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But Father Time had

cotton to his own experimental purposes. He was very small at that time, and therefore not quite so accountable for his mischievous behaviour as an elder boy would have been. the same effect upon Willie as he exercises upon all other boys. Under his changing influence, the pinafores which were experimented upon with our scissors gave way to knickerbocker suits, out of which arms and legs protruded to a marked degree in the course of a year. Then came the long trousers; next followed the apology for a manly coat which big boys wear; and at last came the man's coat itself, for Willie had now arrived at the age and dimensions which warranted his putting off childish things, especially as far as clothes were concerned.

Now Willie had made up his mind to adopt the very hard-working profession of a doctor. This would entail much study, and it became absolutely necessary that a room should be appropriated to his sole use. As our dear old workroom was the only available one, we willingly gave it up for the benefit of the best of brothers, and its future designation was 'Willie's Study.'

We were privileged to spend an hour here occasionally, and not without much profit to ourselves.

Upon several occasions old Dr. Hopeful, whose favoured pupil our brother was, came in for an hour's chat while we were there. We gathered many useful hints from his conversation, notably amongst them being rules for the preservation of health.

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Now, young ladies,' said the doctor one evening, 'if every one took as much care of their health as you do here, there would not be so much chance

of your brother making a fortune by the profession he has chosen. I am getting an old man now, and in my time have had hundreds of patients, who might have done very well without me had they only taken the precaution of remembering that the human body is one of the most finely adjusted pieces of mechanism we have to manage, and therefore is easily put out of order by bad usage. But as long as people will get their bodies out of order by making greater demands upon them than they are able to meet, trusting to the doctor and his potions to set the whole machine in order again, then there will be plenty of work in our profession.'

'I am told,' said Gertie, 'that the Emperor of China pays his medical attendant so much a year to keep him in health, and that the doctor's stipend is stopped if the emperor falls ill. Don't you think, Dr. Hopeful, it would have paid some of your patients better to have entered into a similar contract with you, instead of having such long illnesses, and paying you so much to restore their health?'

'Ah! I see how it is, Miss Gertie,' said the doctor; 'you are suspicious that we doctors can make people better, or keep them ill, to suit our own convenience. That is too bad. I declare I will not undertake such an incorrigible patient, should you fall ill.'

'I think,' said Willie, 'that it is better to let matters be as they are with us, than to patronise the doctor, either for the purpose of keeping us well, or restoring us when ill.'

'You must bear in mind,' said Dr. Hopeful, 'that many patients who come under our supervision are not personally accountable for their want of health. They are so delicately constituted, that

ill-health is natural to them. But whoever is blessed with a good constitution will seldom trouble the doctor, if the simple rules for health be duly observed and practised.

'As far as your home is concerned, everything conducive to health is arranged to a nicety. You have plenty of sunshine, abundance of fresh air, well-ventilated rooms, strict cleanliness, good drains, and good water. If to all these advantages you add personal cleanliness, temperance in eating and drinking, proper clothing, with a fair amount of work, exercise, and rest, then you will have done all in your power to preserve health. I ought to have said, too, that a cheerful disposition goes a long way toward the preservation of health. I am not for a moment presuming that your merry faces will ever become elongated into a fiddle shape by bad tempers, or anything so dreadful; but as you grow older you may meet with cares which will have a tendency to depress you, and will need to meet them cheerfully and courageously. You cannot do this unless you cultivate a cheerful disposition. If cheerfulness were a drug, I should administer it most largely to some of my sombre-looking patients, who trouble me sadly with their evil forebodings. But I see my hour is gone, and it is time to say good-night. Take care of your health, my young friends. Have some definite aim in life; work at it with a hearty goodwill; take your fair share of the proper enjoyments of life; attend strictly to the simple rules for health we have mentioned; and may you live to be a blessing to the world when old Dr. Hopeful's visits have ceased to be made!'

E. M. G.

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On a cold frosty day in December, Dr. Hopeful called to take our brother for the first time through the hospital wards, and to visit some of his private patients. They did not return until evening, and as we had had tea, Willie requested, as a special favour, that some should be brought into the study for himself and the doctor. I went in to pour out for them, while Gertie and Ethel brought in their work, and sat down to join in the conversation.

We were curiously anxious to elicit from Willie what he had seen and learnt during the day.

'To tell you all I have seen,' said he, 'would not be considerate on my part; but the great fact I have learnt will benefit you quite as much as myself, so here it is. Í have learnt how much invalids are at the mercy of those who attend or nurse them, and that the position of a sick-nurse entails a vast amount of responsibility.

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