"I know I am not capable of giving you advice, and cannot expect that you will receive it from me as you would from Mort; but I beg of you, whatever you do, don't go to starving yourself; it will be a losing game in the end. If you are going to work hard all day in school, and then study when out of it, you need, and must have, good, nourishing food, and plenty of it. There was Eckford, of our class, lived on water[Pg 161] gruel2 and molasses, and roast potatoes, and made out to graduate. But what did he ever amount to, more than sweetened water?"
"He never was more than half alive, to begin with. I am in good case, and must economize3 the last cent."
"Economize, with a vengeance4! Saving at the tap, and spilling at the bung-hole. A precious doctor you'll make. Going to dry up the juices, both of body and brain, by starvation. Now let me plan. My aunt has considerable land and other property, and needs some one to aid her in the care of it. Dan is a mere5 boy, and it brings a good deal of care upon her. If you will see to her affairs, cut the wood, take care of the garden in the summer (Dan milks, and takes care of the cow and horse), keep her accounts, and just do what pertains6 to the house (if there is anything beyond that, she will hire other help), you can stay in this room, have your board, fuel, and a horse to ride occasionally, you can borrow medical books of Dr. Ryan, practice on my aunt, who is in delicate health, dearly loves to take medicine, wears a Burgundy pitch plaster between her shoulders, reads Buchan's Domestic Medicine, and Parson Meek7 will pray for you. I think this will be a great deal better than your starvation plan, unless you think it would be derogatory to your character, and injure your [Pg 162]influence as principal of the academy, if it should be known that you cut wood and did chores."
"Derogatory!" cried Rich, jumping up. "I don't value the opinion of any who think honest labor8 derogatory that," snapping his fingers. "If they don't like it, they may dislike it. I can earn as much at the anvil9 as I can here, and all the reason I prefer it is, I can study when I have done my day's work here; and after I have been at work in the shop all day I am tired and sleepy. I will most gladly fall in with the offer of your aunt, and do all or anything she wants done."
"Rich, you are no more like a fellow we used to call Rich in Radcliffe, than chalk's like cheese."
"I've been through a 'discipline,' as President Appleton would say. Then, I used to dip my fingers in rose water of a morning, and dress my hair with pomatum. Since that, I've had to wash in an iron-hooped bucket, and wipe on a tow towel cousin german to a nutmeg grater. Sweat and coal dust have taken the place of pomatum. It didn't last, however, longer than the first term of the freshman10 year. I caught an expression on Mort's face one day, when I was fixing up before the glass, that made me, as soon as his back was turned, fling the rose water and pomatum into the slop pail. I tell you, Perk, there's no tonic11 equal to iron. I mean to give lots of it when I am a doctor."
[Pg 163]
"So I think; but I like to take it best in the shape of a gun barrel, a fish-hook, or a pair of skates."
The number of pupils in the academy was quite large, and, as was customary in those days, they consisted of both sexes, ranging in age from ten to nineteen, and even twenty years. There were boys fitting for college, and others pursuing English studies. Some of the older scholars studied surveying, book-keeping, and navigation.
Rich gave himself wholly to his work, and speedily created among his scholars not merely an attachment12 to himself, but enthusiasm in study, and desire to excel. It was soon evident, both to the trustees and more advanced scholars, that their present teacher was greatly superior in every department, not only to Perk, but any instructor13 who had preceded him.
The fact that he did chores, and attended to business matters, in order to defray the expense of his board, so far from proving derogatory, as Perk had hinted, operated in precisely14 the opposite manner. Had he resorted to this method of reducing his expenses from penuriousness15, and an overweening desire to accumulate, such, doubtless, would have been the result, and the proceeding16 would have excited both ridicule17 and contempt.
The instincts of the boys, however, divined that this was not his character. They felt [Pg 164]themselves drawn18 towards him by that magnetic influence that his college mates confessed, and were proud of his scholarship and commanding ability, that even those who could not appreciate felt. In addition to this they were not long in discovering that, although he did chores, and even cleaned out the pig-sty, he was the best dressed man in the town on the Sabbath, which was to them a sore puzzle. But when it leaked out, probably through Perk, that he had been reared in affluence19, was now flung upon his own resources, struggling to obtain a professional education, and that his style of dress was merely the remnant of better days, and not occasioned by mere love of display, the knowledge produced universal sympathy and respect, the whole community vying21 with each other in the manifestation22 of it.
Although practising the most rigid23 economy, husbanding every moment of time, and performing a great deal of labor, the noble nature of Rich manifested itself in a thousand ways; and strange it is how this unwritten, unspoken language of the heart is generally felt and understood. He was patient with the dull, encouraged the industrious24, and stimulated25 to the utmost those scholars possessed26 of superior ability, while the mere desire to merit his esteem27 and affection roused indolent and wayward boys to persevering28 effort, and inspired them with a love of study and spirit of emulation29 they had never felt before.
[Pg 165]
But when Granny Fluker (after he went into the blacksmith's shop, made a new crank to her flax wheel, mended the cover of her Dutch oven, that was broke in two, by drilling holes in it, and putting wrought30 iron cleats across, fastened with rivets31, and made a new bail32 to the oven) exclaimed, "God bless the young gentleman for condescending33 to sich a poor old worn-out critter as I am, that have to be helped by the town. Well, it's allers the way, in this world; them what's got the biggest hearts to do allers have the least to do with. But if the prayers of a poor old lone34 body like me can do him any good, he'll sartain have 'em."
She expressed the universal sentiment of the whole community.
To increase still more the estimation in which Rich was held, it was ascertained35 that he was an excellent singer. The parish choir36 was in a most wretched condition. A maiden37 lady, who had long been distinguished38 as a singer, began to show unmistakable signs of age, and her voice cracked. She received from the younger members sundry39 hints to leave. These she took in high dugeon, and left, together with a brother and two sisters, who were fine singers, and who espoused40 her quarrel. Before the new members who were introduced upon their leaving could be drilled, the chorister, who had made a great part of the disturbance41, left town, taking his bass-viol with him.
[Pg 166]
In this condition of things, Rich was invited to take the lead of the choir, and accepted, established choir meetings, and soon put matters to rights; while the refractory42 brother and his two sisters, finding that they were not necessary, got over their huff, and came back.
The younger portion of the choir, ascertaining43 from Dan Clemens that Rich played the violin, persuaded him to bring it to church the next Sunday. The moment Rich drew the bow across the strings44, Deacon Starkweather got up, slamming the pew door after him, left the church, and going into the pasture, out of sight and sound of the ungodly thing, sat down on a stump45, in a snow-storm, till he judged it was time for the sermon to begin, when he returned, as he had no quarrel with Parson Meek, and merely wished to show his displeasure, and enter a protest against the fiddle46. Rich, however, smoothed all asperities47, and reconciled the worthy48 deacon, by persuading the members of the parish most interested in music to purchase a bass-viol, upon which he performed to the satisfaction of all; Deacon Starkweather inviting49 Rich, and all the members of the choir, to tea, when he explained to them that he had never cherished the least hardness against any member of the choir, but that his action was in reference to the instrument, and the associations connected with that exponent50 of folly51, and concluded with a most generous[Pg 167] contribution toward the purchase of the bass-viol. Thus was the affair that at one time threatened to break up the parish most happily settled. Rich earned the reputation of a peacemaker, and young man of excellent judgment52, and the deacon, through his device delivered from an uncomfortable position (as his conduct by no means met with general approbation), became the staunch friend of Rich, declaring, upon every proper occasion, that "he was a young man that had the root of the matter in him."
The period at which Rich began the study of medicine was the commencement of a great revolution in medical theory and practice, both in relation to the treatment of disease and surgery; young and earnest men were struggling in every direction for light; new discoveries were made, reverence53 for the past was gradually wearing off, and the old theories of practice were subjected to a most searching and often irreverent scrutiny54.
Dr. Ryan by no means belonged to that class of mind sometimes designated by the term, "The sword frets55 out the scabbard." On the other hand, he was hale and hearty56, possessed of a noble frame, hair slightly tinged57 with gray, but ruddy cheeks, a fine set of teeth of pearly whiteness, and a frank, hearty manner, betokening58 real goodness of heart.
Though possessed of very moderate abilities, the doctor was a man of sterling59 worth, great integrity, and kind and sympathizing nature. He[Pg 168] enjoyed a large practice, being the only physician in the place. The poor loved him, because he was ever as ready to attend to their wants as to those of his more wealthy patients, often put shoes on the feet of a barefooted child, and did not hesitate to bestow60 flannels61 and fuel, when he felt that they were more necessary than medicine. The utmost confidence was reposed62 in him, as his more intelligent patients, if disposed to doubt his skill in difficult cases, knew perfectly63 well that he would not hesitate a moment in calling in more competent persons, when he felt their aid was required.
At this period the spirit of inquiry64 was abroad. There were rumors65 in the air, and forebodings of a radical66 reform in medical practice. Practitioners67 of the doctor's age, who were either too indolent, prejudiced, or too far advanced in life to receive and act upon new ideas, were by no means to be envied, being somewhat in the position of one upon a ledge20 in the sea, cut off by the tide, that, constantly rising, rendered his passing into oblivion merely a question of time.
The old physicians stigmatized68 these disturbers of the peace of antiquity69 and their own as quacks70, new lights, upstarts, and utterly71 unsafe as experimenters with human life. The advocates of the improved practice, on the other hand, were by no means backward in denouncing their seniors as fossils, petrifactions, enemies to all progress,[Pg 169] and only desirous of retailing72 drugs at ninety per cent. profit, and fattening73 the graveyards74; of promoting gangrene, and needless amputations, through their ignorance of the first principles of surgery; multiplying cripples by malpractice and ignorance of anatomy75; that they had one mode of treatment for all disorders76; and the time-honored allusion77 to "Procrustes' bed" was lavishly78 applied79 to their opponents.
The good doctor, firmly wedded80 to the ancient practice, felt all the animosity his genial81 nature permitted him to indulge in respect to the new lights; and when he heard that a young man thoroughly82 impregnated (as he could not doubt) with radical notions, was about to take the academy, and had already commenced the study of medicine, he felt very much as an old crower, who has walked in state, and lorded it over his dames83, might be supposed to feel when he sees a young rooster suddenly flung down in the barn-yard, and inwardly resolved that the young upstart should receive neither aid, comfort, nor countenance84 from him.
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1
perk
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| n.额外津贴；赏钱；小费； | |
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gruel
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| n.稀饭，粥 | |
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economize
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| v.节约，节省 | |
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vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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pertains
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| 关于( pertain的第三人称单数 )； 有关； 存在； 适用 | |
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meek
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| adj.温顺的，逆来顺受的 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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anvil
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| n.铁钻 | |
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freshman
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| n.大学一年级学生(可兼指男女) | |
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tonic
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| n./adj.滋补品，补药，强身的，健体的 | |
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attachment
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| n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附 | |
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instructor
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| n.指导者，教员，教练 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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penuriousness
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proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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ridicule
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| v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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affluence
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| n.充裕，富足 | |
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ledge
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| n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁 | |
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vying
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| adj.竞争的；比赛的 | |
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manifestation
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| n.表现形式；表明；现象 | |
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rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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industrious
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| adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的 | |
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stimulated
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| a.刺激的 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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esteem
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| n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作 | |
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persevering
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| a.坚忍不拔的 | |
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emulation
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| n.竞争；仿效 | |
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wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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rivets
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| 铆钉( rivet的名词复数 ) | |
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bail
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| v.舀（水），保释；n.保证金，保释，保释人 | |
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condescending
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| adj.谦逊的,故意屈尊的 | |
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lone
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| adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的 | |
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ascertained
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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choir
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| n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱 | |
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maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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sundry
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| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
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espoused
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| v.（决定）支持，拥护（目标、主张等）( espouse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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refractory
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| adj.倔强的，难驾驭的 | |
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ascertaining
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的现在分词 ) | |
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strings
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| n.弦 | |
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stump
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| n.残株，烟蒂，讲演台；v.砍断，蹒跚而走 | |
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fiddle
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| n.小提琴；vi.拉提琴；不停拨弄，乱动 | |
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asperities
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| n.粗暴( asperity的名词复数 )；（表面的）粗糙；（环境的）艰苦；严寒的天气 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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inviting
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| adj.诱人的，引人注目的 | |
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exponent
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| n.倡导者，拥护者；代表人物；指数，幂 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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scrutiny
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| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
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frets
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| 基质间片； 品丝（吉他等指板上定音的）( fret的名词复数 ) | |
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hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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tinged
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| v.（使）发丁丁声( ting的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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betokening
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| v.预示，表示( betoken的现在分词 ) | |
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sterling
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| adj.英币的(纯粹的，货真价实的)；n.英国货币(英镑) | |
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bestow
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| v.把…赠与，把…授予；花费 | |
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flannels
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| 法兰绒男裤； 法兰绒( flannel的名词复数 ) | |
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reposed
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| v.将（手臂等）靠在某人（某物）上( repose的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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rumors
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| n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
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radical
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| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
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practitioners
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| n.习艺者，实习者( practitioner的名词复数 )；从业者（尤指医师） | |
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stigmatized
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| v.使受耻辱，指责，污辱( stigmatize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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quacks
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| abbr.quacksalvers 庸医，骗子(16世纪习惯用水银或汞治疗梅毒的人)n.江湖医生( quack的名词复数 )；江湖郎中；（鸭子的）呱呱声v.（鸭子）发出嘎嘎声( quack的第三人称单数 ) | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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retailing
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| n.零售业v.零售(retail的现在分词) | |
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fattening
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| adj.（食物）要使人发胖的v.喂肥( fatten的现在分词 )；养肥（牲畜）；使（钱）增多；使（公司）升值 | |
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graveyards
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| 墓地( graveyard的名词复数 )； 垃圾场； 废物堆积处； 收容所 | |
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anatomy
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| n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织 | |
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disorders
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| n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调 | |
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allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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lavishly
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| adv.慷慨地，大方地 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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wedded
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| adj.正式结婚的；渴望…的，执著于…的v.嫁，娶，（与…）结婚( wed的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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81
genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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82
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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83
dames
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| n.（在英国）夫人（一种封号），夫人（爵士妻子的称号）( dame的名词复数 )；女人 | |
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84
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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