The farm-yard club of Jotham: . perupon these sub-jects. Dr. Park-er was a sort ofmystery to thecommittee, as hewas to the entirevillage, and tothe people of thecountry lyingwithin the largecircuit of hispractice. Hisfather and grand-father had beenphysicians inJotham and that region ; and it was generally believedthat he had in his possession an elaborate record of allthe idiosyncrasies of every family which had submitteditself, from the cradle to the grave, to all these medicalgenerations. He had the entire confidence of the com-munity, not so much from what they did know as fromwhat they di
The farm-yard club of Jotham: . perupon these sub-jects. Dr. Park-er was a sort ofmystery to thecommittee, as hewas to the entirevillage, and tothe people of thecountry lyingwithin the largecircuit of hispractice. Hisfather and grand-father had beenphysicians inJotham and that region ; and it was generally believedthat he had in his possession an elaborate record of allthe idiosyncrasies of every family which had submitteditself, from the cradle to the grave, to all these medicalgenerations. He had the entire confidence of the com-munity, not so much from what they did know as fromwhat they did not know about him. The book was im-pressive enough, but Dr. Parker was more impressivestill. He had been graduated at college while yet quiteyoung ; and before he had passed out of the unrecognizedregions of boyhood into the settled and organized territoryof youth and manhood, he had gone to the medical schoolsof Europe, from which he returned to step at once into hisfathers place, an accepted physician, without the exhaust-. DR. PARKER. 42 THE FARM-YARD CLUB OF JOTHAM. ing and withering delay of working into a practice. Hehad never been married ; and it was said and beheved thathe never would be, and somehow it was desired at last thathe never should be. His house was seldom entered exceptby himself and his housekeeper and servants, the office-door constituting the boundary beyond which few peoplehad been allowed to go. Everybody knew his sulky andeach of his horses, but nobody seemed to know him, as allthe village knew each other. That he was a victim to anuncontrollable appetite was silently and sadly recognizedby all those who loved him, and confided in him, and be-lieved in his skill and knowledge ; and this fact in his lifehad driven him into a secret and hidden retreat, and hadveiled him with an air of secretiveness and mystery whichmanifestly weighed him down, and, except for the practicalduties of his profession, made him a self-imposed outcastamong his fellow-men.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectagriculture, bookyear
