He inhabits a wheel-carriage. He
thinks of stationary dwellings as Long Tom Coffin did of land in general;
a house may be well enough for incidental purposes, but for a "stiddy"
residence give him a "kerridge." If he is classified in the Linnaean
scale, he must be set down thus: Genus Homo; Species Rotifer infusorius,
the wheel-animal of infusions.
The Dudley mansion was not a mile from the Doctor's; but it never
occurred to him to think of walking to see any of his patients' families,
if he had any professional object in his visit. Whenever the narrow
sulky turned in at a gate, the rustic who was digging potatoes, or hoeing
corn, or swishing through the grass with his scythe, in wave-like
crescents, or stepping short behind a loaded wheelbarrow, or trudging
lazily by the side of the swinging, loose-throated, short-legged oxen,
rocking along the road as if they had just been landed after a
three-months' voyage, the toiling native, whatever he was doing, stopped
and looked up at the house the Doctor was visiting.
"Somebody sick over there t' Haynes's.
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