Benjamin's mess, like his
Scripture namesake's, is five times as large as that of any of the
others, for this would imply either an economical distribution to the
guests in general or heaping the poor young man's plate in a way that
would spoil the appetite of an Esquimau, but you may be sure he fares
well if anybody does; and I would have you understand that our Landlady
knows what is what as well as who is who.

I begin really to entertain very sanguine expectations of young Doctor
Benjamin Franklin. He has lately been treating a patient of whose
good-will may prove of great importance to him. The Capitalist hurt one
of his fingers somehow or other, and requested our young doctor to take
a look at it. The young doctor asked nothing better than to take charge
of the case, which proved more serious than might have been at first
expected, and kept him in attendance more than a week. There was one
very odd thing about it. The Capitalist seemed to have an idea that he
was like to be ruined in the matter of bandages,--small strips of worn
linen which any old woman could have spared him from her rag-bag, but
which, with that strange perversity which long habits of economy give
to a good many elderly people, he seemed to think were as precious as
if they had been turned into paper and stamped with promises to pay in
thousands, from the national treasury. It was impossible to get this
whim out of him, and the young doctor had tact enough to humor him in
it. All this did not look very promising for the state of mind in which
the patient was like to receive his bill for attendance when that should
be presented. Doctor Benjamin was man enough, however, to come up to the
mark, and sent him in such an account as it was becoming to send a
man of ample means who had been diligently and skilfully cared for. He
looked forward with some uncertainty as to how it would be received.
Perhaps his patient would try to beat him down, and Doctor Benjamin made
up his mind to have the whole or nothing. Perhaps he would pay the whole
amount, but with a look, and possibly a word, that would make every
dollar of it burn like a blister.

Doctor Benjamin's conjectures were not unnatural, but quite remote from
the actual fact. As soon as his patient had got entirely well, the young
physician sent in his bill. The Capitalist requested him to step into
his room with him, and paid the full charge in the handsomest and most
gratifying way, thanking him fo