“And about his shelves,
A beggarly account of empty boxes,
Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds.
Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses,
Were thinly scattered to make up a show.”-Shakespeare.

Doctor Elnathan Todd, for such was the name of the man of physic, was
commonly thought to be, among the settlers, a gentleman of great
mental endowments, and he was assuredly of rare personal proportions.
In height he measured, without his shoes, exactly six feet and four
inches. His hands, feet, and knees corresponded in every respect with
this formidable stature; but every other part of his frame appeared to
have been intended for a man several sizes smaller, if we except the
length of the limbs. His shoulders were square, in one sense at
least, being in a right line from one side to the other; but they were
so narrow, that the long dangling arms they supported seemed to issue
out of his back. His neck possessed, in an eminent degree, the
property of length to which we have alluded, and it was topped by a
small bullet-head that exhibited on one side a bush of bristling brown
hair and on the other a short, twinkling visage, that appeared to
maintain a constant struggle with itself in order to look wise. He
was the youngest son of a farmer in the western part of Massachusetts,
who, being in some what easy circumstances, had allowed this boy to
shoot up to the height we have mentioned, without the ordinary
interruptions of field labor, wood-chopping, and such other toils as
were imposed on his brothers. Elnathan was indebted for this
exemption from labor in some measure to his extraordinary growth,
which, leaving him pale, inanimate, and listless, induced his tender