The capacity in which I began life in Uncle Henry’s office was that of office boy, and the situation was attended in my case with many favourable conditions.  Uncle Henry wished me to sleep on the premises, as my predecessor had done, but an accidental circumstance led to my coming home daily, which I infinitely preferred.  This was nothing less than an outbreak of boils all over me, upon which, every domestic application having failed, and gallons of herb tea only making me worse, Dr. Brown was called in, and pronounced my health in sore need of restoration.  The regimen of Crayshaw’s was not to be recovered from in a day, and the old doctor would not hear of my living altogether in the town.  If I went to the office at all, he said, I must ride in early, and ride out in the evening.  So much fresh air and exercise were imperative, and I must eat two solid meals a day under no less careful an eye than that of my mother.

She was delighted.  She thought (even more than usual) that Doctor Brown was a very Solomon in spectacles, and I quite agreed with her.  The few words that followed gave a slight shock to her favourable opinion of his wisdom, but I need hardly say that it confirmed mine.

He had given me a kindly slap on the shoulder, which happened at that moment to be the sorest point in my body, and I was in no small pain from head to foot.  I only tightened my lips, but I suppose he bethought himself of what he had done, and he looked keenly at me and said, “You can bear pain, Master Jack?”

“Oh, Jack’s a very brave boy,” said my dear mother.  “Indeed, he’s only too brave.  He upset his father and me terribly last week by wanting to go to sea instead of to the office.”

“And much better for him, ma’am,” said the old doctor, promptly; “he’ll make a first-rate sailor, and if Crayshaw’s is all the schooling he’s had, a very indifferent clerk.”

“That’s just what I think!” I began, but my mother coloured crimson with distress, and I stopped, and went after her worsted ball which she had dropped, whilst she appealed to Doctor Brown.

“Pray don’t say so, Doctor Brown.  Jack is very good, and it’s all quite decided.  I couldn’t part with him, and his father would be so annoyed if the subject——­”

“Tut, tut, ma’am!” said the doctor, pocketing his spectacles; “I never interfere with family affairs, and I never repeat what I hear.  The first rules of the profession, young gentleman, and very good general rules for anybody.”

I got quite well again, and my new life began.  I rode in and out of the town every day on Rob Roy, our red-haired pony.  After tea I went to the farm to be taught by Mr. Wood, and at every opportunity I devoured such books as I could lay my hands on.  I fear I had very little excuse for not being contented now.  And yet I was not content.

It seems absurd to say that the drains had anything to do with it, but the horrible smell which pervaded the office added to the distastefulness of the place, and made us all feel ill and fretful, except my uncle, and Moses Benson, the Jew clerk.  He was never ill, and he said he smelt nothing; which shows that one may have a very big nose to very little purpose.