was laid upon a bed in the room
where we sat, suffering great pain, and in want of immediate attention.
I entered into the family consultation on the case. Never have I
regretted the want of an acquisition, as I then regretted that I had no
skill in surgery. I was utterly incompetent to make a suggestion worth
considering. The mother of the family happened to be absent that night;
and, next to the physician, the mother is the best adviser. There was an
elder son, about my own age, who was playing a fiddle when we came in;
and there was a sister younger than he, and brothers and sisters still
younger. But we were all alike incapable. The poor boy's case might be
critical, and the nearest physician, Dr. Anderson, resided at Pendleton,
thirty miles off. This is one of the conditions of frontier settlement
which is not always thought of.

In the difficulty of the juncture, a thought occurred to Colonel T.,
which was immediately made available. "I think I will send for
Horse-Shoe Robinson," he said, with a manifest lighting up of the
countenance, as if he had hit upon a happy expedient. "Get a horse, my
son," he continued, addressing one of the boys, "and ride over to the
old man, and tell him what has happened to your brother; and say, he
will oblige me if he will come here directly." At the same time, a
servant was ordered to ride to Pendleton, and to bring over Dr.
Anderson.

In the absence of the first messenger the lad grew easier, and it became
apparent that his hurt was not likely to turn out seriously. Colonel T.,
assured by this, drew his chair up to the fire beside me, and with many
expressions of friendly interest inquired into the course of my journey,
and into the numberless matters that may be supposed to interest a
frontier settler in his intercourse with one just from the world of busy
life. It happened that I knew an old friend of his, General -----, a
gentleman highly distinguished in professional and political service, to
whose youth Colonel T. had been a most timely patron. This circumstance
created a new pledge in my favor, and, I believe, influenced the old
gentleman in a final resolve to send that night for his wife, who was
some seven or eight miles off, and whom he had been disinclined to put
to the discomfort of such a journey in the dark, ever since it was
ascertained that the boy's case was not dangerous. I am pretty sure this
influenced him, as I heard him privately instructing a servant to go