"But all your first patients would die."

"I don't know that. At all events I should do my best, and no man can do
more, and if they did die, why, it would be by the visitation of God,
wouldn't it?"

"Not altogether, I'm afraid. It won't do, Tom."

"It has done from the beginning of the world, and will do. I say there's
no learning without practice. People spoil at first in every trade, and
make afterward, and a man ain't born a doctor any more than he is a
carpenter."

"No, but if I recollect right, to be a surgeon you ought to walk the
hospital, as they term it."

"Well, and haven't I for these last four years? When I carries out my
basket of physic I walks the _hospital_ right through, twice at least
every day in the week."

"That's Greenwich Hospital."

"Well, so it is, and plenty of surgical cases in it. However, the doctor
and I must come to a proper understanding. I didn't clean his boots this
morning. I wish, if you see him, Tom, you'd reason with him a little."

"I'll see what I can do, but don't be rash. Good-by, Tom; mind you tell
the doctor that I called."

"Well, I will; but that's not in my indentures."

I called in at the widow's after I left the doctor's shop, and
communicated the intended rebellion on the part of Tom.

"Well," said Mrs. St. Felix, "I shall not forget to make the Spanish
claim, and prevent Tom from walking Spanish. The doctor is very
inconsiderate; he forgets that Tom's regard for liquorice is quite as
strong as his own liking for a cigar. Now, if the doctor don't promise
me to have a fresh supply for Tom, I won't let him have a cigar for
himself."

The doctor was compelled to surrender at discretion. The next wagon
brought down one hundred weight of liquorice, and Tom recovered his
health and the smiles of Anny Whistle.

When I left the widow's I proceeded to the hospital to find Anderson and
my father. As I walked along I perceived Dick Harness on a bench, who
hailed me.

"Well, Tom, I haven't seen anything of you for I don't know how long,
since you've taken to a seafaring life. This is a beautiful day, is it
not? It makes one feel so happy and cheerful such a day as this.
Everybody and everything looks gay, the birds seem so merry, and the
little clouds seem to scud away as if their hearts were as light as
themselves. Come, sit down a minute; here's a song for you you've never
heard, one I don't often sing, because they say it's all about myself."

"Well, then,