that I was
very young, very ignorant, and very stupid. One day, however, I was
left in the surgery with a number of dirty phials to wash--my father
having gone to visit a patient at a short distance, when our servant
came running in, saying that there was a cab at the door with a poor boy
who had got his cheek badly cut. As I knew that my father would be at
home in less than quarter of an hour, I ordered him to be brought in.
The poor child--a little delicate boy--was very pale, and bleeding
profusely from a deep gash in the cheek, made accidentally by a knife
with which he had been playing. The mouth was cut open almost to the
ear. We laid him on a sofa, and I did what I could to stop the flow of
blood. I was not sixteen at the time, and, being very small for my age,
had never before felt myself in a position to offer advice, and indeed I
had not much to offer. But one of the bystanders said to me while we
were looking at the child,--

"`What do you think should be done, sir?'

"The mere fact of being asked my opinion gratified my vanity, and the
respectful `sir' with which the question concluded caused my heart to
beat high with unwonted emotion. It was the first time I had ever been
addressed gravely as a man; it was a new sensation, and I think may be
regarded as an era in my existence.

"With much gravity I replied that of course the wound ought to be sewed
up.

"`Then sooner it's done the better, I think,' said the bystander, `for
the poor child will bleed to death if it is allowed to go on like that.'

"A sudden resolution entered into my mind. I stroked my chin and
frowned, as if in deep thought, then, turning to the man who had spoken,
said,--`It ought certainly to be done with as little delay as possible;
I expect my father to return every minute; but as it is an urgent case,
I will myself undertake it, if the parents of the child have no
objection.'

"`Seems to me, lad,' remarked a country fellow, who had helped to carry
the child in, `that it beant a time to talk o' parients objectin' w'en
the cheeld's blood'n to deth. Ye'd better fa' to work at once--if 'ee
knows how.'

"I cast upon this man a look of scorn, but made no reply. Going to the
drawer in which the surgical instruments were kept, I took out those
that suited my purpose, and went to work with a degree of coolness which
astonished myself. I had often seen my father sew up wounds, and had
assisted at many an operation of the kind