to
procure his own nourishment, or in other words, was said to be a fool.
On raising the question, what should be done with him, a shrewd colored
man who stood by, said, "Master, send him to college!"

CHAPTER II.

MY FIRST MEDICAL LESSON.

Straws, it is said, show which way the wind blows; and words, and things
very small in themselves, sometimes show, much better than "two crowns,"
or the "stars," what is to be the future of a person's life. The choice
of a profession or occupation, were we but trained to the habit of
tracing effects up to their causes, will doubtless often be found to
have had its origin, if not in _straws_, at least in very small matters.

When I was ten years of age, my little brother, of only two years, sat
one day on the floor whittling an apple. The instrument in his hand was
a Barlow knife, as it was then called. The blade was about two inches in
length, but was worn very narrow. How his parents and other friends,
several of whom were in the same room, came to let him use such a
plaything, I cannot now conceive; but as the point was almost square,
and the knife very dull, they do not seem hitherto to have had any
fears.

Suddenly the usual quiet of the family was disturbed a little by the
announcement, "Somebody is going by;" an event which, as you should
know, was quite an era in that retired, mountainous region. All hastened
to the window to get a view of the passing traveller. The little boy
scampered among the rest; but in crossing the threshold of a door which
intervened, he stumbled and fell. A sudden shriek called to him one of
our friends, who immediately cried out, "Oh dear, he has put out his
eye!" and made a hasty but unsuccessful effort to extract the knife,
which had penetrated the full length of its blade. The mother hastened
to the spot, and drew it forth, though, as she afterward said, not
without the exertion of considerable force. Its back was towards the
child, and by pressing the ball of the eye downward, the instrument had
been able to penetrate to the bottom of the cavity, and perhaps a little
way into the bone beyond. The elasticity of the eyeball had retained it
so as to render its extraction seemingly difficult.

Most of those who were present, particularly myself and the rest of the
children, were for a short time in a state of mental agony that bordered
on insanity. Not knowing at first the nature of the wound, but only that
there was an eye there, and