The arm, that was extended, bent, and brought the hand nigh to his face, when his head dropped upon it, and concealed the wonderfully speaking lineaments.

»We forget, dear sir, the strange gentleman,« (for her life Elizabeth could not call him otherwise,) »whom we have brought here for assistance, and to whom we owe every attention.«

All eyes were instantly turned in the direction of those of the speaker, and the youth, rather proudly, elevated his head again, while he answered –

»My wound is trifling, and I believe that Judge Temple sent for a physician the moment we arrived.«

»Certainly,« said Marmaduke; »I have not forgotten the object of thy visit, young man, nor the nature of my debt.«

»Oh!« exclaimed Richard, with something of a waggish leer, »thou owest the lad for the venison, I suppose, that thou killed, cousin 'duke! Marmaduke! Marmaduke! That was a marvellous tale of thine about the buck! Here, young man, are two dollars for the deer, and Judge Temple can do no less than pay the Doctor. I shall charge you nothing for my services, but you shall not fare the worse for that. Come, come, 'duke, don't be down-hearted about it; if you missed the buck, you contrived to shoot this poor fellow through a pine tree. Now I own that you have beat me; I never did such a thing in all my life.«

»And I hope never will,« returned the Judge, »if you are to experience the uneasiness that I have suffered. But be of good cheer, my young friend, the injury must be small, as thou movest thy arm with apparent freedom.«

»Don't make the matter worse, 'duke, by pretending to talk about surgery,« interrupted Mr. Jones, with a contemptuous wave of the hand; »it is a science that can only be learnt by practice. You know that my grandfather was a doctor, but you haven't got a drop of medical blood in your veins; these kind of things run in families. All my family by the father's side had a knack at physic. There was my uncle that was killed at Brandywine, he died as easy again as any other man in the regiment, just from knowing how to hold his breath naturally. Few men know how to breathe, naturally.«

»I doubt not, Dickon,« returned the Judge, meeting the bright smile, which, in spite of himself, stole over the stranger's features, »that thy family thoroughly understood the art of letting life slip through their fingers.«

Richard heard him quite coolly, and, putting a hand in either pocket of his surtout, so as to press forward the skirts, began to whistle a tune; but the desire to reply overcame his philosophy, and with great heat he exclaimed –

»You may affect to smile, Judge Temple, at hereditary virtues, if you please; but there is not a man on your Patent who don't know better. – Here, even this young man, who has never seen any thing but bears, and deer, and wood-chucks, knows better, than to believe virtues are not transmitted in families. Don't you, friend?«

»I believe that vice is not,« said the stranger abruptly, his eye glancing from the father to the daughter.

»The Squire is right, Judge,« observed Benjamin, with a knowing nod of his head towards Richard, that bespoke the cordiality between them. »Now, in the old-country, the King's Majesty touches for the evil, and that is a disorder that the greatest doctor in the fleet, or, for the matter of that, Admiral either, can't cure; only the King's Majesty, or a man that's been hanged. Yes, the Squire is right, for if-so-be that he wasn't, how is it that the seventh son always is a doctor, whether he ships for the cock-pit or not? Now when we fell in with the mounsheers, under De Grasse, d'ye see, we had aboard of us a doctor« –

»Very well, Benjamin,« interrupted Elizabeth, glancing her eyes from the hunter to Monsieur Le Quoi, who was most politely attending to what fell from each individual in succession, »you shall tell me of that, and all your entertaining adventures together; just now, a room must be prepared, in which the arm of this gentleman can be dressed.«

»I will attend to that myself, cousin Elizabeth,« observed Richard, somewhat haughtily. – »The young man shall not suffer, because Marmaduke chooses to be a little obstinate. Follow me, my friend, and I will examine the hurt myself.«

»It will be well to wait for the physician,« said the hunter coldly; »he cannot be distant.«

Richard paused, and looked at the speaker, a little astonished at the language, and a good deal appalled at the refusal. He construed the latter into an act of hostility, and, placing his hands in the pockets again, he walked up to Mr. Grant, and putting his face close to the countenance of the divine, said in an under tone –

»Now mark my words: there will be a story among the settlers, that all our necks would have been broken, but for that fellow – as if I did not know how to drive. Why you might have turned the horses yourself, sir; nothing was easier; it was only pulling hard on the nigh rein, and touching the off flank of the leader. I hope, my dear sir, you are not at all hurt by the upset the lad gave us?«

The reply was interrupted by the entrance of the village physician.

 

 

Chapter VI

»– And about his shelves,

A beggarly account of empty boxes,

Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds,

Remnants of pack-thread, and old cakes of roses,

Were thinly scattered to make up a show.«

Romeo and Juliet, V.i.44-48.

 

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 somewhat easy circumstances, had allowed this boy to shoot up to the height we have mentioned, without the ordinary interruptions of field-labour, wood-chopping, and such other toils as were imposed on his brothers. Elnathan was indebted for this exemption from labour, in some measure, to his extraordinary growth, which, leaving him pale, inanimate, and listless, induced his tender mother to pronounce him »a sickly boy, and one that was not equal to work, but who might arn a living, comfortably enough, by taking to pleading law, or turning minister, or doctoring, or some sitch-like easy calling.« Still there was great uncertainty which of these vocations the youth was best endowed to fill; but, having no other employment, the stripling was constantly lounging about the ›homestead,‹ munching green apples, and hunting for sorrel; when the same sagacious eye, that had brought to light his latent talents, seized upon this circumstance, as a clue to his future path through the turmoils of the world. »Elnathan was cut out for a doctor,« she knew, »for he was for ever digging for yarbs, and tasting all kinds of things that grow'd about the lots. Then again he had a naateral love for doctor-stuff, for when she had left the bilious pills out for her man, all nicely covered with maple sugar, just ready to take, Nathan had come in, and swallowed them, for all the world as if they were nothing, while Ichabod (her husband) could never get one down without making sitch desperate faces, that it was awful to look on.«

This discovery decided the matter. Elnathan, then about fifteen, was, much like a wild colt, caught and trimmed, by clipping his bushy locks; dressed in a suit of homespun, died in the butternut bark; furnished with a »New Testament,« and a »Webster's Spelling-Book,« and sent to school. As the boy was by nature quite shrewd enough, and had previously, at odd times, laid the foundations of reading, writing, and arithmetic, he was soon conspicuous in the school for his learning.