"Ay, Daniel; but your mother's pump bears no comparison to the heart. During the time I have been with her, the spear has worn off, the boxes have been new leathered, and the cracks in the pump that sucked air have been covered with putty and lead; but this pump runs eighty, and sometimes a hundred years without the pause of a second."
"Why don't the muscles of the heart get tired, just as my legs do, and want to rest?"
"They do rest, and just as long as they work; rest a second, and work a second, day and night. The other muscles are in a state of tension all day, and then rest at night."
"Well, I mean to know how I am made up, before I am much older."
CHAPTER XIX. DAN TRAPS LARGE GAME.
The industry of Rich was something remarkable. He was well fed, his work for Mrs. Clemens gave him abundant exercise, and kept him in vigorous health, and the habit of thorough study he had performed in college enabled him to make rapid progress.
In connection with the study of text-books he had performed a great number of operations upon animals, obtained practice in the use of instruments, and now felt disposed to comply, to a certain extent, with the doctor's advice in respect to actual practice. It was not long before an opportunity offered.
Dan Clemens had the toothache, and in spite of all the remedies his mother applied,—and they were by no means few in number—laudanum, gunpowder, pepper, cloves, the stem of a pumpkin smoked in a pipe, hot salt, camphor, and new rum,—was half crazy with it.