RAB AND HIS FRIENDS,

seemed to anticipate everything in each
other. The following day at noon the stu-
dents came in, hurrying up the great stair.
At the first landing-place, on a small well-
known blackboard, was a bit of paper fast-
ened by wafers, and many remains of old
wafers beside it. On the paper were the
words: “An operation to-day. J. B,
Clerk.”

Up ran the youths, eager to secure good
places: in they crowded, full of interest
and talk. ‘“What’s the case?” “ Which
side is it?”

Don’t think them heartless; they are
neither better nor worse than you or I:
they get over their professional horrors
and into their proper work, and in them
pity, as an emotion ending in itself, or at
best in tears and a long-drawn breath, les-
sens ; while pity as a motive is quickened,
and gains power and purpose. It is well
for poor human nature that it is so.

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