for there were no others to be found, and, when he was left alone with
the fair, he was called, for the first time in his life, Doctor Todd, by her
prudent mother. The ice once broken in this manner, Elnathan was greeted from
every mouth with his official appellation.
    Another year passed under the superintendence of the same master, during
which the young physician had the credit of riding with the old doctor, although
they were generally observed to travel different roads. At the end of that
period, Dr. Todd attained his legal majority. He then took a jaunt to Boston, to
purchase medicines, and, as some intimated, to walk the hospital; we know not
how the latter might have been, but if true, he soon walked through it, for he
returned within a fortnight, bringing with him a suspicious-looking box, that
smelt powerfully of brimstone.
    The next Sunday he was married; and the following morning he entered a
one-horse sleigh with his bride, having before him the box we have mentioned,
with another filled with home-made household linen, a paper-covered trunk, with
a red umbrella lashed to it, a pair of quite new saddlebags, and a band-box. The
next intelligence that his friends received of the bride and bridegroom was,
that the latter was »settled in the new-countries, and well to do as a doctor,
in Templetown, in York state.«
    If a templar would smile at the qualifications of Marmaduke to fill the
judicial seat he occupied, we are certain that a graduate of Leyden or Edinburgh
would be extremely amused with this true narration of the servitude of Elnathan
in the temple of Æsculapius. But the same consolation was afforded to both the
jurist and the leech; for Dr. Todd was quite as much on a level with his
compeers of the profession, in that country, as was Marmaduke with his brethren
on the bench.
    Time and practice did wonders for the physician. He was naturally humane,
but possessed of no small share of moral courage; or, in other words, he was
chary of the lives of his patients, and never tried uncertain experiments on
such members of society as were considered useful; but once or twice, when a
luckless vagrant had come under his care, he was a little addicted to trying the
effects of every vial in his saddlebags on the stranger's constitution. Happily
their number was small, and in most cases their natures innocent. By these means
Elnathan had acquired a certain degree of knowledge in fevers and agues,