dear child! how can these doctors
wish to starve folks? I have no notion of starving to death, or having
my children or grandchildren starved."

It was now past midnight, and Mrs. D. had as yet slept but very little.
Had she simply followed out my directions she might have slept an hour
or two before midnight, and several hours in the aggregate afterward.
This, though done by stealth and in short naps, would have given her
more real rest and strength than a whole gallon of milk punch, and
instead of kindling fever, would have carried off all tendencies of the
kind.

On my arrival, early the next morning, I found a good deal of headache,
such as cold water and plain food and rest seldom, if ever, create. My
fears were at once excited, and they were greatly strengthened when I
saw her mother. But the blow had been struck, and could not be recalled.
Mrs. D., in short, was already in the beginning stage of a fever which
came within a hair's breadth of destroying her.

It is indeed true that she finally recovered. No thanks, however, were
due to the mother's over-kindness, nor to my own over-communicativeness.
Had I done my duty, had I kept my own counsel, nobody, not even the
mother herself, as I now verily believe, would have ventured to disobey
my positive injunctions. And had this mother done, as she would have
been done by in similar circumstances, all would probably have been well
still. We should have saved a little reputation, and a good deal of
health.

I learned, I repeat, from this unexpected adventure, that it was wisdom
to keep my own secrets. I do not say that I have always acted up to the
dignity of this better knowledge, but I am justified in saying that I
have sometimes profited from an acquaintance with human nature that cost
me dear. It is no trifle to see an individual suffer from painful
disease a couple of weeks, and jeopard the life of a child during the
whole time, when a little knowledge how to refrain from speaking _ten
words_ of a particular kind and cast, would have prevented every evil.

CHAPTER XXXV.

MY FIRST CASE IN SURGERY.

My first surgical case of any magnitude, was that of a wounded foot.
For, though I had been required to bleed patients many times,--and
bleeding is properly a surgical operation,--yet it had become so common
in those days, and was performed with so little science or skill, that
it was seldom recognized as belonging to the department of surgery.

One of