CHAPTER XXL 



THE DOCTOR AND HIS WIFE ON A FISHING EXCURSION THE 

 LAW OF THE CASE STRONG-MINDED WOMEN. 



THE right to the glory of having killed the bear being 

 settled, the Doctor, addressing himself to Spalding, re- 

 marked " There was something in H 's appeal to you 



about the law of his case, |hat reminded me of a little scene 

 between my wife and myself, many years ago, when we were 

 both younger than we are now, and certainly had never anti- 

 cipated the dark years of trial, through which we were un- 



^ 

 , expectedly called upon to pass. You know that I started in 



life, like Smith here, a gentleman of fortune, calculating, 

 like him, to live at my ease, without troubling myself with 

 the cares of any particular business, as I passed along. 

 Still I thought, or rather my father thought, that it would 

 be well enough, even for a gentleman, to have at least a 

 nominal title to some profession. So I studied the law, and 

 was admitted as an attorney and counsellor of the courts. 

 Never intending to practise, I did not become very pro- 



