I FOUND at my good friend Dr Dalrymple's a reception of the warmest kindness. He and his wife, a truly worthy and unaffected old matron, treated me more like a son of their own, than the poor destitute stranger that I felt myself to be. They had never had any family of their own; and three very large cats, as many very little dogs, and a whole aviary of paroquettes, linnets, robins, tame ravens, and I know not what besides, still left a corner in their hearts for mere human benevolence.

The Doctor had already sketched out a plan for me; and it was far from being an unfeasible one. His acquaintance, the chief surgeon of the neighbouring market town, was getting old, and had been complaining that the country part of his practice was beginning to be rather too much for his strength. “I will carry you to-morrow to the town,” said he, “and introduce you to Mr Ronaldson; and I think, if he be really serious in his wishes for an assistant, my good word is like to go quite as far with him as another’s.”

We rode over to Maldoun accordingly the next morning, and were fortunate enough to find the old gentleman in the act of refreshing himself with a huge basin of barley broth and a bumper of whisky, after a ride of twenty miles, in the course of which, he took occasion to hint, he had forded three rivers, and earned a fee of as many shillings. Dalrymple took advantage of the moment with considerable adroitness; and, not to bother you with the particulars of a negotiation which out-lasted the beef and greens, and at least a bowl of toddy per man, the result was, that if I could pass my examination within six months, either at Edinburgh or Glasgow, Mr Ronaldson would then forthwith admit me to be his assistant—it being understood that the night work and the long rides were to fall to my share, and that I should be satisfied, for the first year of my practice, with board and lodging in the house of my principal, and a payment of ten pounds sterling in cash.