to live at my ease,
without troubling myself with the cares of any particular business, as
I passed along. Still I thought, or rather my father thought, that it
would be well enough, even for a gentleman, to have at least a nominal
title to some profession. So I studied the law, and was admitted as an
attorney and counsellor of the courts. Never intending to practise, I
did not become very profoundly learned in the profession; still I
became, to some extent, indoctrinated with its mysteries. I did not
like it; and when the necessity for some active employment came
looming up in the distance, I chose a different calling, and at
six-and-twenty, commenced the study of my present profession. This did
not occur until after I had been married some three years. I lived in
the country then, or rather, summered there, in a beautiful little
village in the interior of the State, in a pleasant, old-fashioned
house, which my father built, and which, as I was his only heir, I
supposed of course I owned. Some half a dozen miles from the village