It has been said that physicians have been known to benevolently play a fee into a brother's hand when their own palm failed to be broad enough to hold them all. Perhaps the reader may derive amusement or instruction from the following, in which case the writer is well repaid for their insertion:-- "A wealthy tradesman, after drinking the waters of the Bath Springs a long time, under advice of his physician, took a fancy to try those of Bristol. Armed with an introductory letter from his Bath doctor to a professional brother at Bristol, the old gentleman set off on his journey. On the way he said to himself,-- "'I wonder what Dr. ---- has advised the Bristol physician respecting my case;' and giving way to his curiosity, or anxiety, he opened the letter, and read,-- "'DEAR DOCTOR: The bearer is a fat Wiltshire clothier; _make the most of him_. Yours, professionally, ----.'" Clutterbuck, the historian, and a pleasant writer, tells the following of his uncle, who was a physician:-- "A nervous old lady, a patient of his, took it into her crotchety old head to try the Bath waters, and applied to her physician for permission. "'The very thing I have been thinking to recommend,' he replied; 'and I know an excellent physician at the wells, to whom I will give you a letter of introduction.'" With her letter and a companion, she started for the springs. _En route_ she took out the letter, and, after looking at the address some time, her curiosity overcame her, and she said to her friend, "So long as the doctor has treated me, he has never told me what my case is, and I have a mind to just look into this letter and see what he has told the Bath physician about it." In vain her friend remonstrated against such a breach of trust. The old lady opened the epistle, and read the following instructive words:-- "DEAR SIR: Keep the old woman three weeks, and send her back." [Illustration] XVI. GENEROSITY AND MEANNESS. "Life's better joys spring up thus by the wayside, And the world calls them trifles. 'Tis not so. Heaven is not prodigal, nor pours its joys In unregarded torrents upon man: They fall, as fall the riches of the clouds Upon the parched earth, gently, drop by drop. Nothing is trifling which love consecrates."--AYLMERE. "The art of our necessities is strange."--KING LEAR. THE WORLD UNMASKED.--A ROUGH DIAMOND.--DECAYED GENTILITY.--"THREE FLIGHT, BACK."--SEVERAL ANECDOTES.--THE OLD FOX-HUNTER.--"STAND ON YOUR HEAD."--KINDNESS TO CLERGYMEN.--RARE CHARITY.--OLD AND HOMELESS.--THE "O'CLO'" JEW.--DR. HUNTER'S GENEROSITY.--"WHAT'S THE PRICE OF BEEF?"--A SAD OMISSION.--INNATE GENEROSITY.--A CURB-STONE MONEY-MANIAC.--AN EYE-OPENER.--AN AVARICIOUS DOCTOR.--ROBBING THE DEAD.