had known her son empty the school-baskets with his own mouth, to
prevent the consequences.”

Soon after this comfortable declaration from his school master, the
lad was removed to the house of the village doctor, a gentleman whose
early career had not been unlike that of our hero where he was to be
seen sometimes watering a horse, at others watering medicines, blue,
yellow, and red: then again he might be noticed lolling under an
apple-tree, with Ruddiman’s Latin Grammar in his hand, and a corner of
Denman’s Midwifery sticking out of a pocket; for his instructor held
it absurd to teach his pupil how to dispatch a patient regularly from
this world, before he knew how to bring him into it.

This kind of life continued for a twelvemonth, when he suddenly
appeared at a meeting in a long coat (and well did it deserve the
name!) of black homespun, with little bootees, bound with an uncolored
calf-skin for the want of red morocco.

Soon after he was seen shaving with a dull razor. Three or four
months had scarce elapsed before several elderly ladies were observed
hastening toward the house of a poor woman in the village, while
others were running to and fro in great apparent distress. One or two
boys were mounted, bareback, on horses, and sent off at speed in
various directions. Several indirect questions were put concerning
the place where the physician was last seen; but all would not do; and
at length Elnathan was seen issuing from his door with a very grave
air, preceded by a little white-headed boy, out of breath, trotting
before him. The following day the youth appeared in the street, as
the highway was called, and the neighborhood was much edified by the
additional gravity of his air. The same week he bought a new razor;