The doctor
heard all that Peter de Groodt had to say in favour of the youthful
candidate; and then, wetting his thumb with the end of his tongue, he
began deliberately to turn over page after page of the great black
volume before him. At length, after many hums and haws, and strokings
of the chin, and all that hesitation and deliberation with which a
wise man proceeds to do what he intended to do from the very first,
the doctor agreed to take the lad as a disciple; to give him bed,
board, and clothing, and to instruct him in the healing art; in return
for which, he was to have his services until his twenty-first year.
Behold, then, our hero, all at once transformed from an unlucky
urchin, running wild about the streets, to a student of medicine,
diligently pounding a pestle, under the auspices of the learned Doctor
Karl Lodovick Knipperhausen. It was a happy transition for his fond
old mother. She was delighted with the idea of her boy's being brought
up worthy of his ancestors; and anticipated the day when he would be
able to hold up his head with the lawyer, that lived in the large
house opposite; or, peradventure, with the Dominie himself.
Doctor Knipperhausen was a native of the Palatinate of Germany; from
whence, in company with many of his countrymen, he had taken refuge
in England, on account of religious persecution.
Pages:
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480