often
heard of men who could tell when it was about to rain, by the toes of amputated
limbs. After two or three years, notwithstanding Milligan's complaints gradually
diminished, the leg was dug up, and a larger box furnished, and from that hour
no one had heard the sufferer utter another complaint on the subject. This gave
the public great confidence in Doctor Todd, whose reputation was hourly
increasing, and, luckily for his patients, his information also.
    Notwithstanding Mr. Todd's practice, and his success with the leg, he was
not a little appalled, on entering the hall of the mansion-house. It was glaring
with the light of day; it looked so splendid and imposing, compared with the
hastily built and scantily furnished apartments which he frequented in his
ordinary practice, and contained so many well-dressed persons, and anxious
faces, that his usually firm nerves were a good deal discomposed. He had heard
from the messenger who summoned him, that it was a gun-shot wound, and had come
from his own home, wading through the snow, with his saddle-bags thrown over his
arm, while separated arteries, penetrated lungs, and injured vitals, were
whirling through his brain, as if he were stalking over a field of battle,
instead of Judge Temple's peaceable enclosure.
    The first object that met his eye, as he moved into the room, was Elizabeth,
in her riding-habit, richly laced with gold cord, her fine form bending towards
him, and her face expressing deep anxiety in every one of its beautiful
features. The enormous bony knees of the physician struck each other with a
noise that was audible, for in the absent state of his mind, he mistook her for
a general officer, perforated with bullets, hastening from the field of battle
to implore assistance. The delusion, however, was but momentary, and his eye
glanced rapidly from the daughter to the earnest dignity of the father's
countenance; thence to the busy strut of Richard, who was cooling his impatience
at the hunter's indifference to his assistance, by pacing the hall and cracking
his whip; from him to the Frenchman, who had stood for several minutes unheeded
with a chair for the lady; thence to Major Hartmann, who was very coolly
lighting a pipe three feet long by a candle in one of the chandeliers; thence to
Mr. Grant, who was turning over a manuscript with much earnestness at one of the
lustres; thence to Remarkable, who stood, with her arms demurely folded before
her, surveying with