ous compound fracture,
assuring himself that he bore it like a man, and that he need not be
under the least apprehension, for in such a healthy subject the joint
would knit together before long, and he would be as strong as ever.

All this was in company with the business he was carrying on of applying
the splints and bandaging the broken leg; after which, by aid of the
doctor's walking-sticks, he limped to the door, as there was no one to
carry him, thanked himself for his kindness, and in imagination
departed, leaving himself in the character of the doctor, whose walk he
imitated as he drew out a large pill-box, opened it, and took a small
pinch of magnesia as if it were snuff.

Another peep at the doctor through the keyhole, and a run to the door,
to make sure of there being no interruption there, and then the boy's
face assumed a very serious expression. He took the cloth from the
little table in the corner, rolled up the hearthrug longwise, and tied
it in two places with string, and then treating it as a patient, he laid
it on the settee, and drew over it the table-cover.

He was not satisfied, though, and getting a square of paper, such as
would be used to wrap up a bottle of medicine, he poked his finger
through twice for eyes, made a slit for a mouth, and puckered the paper
for a nose.

This rough mask he tied at the end of the long roll, drew the
table-cover up to the face, and then came to see the patient, carried on
an imaginary conversation with a colleague, and ended by going to a
cupboard and getting out a long mahogany case.

Bob's reading for the past two years had not been the wholesome and
unwholesome literature provided for our youth, but the contents of the
doctor's little library, the _Lancet_, and the _Medical Times_. These
proceedings were the offspring.

To carry out the next proceedings, Bob took off his jacket and rolled up
his sleeves; informed his colleague that it was a bad case--a diseased
heart--and the only hope for the patient's life was to take it out
completely.

This Bob proceeded to do with goblin-like delight. He turned the
table-cover half down before opening the mahogany case, which contained
a set of long amputating knives; and these he tried one after the other,
to satisfy himself about the edge before commencing the operation, with
great gusto, cutting the string that bound the hearthrug, making an
incision, and extracting the heart. Next the place was sewn up, the