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THE PIONEERS.

instrument, described by Remarkable, he was repulsed by the stranger, with a good deal of decision, and some little contempt, in his manner.

"I believe, sir," he said, "that a probe is not necessary; the shot has missed the bone, and has passed directly through the arm, to the opposite side, where it remains, but skin-deep, and whence, I should think, it might be easily extracted."

"The gentleman knows best," said Dr. Todd, laying down the probe, with the air of a man who had assumed it merely in compliance with forms; and, turning to Richard, he fingered the lint, with the appearance of great care and foresight. "Admirably well scraped, squire Jones! it is about the best lint I have ever seen. I want your assistance, my good sir, to hold the patient's arm, while I make an incision for the ball. Now, I rather guess, there is not another gentleman present, who could scrape the lint so well as squire Jones."

"Such things run in families," observed Richard, rising with alacrity, to render the desired assistance. "My father, and my grandfather before him, were both celebrated for their knowledge of surgery; they were not, like Marmaduke here, puffed up with an accidental thing, such as the time when he drew in the hip-joint of the man who was thrown from his horse: that was the fall before you came into the settlement, Doctor; but they were men who were taught the thing regularly, spending half their lives in learning those litle niceties; though, for the matter of that, my grandfather was a college-bred physician, and the best in the colony, too that is, in his neighbourhood."

"So it goes with the world, Squire," cried Benjamin; "if-so-be that a man wants to walk the quarter-deck with credit, d'ye see, and with regu-