got a skeleton
somewheres about, 'ain't we, Eph?" And had finally unearthed--not
adjacent to the old doctor's medical books, for that would have been
to much method in madness, but in some far-removed nook--a ghastly
box, containing a reasonably complete little skeleton. Then was the
laugh all on Colonel Jack Lamson, who had his bet to pay, and was put
to hard shifts to avoid making his grewsome purchase, the article
being offered exceedingly cheap on account of its unsalable
properties.

"It's been here a matter of twenty-five year, ever sence the old
doctor died. Them books, an' that, was cleaned out of his office, an'
brought over here," the old storekeeper had said. "Let ye have it
cheap, Colonel; call it a shillin'."

"Guess I won't take it to-day."

"Call it a sixpence."

"What in thunder do you suppose I want a skeleton for?" asked the
Colonel, striding out, while the storekeeper called after him, with
such a relish of his own wit that it set all the loafers to laughing
and made them remember it:

"Guess ye'd find out if ye didn't have one, Colonel; an' I guess,
sence natur's gin ye all the one she's ever goin' to, ye'll never
have a chance to git another as cheap as this."

That same little skeleton was yet for sale when Jerome purchased his
medical books at the price of waste-paper, and might possibly have
been thrown into the bargain had he wished to study anatomy.

Jerome sought only to gain an extension of any old wife's knowledge
of healing roots and herbs and the treatment of simple and common
maladies. Surgery he did not meddle with, until one night, about a
year later, when Jake Noyes, Doctor Prescott's man, came over
secretly with a little whimpering dog in his arms.

"We run over this little fellar," he said to Jerome, when he had been
summoned to the door, "an' his leg's broke, an' the doctor told me
I'd better finish him up; guess he's astray; but"--Jake's voice
dropped to a whisper--"I've heard what you're up to, an' I've brought
a splint, an', if you say so, I'll show you how to set a bone."

So up in his little chamber, with his mother and Elmira listening
curiously below, and a little whining, trembling dog for a patient,
Jerome learned to set a bone. His first surgical case was nearly a
complete success, moreover, for the little dog abode with him for
many a year after that, and went nimbly and merrily on his four legs,
with scarcely a limp.

Later on, Jake Noyes, this time with