Leaving the muddy and half-drowned doctor, who looked like a well-wet-down bantam cock, John turned to his mistress, whom he picked up from the grass, and carried into the house. The two ladies, who had witnessed her discomfiture, assisted in loosening the stays, and administering some salts, which revived the widow. "O, did you ever see such a comical sight?" "Never. O, wasn't it horrid? The little doctor riding backward, on a horrid, dirty, old pig! O, if I ever!" And the ladies laughed in unison, in which the widow actually joined. "But what has become of the poor, wet fellow? And did John rescue the saddle-bags?" inquired the widow. John, meantime, had returned to the doctor's assistance. He now fished out the saddle-bags, and the unfortunate doctor started on foot for home, whither the pony had long since fled. The story, in the mouth of one servant and three ladies, was anything but a secret, and--you know how it is in the country. * * * * * The widow still holds the farm in her own name, in a town in New England. Dr. Filley practises physic in California. A SCIENTIFIC GOURMAND. Our familiar friend, "A Book about Doctors," which we have before introduced to your notice as the only amusing work in the English language, upon the subject, gives a long list of _bon vivants_ of the old school, amongst whom are some eminent names in the medical profession. In fact, the abstemious doctors during the past centuries would seem to have been far in the minority. Even Harvey was accused of being fond of brandy. "Dr. George Fordyce was fond of substantial fare, like Radcliffe, who was a _gormand_. For above twenty years Fordyce dined at Dolly's chop-house. The dinner he there consumed was his only meal during the four and twenty hours. "Four o'clock was his dinner hour. Before him was set a silver tankard of strongest ale, a bottle of port wine, and a quarter pint of brandy. "The dinner was preluded by a dish of broiled fowl, or a few whitings. Having leisurely devoured this plate, the doctor took a glass of brandy, and ordered his steak, which was always a prime one, _weighing one and a half pounds_. Of course, vegetables, etc., accompanied the steak. "When the man of science had devoured the whole of this, the bulk of which would have kept a boa constrictor happy a twelvemonth, he took the rest of his brandy, drank off the tankard of ale, and topped off by sipping down his bottle of port wine. "Having thus brought his intellects, up or down, to the standard of his pupils, he rose, and walked down to Essex Street, and delivered his six o'clock lecture on chemistry." (He lived to the age of sixty-six.) Another glutton, in contrast with whom Fordyce was an abstinent, was Dr. Beauford. In 1745 he was summoned to appear before the privy council, to answer some questions relative to Lord B., with whom the doctor was intimate. "Do you know Lord Barrymore?" asked one of the lords.