on a high shelf would best meet the requirements of her case.

Dr. Z. suggested that I should witness a dissection; but I never
accepted his invitations, thinking that my nerves belonged to the
living, not to the dead, and I had better finish my education as a
nurse before I began that of a surgeon. But I never met the little man
skipping through the hall, with oddly shaped cases in his hand, and an
absorbed expression of countenance, without being sure that a select
party of surgeons were at work in the dead house, which idea was a
rather trying one, when I knew the subject was some person whom I had
nursed and cared for.

But this must not lead any one to suppose that the surgeons were
willfully hard or cruel, though one of them remorsefully confided to me
that he feared his profession blunted his sensibilities, and perhaps,
rendered him indifferent to the sight of pain.

I am inclined to think that in some cases it does; for, though a
capital surgeon and a kindly man, Dr. P., through long acquaintance
with many of the ills flesh is heir to, had acquired a somewhat trying
habit of regarding a man and his wound as separate institutions, and
seemed rather annoyed that the former should express any opinion upon
the latter, or claim any right in it, while under his care. He had a
way of twitching off a bandage, and giving a limb a comprehensive sort
of clutch, which though no doubt entirely scientific, was rather
startling than soothing, and highly objectionable as a means of
preparing nerves for any fresh trial. He also expected the patient to
assist in small operations, as he considered them, and to restrain all
demonstrations during the process.

"Here, my man, just hold it this way, while I look into it a bit," he
said one day to Fitz G., putting a wounded arm into the keeping of a
sound one, and proceeding to poke about among bits of bone and visible
muscles, in a red and black chasm made by some infernal machine of the
shot or shell description. Poor Fitz held on like a grim Death, ashamed
to show fear before a woman, till it grew more than he could bear in
silence; and, after a few smothered groans, he looked at me
imploringly, as if he said, "I wouldn't, ma'am, if I could help it,"
and fainted quietly away.

Dr. P. looked up, gave a compassionate sort of cluck, and poked away
more busily than ever, with a nod at me and a brief--"Never mind; be so
good as to hold this till I finish."

I obeyed, cherishing