case. Without the use of dynamite the Red Leary-O'Brien gang could
not have broken into those ducks. I thought so then and I think
so yet. Years have passed since then, but I may state that even
now, when there are guests for dinner, we do not have ducks.
Unless somebody else is going to carve, we have liver.

I mention this fact in passing because it shows that I had learned
to revere carving as one of the higher arts, and one not to be
approached except in a spirit of due appreciation of the magnitude
of the undertaking, and after proper consideration and thought and
reflection, and all that sort of thing.

If this were true as regards a mere duck, why not all the more so
as regards the carving of a person of whom I am so very fond as I
am of myself? Thus I reasoned. And finally, had not Doctor Z
spoken of the coming operation as a small matter? Well then?

Thursday at noon I received from Doctor Z's secretary a note stating
that arrangements had been made for my admission into St. Germicide
that same evening and that I was to spend the night there. This
hardly seemed necessary. Still, the tone of the note appeared to
indicate that the hospital authorities particularly wished to have
me for an overnight guest; and as I reflected that probably the poor
things had few enough bright spots in their busy lives, I decided
I would humor them along and gladden the occasion with my presence
from dinner-time on.

About eight o'clock I strolled in very jauntily. In my mind I
had the whole programme mapped out. I would stay at the hospital
for, say, two days following the operation--or, at most, three.