"Good!" said the doctor, emphatically. "That is the kind of boy I like;" and looking out of the window, he fell into a reverie which lasted all the way to Auburn.
[CHAPTER VII.]
EBEN MAKES A NEW FRIEND AND MEETS AN OLD ONE.
EBEN knew his way to the college very well, and found Dr. Porter without trouble. The old gentleman was in the anatomical museum, and Eben glanced round him with wondering and delighted eyes while Dr. Henry's note was being read. Dr. Porter smiled when he came to the postscript.
"So you think you would like to see the museum?"
"Yes, sir, if you would be so kind as to show me," said Eben, starting, for his whole attention was already absorbed by an unspeakably hideous anatomical painting which hung near him.
"Do you know anything about anatomy?" asked the doctor.
"Not much," replied Eben, blushing. "Only what I read in Miss Milliard's physiology and in the old Edinburgh encyclopaedia that father had."
"Well, that is not a bad beginning," said the doctor, kindly. "But how came you to care for such reading?"
"I don't know, sir; I always did like it. When I was a very little boy, mother scolded me for pulling open the cat's mouth and looking down her throat; but I did not mean to hurt her: I only wanted to see how it was that she purred."