The Pioneers; Or, The Sources of the Susquehanna

by James Fenimore Cooper

  CHAPTER VI

  "And about his shelves, A beggarly account of empty boxes, Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds. Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses, Were thinly scattered to make up a show." --Shakespeare.

  Doctor Elnathan Todd, for such was the name of the man of physic, wascommonly thought to be, among the settlers, a gentleman of great mentalendowments, and he was assuredly of rare personal proportions. In heighthe measured, without his shoes, exactly six feet and four inches.His hands, feet, and knees corresponded in every respect with thisformidable stature; but every other part of his frame appeared to havebeen intended for a man several sizes smaller, if we except the lengthof the limbs. His shoulders were square, in one sense at least, being ina right line from one side to the other; but they were so narrow, thatthe long dangling arms they supported seemed to issue out of his back.His neck possessed, in an eminent degree, the property of length towhich we have alluded, and it was topped by a small bullet-head thatexhibited on one side a bush of bristling brown hair and on the other ashort, twinkling visage, that appeared to maintain a constant strugglewith itself in order to look wise. He was the youngest son of a farmerin the western part of Massachusetts, who, being in some what easycircumstances, had allowed this boy to shoot up to the height wehave mentioned, without the ordinary interruptions of field labor,wood-chopping, and such other toils as were imposed on his brothers.Elnathan was indebted for this exemption from labor in some measureto his extraordinary growth, which, leaving him pale, inanimate, andlistless, induced his tender mother to pronounce him "a sickly boy, andone that was not equal to work, but who might earn a living comfortablyenough by taking to pleading law, or turning minister, or doctoring, orsome such like easy calling.' Still, there was great uncertainty whichof these vocations the youth was best endowed to fill; but, havingno other employment, the stripling was constantly lounging about thehomestead," munching green apples and hunting for sorrel; when the samesagacious eye that had brought to light his latent talents seized uponthis circumstance as a clew to his future path through the turmoilsof the world. "Elnathan was cut out for a doctor, she knew, for he wasforever digging for herbs, and tasting all kinds of things that grow'dabout the lots. Then again he had a natural love for doctor-stuff, forwhen she had left the bilious pills out for her man, all nicely coveredwith maple sugar just ready to take, Nathan had come in and swallowedthem for all the world as if they were nothing, while Ichabod (herhusband) could never get one down without making such desperate facesthat it was awful to look on."

  This discovery decided the matter. Elnathan, then about fifteen, was,much like a wild colt, caught and trimmed by clipping his bushy locks;dressed in a suit of homespun, dyed in the butternut bark; furnishedwith a "New Testament" and a "Webster's Spelling Book," and sentto school. As the boy was by nature quite shrewd enough, and hadpreviously, at odd times, laid the foundations of reading, writing, andarithmetic, he was soon conspicuous in the school for his learning. Thedelighted mother had the gratification of hearing, from the lips ofthe master, that her son was a "prodigious boy, and far above allhis class." He also thought that "the youth had a natural love fordoctoring, as he had known him frequently advise the smaller childrenagainst eating to much; and, once or twice, when the ignorant littlethings had persevered in opposition to Elnathan's advice, he had knownher son empty the school-baskets with his own mouth, to prevent theconsequences."

  Soon after this comfortable declaration from his school master, the ladwas removed to the house of the village doctor, a gentleman whose earlycareer had not been unlike that of our hero where he was to be seensometimes watering a horse, at others watering medicines, blue, yellow,and red: then again he might be noticed lolling under an apple-tree,with Ruddiman's Latin Grammar in his hand, and a corner of Denman'sMidwifery sticking out of a pocket; for his instructor held it absurdto teach his pupil how to dispatch a patient regularly from this world,before he knew how to bring him into it.

  This kind of life continued for a twelvemonth, when he suddenly appearedat a meeting in a long coat (and well did it deserve the name!) of blackhomespun, with little bootees, bound with an uncolored calf-skin for thewant of red morocco.

  Soon after he was seen shaving with a dull razor. Three or four monthshad scarce elapsed before several elderly ladies were observed hasteningtoward the house of a poor woman in the village, while others wererunning to and fro in great apparent distress. One or two boyswere mounted, bareback, on horses, and sent off at speed in variousdirections. Several indirect questions were put concerning the placewhere the physician was last seen; but all would not do; and at lengthElnathan was seen issuing from his door with a very grave air, precededby a little white-headed boy, out of breath, trotting before him. Thefollowing day the youth appeared in the street, as the highway wascalled, and the neighborhood was much edified by the additional gravityof his air. The same week he bought a new razor; and the succeedingSunday he entered the meeting-house with a red silk handkerchief in hishand, and with an extremely demure countenance. In the evening he calledupon a young woman of his own class in life, for there were no others tobe found, and, when he was left alone with the fair, he was called, forthe first time in his life, Dr. Todd, by her prudent mother. The iceonce broken in this manner, Elnathan was greeted from every mouth withhis official appellation.

  Another year passed under the superintendence of the same master,during which the young physician had the credit of "riding with theold doctor," although they were generally observed to travel differentroads. At the end of that period, Dr. Todd attained his legal majority.He then took a jaunt to Boston to purchase medicines, and, as someintimated, to walk the hospital; we know not how the latter might havebeen, but, if true, he soon walked through it, for he returned withina fortnight, bringing with him a suspicious-looking box, that smelledpowerfully of brimstone.

  The next Sunday he was married, and the following morning he entereda one-horse sleigh with his bride, having before him the box we havementioned, with another filled with home-made household linen, apaper-covered trunk with a red umbrella lashed to it, a pair of quitenew saddle-bags, and a handbox. The next intelligence that his friendsreceived of the bride and bridegroom was, that the latter was "settledin the new countries, and well to do as a doctor in Templeton, in YorkState!"

  If a Templar would smile at the qualifications of Marmaduke to fill thejudicial seat he occupied, we are certain that a graduate of Leydenor Edinburgh would be extremely amused with this true narration ofthe servitude of Elnathan in the temple of Aesculapius. But the sameconsolation was afforded to both the jurist and the leech, for Dr. Toddwas quite as much on a level with his own peers of the profession inthat country, as was Marmaduke with his brethren on the bench.

  Time and practice did wonders for the physician. He was naturallyhumane, but possessed of no small share of moral courage; or, in otherwords, he was chary of the lives of his patients, and never trieduncertain experiments on such members of society as were considereduseful; but, once or twice, when a luckless vagrant had come under hiscare, he was a little addicted to trying the effects of every phial inhis saddle-bags on the strangers constitution. Happily their number wassmall, and in most cases their natures innocent. By these means Elnathanhad acquired a certain degree of knowledge in fevers and agues, andcould talk with judgment concerning intermittents, remittents, tertians,quotidians, etc. In certain cutaneous disorders very prevalent in newsettlements, he was considered to be infallible; and there was no womanon the Patent but would as soon think of becoming a mother without ahusband as without the assistance of Dr. Todd. In short, he was rearing,on this foundation of sand a superstructure cemented by practice, thoughcomposed of somewhat brittle materials. He however, occasionally renewedhis elementary studies, and, with the observation of a shrewd mind, wascomfort ably applying his practice to his theory.

  In surgery, having the least experience, and it being a business thatspoke directly to the senses, he was most
apt to distrust his ownpowers; but he had applied oils to several burns, cut round the rootsof sundry defective teeth, and sewed up the wounds of numberless woodchoppers, with considerable eclat, when an unfortunate jobber suffered afracture of his leg by the tree that he had been felling. It was on thisoccasion that our hero encountered the greatest trial his nerves andmoral feeling had ever sustained. In the hour of need, however, he wasnot found wanting. Most of the amputations in the new settlements, andthey were quite frequent, were per formed by some one practitioner who,possessing originally a reputation, was enabled by this circumstance toacquire an experience that rendered him deserving of it; and Elnathanhad been present at one or two of these operations. But on the presentoccasion the man of practice was not to be obtained, and the duty fell,as a matter of course, to the share of Mr. Todd. He went to work witha kind of blind desperation, observing, at the same time, all theexternals of decent gravity and great skill, The sufferer's name wasMilligan, and it was to this event that Richard alluded, when he spokeof assisting the doctor at an amputation by holding the leg! The limbwas certainly cut off, and the patient survived the operation. It was,however, two years before poor Milligan ceased to complain that they hadburied the leg in so narrow a box that it was straitened for room;he could feel the pain shooting up from the inhumed fragment into theliving members. Marmaduke suggested that the fault might lie in thearteries and nerves; but Richard, considering the amputation as part ofhis own handiwork, strongly repelled the insinuation, at the same timedeclaring that he had often heard of men who could tell when it wasabout to rain, by the toes of amputated limbs, After two or three years,notwithstanding, Milligan's complaints gradually diminished, the leg wasdug up, and a larger box furnished, and from that hour no one had heardthe sufferer utter another complaint on the subject. This gave thepublic great confidence in Dr. Todd, whose reputation was hourlyincreasing, and, luckily for his patients, his information also.

  Notwithstanding Dr. Todd's practice, and his success with the leg, hewas not a little appalled on entering the hall of the mansion-house. Itwas glaring with the light of day; it looked so imposing, compared withthe hastily built and scantily furnished apartments which he frequentedin his ordinary practice, and contained so many well-dressed personsand anxious faces, that his usually firm nerves were a good dealdiscomposed. He had heard from the messenger who summoned him, that itwas a gun-shot wound, and had come from his own home, wading throughthe snow, with his saddle-bags thrown over his arm, while separatedarteries, penetrated lungs, and injured vitals were whirling through hisbrain, as if he were stalking over a field of battle, instead of JudgeTemple's peaceable in closure.

  The first object that met his eye, as he moved into the room, wasElizabeth in her riding-habit, richly laced with gold cord, her fineform bending toward him, and her face expressing deep anxiety in everyone of its beautiful features. The enormous knees of the physicianstruck each other with a noise that was audible; for, in the absentstate of his mind, he mistook her for a general officer, perforated withbullets, hastening from the field of battle to implore assistance. Thedelusion, however, was but momentary, and his eye glanced rapidly fromthe daughter to the earnest dignity of the father's countenance; thenceto the busy strut of Richard, who was cooling his impatience at thehunter's indifference to his assistance, by pacing the hall and crackinghis whip; from him to the Frenchman, who had stood for several minutesunheeded with a chair for the lady; thence to Major Hartmann, who wasvery coolly lighting a pipe three feet long by a candle in one of thechandeliers; thence to Mr. Grant, who was turning over a manuscript withmuch earnestness at one of the lustres; thence to Remarkable, who stood,with her arms demurely folded before her, surveying, with a look ofadmiration and envy, the dress and beauty of the young lady; and fromher to Benjamin, who, with his feet standing wide apart, and his armsakimbo, was balancing his square little body with the indifference ofone who is accustomed to wounds and bloodshed. All of these seemed tobe unhurt, and the operator began to breathe more freely; but, before hehad time to take a second look, the Judge, advancing, shook him kindlyby the hand, and spoke.

  "Thou art welcome, my good sir, quite welcome, indeed; here is a youthwhom I have unfortunately wounded in shooting a deer this evening, andwho requires some of thy assistance."

  "Shooting at a deer, 'Duke," interrupted Richard--"shooting at a deer.Who do you think can prescribe, unless he knows the truth of the case?It is always so with some people; they think a doctor can be deceivedwith the same impunity as another man."

  "Shooting at a deer, truly," returned the Judge, smiling, "although itis by no means certain that I did not aid in destroying the buck; butthe youth is injured by my hand, be that as it may; and it is thy skillthat must cure him, and my pocket shall amply reward thee for it."

  "Two ver good tings to depend on," observed Monsieur Le Quoi, bowingpolitely, with a sweep of his head to the Judge and to the practitioner.

  "I thank you, monsieur," returned the Judge; "but we keep the youngman in pain. Remarkable, thou wilt please to provide linen for lint andbandages."

  This remark caused a cessation of the compliments, and induced thephysician to turn an inquiring eye in the direction of his patient.During the dialogue the young hunter had thrown aside his overcoat, andnow stood clad in a plain suit of the common, light-colored homespun ofthe country, that was evidently but recently made. His hand was on thelapels of his coat, in the attitude of removing the garment, when hesuddenly suspended the movement, and looked toward the commiseratingElizabeth, who was standing in an unchanged posture, too much absorbedwith her anxious feelings to heed his actions. A slight color appearedon the brow of the youth.

  "Possibly the sight of blood may alarm the lady; I will retire toanother room while the wound is dressing."

  "By no means." said Dr. Todd, who, having discovered that his patientwas far from being a man of importance, felt much emboldened to performthe duty. "The strong light of these candles is favorable to theoperation, and it is seldom that we hard students enjoy good eyesight."

  While speaking, Elnathan placed a pair of large iron-rimmed spectacleson his face, where they dropped, as it were by long practice, to theextremity of his slim pug nose; and, if they were of no service asassistants to his eyes, neither were they any impediment to his vision;for his little gray organs were twinkling above them like two starsemerging from the envious cover of a cloud. The action was unheeded byall but Remarkable, who observed to Benjamin:

  "Dr. Todd is a comely man to look on, and despu't pretty. How well heseems in spectacles! I declare, they give a grand look to a body's face.I have quite a great mind to try them myself."

  The speech of the stranger recalled the recollection of Miss Temple,who started as if from deep abstraction, and, coloring excessively,she motioned to a young woman who served in the capacity of maid, andretired with an air of womanly reserve.

  The field was now left to the physician and his patient, while thedifferent personages who remained gathered around the latter, with facesexpressing the various degrees of interest that each one felt in hiscondition. Major Hartmann alone retained his seat, where he continuedto throw out vast quantities of smoke, now rolling his eyes up to theceiling, as if musing on the uncertainty of life, and now bending themon the wounded man, with an expression that bespoke some consciousnessof his situation.

  In the mean time Elnathan, to whom the sight of a gun shot wound was aperfect novelty, commenced his preparations with a solemnity and carethat were worthy of the occasion. An old shirt was procured by Benjamin,and placed in the hand of the other, who tore divers bandages from it,with an exactitude that marked both his own skill and the importance ofthe operation.

  When this preparatory measure was taken, Dr. Todd selected a piece ofthe shirt with great care, and handing to Mr. Jones, without moving amuscle, said: "Here, Squire Jones, you are well acquainted with thesethings; will you please to scrape the lint? It should be fine and soft,you know, my dear sir; and be cautious that no cotton
gets in, or it mayp'izen the wound. The shirt has been made with cotton thread, but youcan easily pick it out."

  Richard assumed the office, with a nod at his cousin, that said quiteplainly, "You see this fellow can't get along without me;" and began toscrape the linen on his knee with great diligence.

  A table was now spread with phials, boxes of salve, and divers surgicalinstruments. As the latter appeared in succession, from a case of redmorocco, their owner held up each implement to the strong light of thechandelier, near to which he stood, and examined it with the nicestcare. A red silk handkerchief was frequently applied to the glitteringsteel, as if to remove from the polished surfaces the least impedimentwhich might exist to the most delicate operation. After the ratherscantily furnished pocket-case which contained these instruments wasexhausted, the physician turned to his saddle-bags, and produced variousphials, filled with liquids of the most radiant colors. These werearranged in due order by the side of the murderous saws, knives, andscissors, when Elnathan stretched his long body to its utmost elevation,placing his hand on the small of his back as if for sup port, and lookedabout him to discover what effect this display of professional skill waslikely to produce on the spectators.

  "Upon my wort, toctor," observed Major Hartmann, with a roguish rollof his little black eyes, but with every other feature of his face in astate of perfect rest, "put you have a very pretty pocket-book of toolstere, and your toctor-stuff glitters as if it was petter for ter eyes asfor ter pelly."

  Elnathan gave a hem--one that might have been equally taken for thatkind of noise which cowards are said to make in order to awaken theirdormant courage, or for a natural effort to clear the throat; if for thelatter it was successful; for, turning his face to the veteran German,he said:

  "Very true, Major Hartmann, very true, sir; a prudent man will alwaysstrive to make his remedies agreeable to the eyes, though they may notaltogether suit the stomach. It is no small part of our art, sir," andhe now spoke with the confidence of a man who understood his subject,"to reconcile the patient to what is for his own good, though at thesame time it may be unpalatable."

  "Sartain! Dr. Todd is right," said Remarkable, "and has Scripter forwhat he says. The Bible tells us how things may be sweet to the mouth,and bitter to the inwards."

  "True, true," interrupted the Judge, a little impatiently; "but here isa youth who needs no deception to lure him to his own benefit. I see, byhis eye, that he fears nothing more than delay."

  The stranger had, without assistance, bared his own shoulder, when theslight perforation produced by the pas sage of the buckshot was plainlyvisible. The intense cold of the evening had stopped the bleeding, andDr. Todd, casting a furtive glance at the wound, thought it by no meansso formidable an affair as he had anticipated. Thus encouraged, heapproached his patient, and made some indication of an intention totrace the route that had been taken by the lead.

  Remarkable often found occasions, in after days, to recount the minutiaeof that celebrated operation; and when she arrived at this point shecommonly proceeded as follows: "And then the doctor tuck out of thepocket book a long thing, like a knitting-needle, with a button fastenedto the end on't; and then he pushed it into the wound and then the youngman looked awful; and then I thought I should have swaned away--I feltin sitch a dispu't taking; and then the doctor had run it right throughhis shoulder, and shoved the bullet out on tother side; and so Dr. Toddcured the young man--Of a ball that the Judge had shot into him--forall the world as easy as I could pick out a splinter with mydarning-needle."

  Such were the impressions of Remarkable on the subject; and suchdoubtless were the opinions of most of those who felt it necessary toentertain a species of religious veneration for the skill of Elnathan;but such was far from the truth.

  When the physician attempted to introduce the instrument describedby Remarkable, he was repulsed by the stranger, with a good deal ofdecision, and some little contempt, in his manner.

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

  "The gentleman knows best," said Dr. Todd, laying down the probe withthe air of a man who had assumed it merely in compliance with forms;and, turning to Richard, he fingered the lint with the appearance ofgreat care and foresight. "Admirably well scraped, Squire Jones: it isabout the best lint I have ever seen. I want your assistance, my goodsir, 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 couldscrape the lint so well as Squire Jones!"

  "Such things run in families," observed Richard, rising with alacrityto render the desired assistance. "My father, and my grandfather beforehim, were both celebrated for their knowledge of surgery; they were not,like Marmaduke here, puffed up with an accidental thing, such as thetime when he drew in the hip-joint of the man who was thrown from hishorse; that was the fall before you came into the settlement, doctor;but they were men who were taught the thing regularly, spending halftheir lives in learning those little niceties; though, for the matter ofthat, my grandfather was a college-bred physician, and the best in thecolony, too--that is, in his neighborhood."

  "So it goes with the world, squire," cried Benjamin; "if so be thata man wants to walk the quarter-deck with credit, d'ye see, and withregular built swabs on his shoulders, he mustn't think to do it bygetting in at the cabin windows. There are two ways to get into a top,besides the lubber-holes. The true way to walk aft is to begin forrard;tho'f it be only in a humble way, like myself, d'ye see, which was frombeing only a hander of topgallant sails, and a stower of the flying-jib,to keeping the key of the captain's locker."

  Benjamin speaks quite to the purpose,' continued Richard, "I dare saythat he has often seen shot extracted in the different ships in which hehas served; suppose we get him to hold the basin; he must be used to thesight of blood."

  "That he is, squire, that he is," interrupted the cidevant steward;"many's the good shot, round, double-headed, and grape, that I'veseen the doctors at work on. For the matter of that, I was in a boat,alongside the ship, when they cut out the twelve-pound shot from thethigh of the captain of the Foodyrong, one of Mounsheer Ler Quaw'scountrymen!" *

  * It is possible that the reader may start at this declaration of Benjamin, but those who have lived in the new settlements of America are too much accustomed to hear of these European exploits to doubt it.

  "A twelve-pound ball from the thigh of a human being:" exclaimed Mr.Grant, with great simplicity, dropping the sermon he was again reading,and raising his spectacles to the top of his forehead.

  "A twelve-pounder!" echoed Benjamin, staring around him with muchconfidence; "a twelve-pounder! ay! a twenty-four-pound shot can easilybe taken from a man's body, if so be a doctor only knows how, There'sSquire Jones, now, ask him, sir; he reads all the books; ask him if henever fell in with a page that keeps the reckoning of such things."

  "Certainly, more important operations than that have been performed,"observed Richard; "the encyclopaedia mentions much more incrediblecircumstances than that, as, I dare say, you know, Dr. Todd."

  "Certainly, there are incredible tales told in the encyclopaedias,"returned Elnathan, "though I cannot say that I have ever seen, myself,anything larger than a musket ball extracted."

  During this discourse an incision had been made through the skin of theyoung hunter's shoulder, and the lead was laid bare. Elnathan took apair of glittering forceps, and was in the act of applying them to thewound, when a sudden motion of the patient caused the shot to fallout of itself, The long arm and broad hand of the operator were now ofsingular service; for the latter expanded itself, and caught the lead,while at the same time an extremely ambiguous motion was made by itsbrother, so as to leave it doubtful to the spectators how great was itsagency in releasing the shot, Richard, however, put the matter at restby exclaiming:

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p; "Very neatly done, doctor! I have never seen a shot more neatlyextracted; and I dare say Benjamin will say the same."

  "Why, considering," returned Benjamin, "I must say that it wasship-shape and Brister-fashion. Now all that the doctor has to do, is toclap a couple of plugs in the holes, and the lad will float in any galethat blows in these here hills."

  "I thank you, sir, for what you have done," said the youth, with alittle distance; "but here is a man who will take me under his care, andspare you all, gentlemen, any further trouble on my account."

  The whole group turned their heads in surprise, and beheld, standing atone of the distant doors of the hall, the person of Indian John.