In another five minutes the active physician had groped his way down-stairs, emerged from his stately dwelling, and had run to his patient's house. In a trice he was admitted; in a twinkle he was up the stairs; in another second he was by the sick lady's bedside, round which were seated a nurse and three eminent Holmnook gossips. He was, however, little prepared for the reception he met with--the effect his appearance produced. The sick lady, struggling though she was with severe pain, laughed outright. The nurse said, "Oh my!--Doctor Kemp!" Gossip No. 1 exclaimed, "Oh, you'll kill me!" Gossip No. 2 cried, "I can't believe my eyes!" Gossip No. 3 exploded with--"Oh, Doctor Kemp, do look at your stockings!" And the doctor, obeying, did look at his stockings. One was of black silk--the other was a crimson one, with yellow clocks. Was there not merry talk the next day at Holmnook! Didn't one hear blithe hearty laughter at every street corner--at every window under the limes? What did they laugh about? What did they say? Only this, fair reader-- "_Honi soit qui mal y pense_." God bless thee, Holmnook! The bells of thy old church-tower are jangling in my ears though thou art a hundred miles away. I see the blue heavens kissing thy limes! CHAPTER XXIV. LITERATURE AND ART. The old proverb says, "Every man is a physician or a fool by forty." Sir Henry Halford happening to quote the old saw to a circle of friends, Canning, with a pleasant humour smiling in his eyes, inquired, "Sir Henry, mayn't he be both?" John Locke, according to academic registration, was not a physician till he was past forty. Born in 1632, he took his M.B. degree Feb. 6th, 1674. To what extent he exercised his profession is still a matter of dispute; but there is no doubt that he was for some period an active practitioner of it. Of his letters to Hans Sloane, that are still extant, the following is one:-- "DEAR SIR,-- "I have a patient here sick of the fever at this season. It seems not violent; but I am told 'tis a sort that is not easily thrown off. I desire to know of you what your fevers in town are, and what methods you find most successful in them? I shall be obliged by your favour if you will give me a word or two by to-morrow's post, and direct it to me, to be left at Mr Harrison's, in the 'Crown,' at Harlow. "I am, Sir, "Your most humble servant, "J LOCKE." Popularly the name of Locke is as little associated with the profession of medicine as that of Sir James Mackintosh, who was a practising physician, till ambition and poverty made him select a more lucrative vocation, and turn his energies to the bar.