time than that the surgeon has completely altered the form itself.

With the surgeon it is very much as it is with those learned men
who write those large, impressive works of reference which should
be permanently in every library, and which we are forever buying
from an agent because we are so passionately addicted to payments.
If the thing he seeks does not appear in the contents proper he
knows exactly where to look for it. "See appendix," says the
historian to you in a footnote. "See appendix," says the surgeon
to himself, the while humming a cheery refrain. And so he does.

Well, I went home. This was Tuesday and the operation was not
to be performed until the coming Friday. By Wednesday I had calmed
down considerably. By Thursday morning I was practically normal
again as regards my nerves. You will understand that I was still
in a blissful state of ignorance concerning the actual methods of
the surgical profession as exemplified by its leading exponents of
today. The knowledge I have touched on in the pages immediately
preceding was to come to me later.

Likewise Doctor Z's manner had been deceiving. It could not be
that he meant to carve me to any really noticeable extent--his
attitude had been entirely too casual. At our house carving is
a very serious matter. Any time I take the head of the table and
start in to carve it is fitting women and children get to a place
of safety, and onlookers should get under the table. When we first
began housekeeping and gave our first small dinner-party we had
a brace of ducks cooked in honor of the company, and I, as host,
undertook to carve them. I never knew until then that a duck was
built like a watch--that his works were inclosed in a burglarproof