Dr.Riceabocca was one of those men who never do things by halves.

When I say he resigned himself, I mean not only Christian but philosophical resignation.

The position was not quite so pleasant as, theoretically, he had deemed it; but he resolved to make himself as comfortable as he could.

At first, as is natural in all troubles to men who have grown familiar with that odoriferous comforter which Sir Walter Raleigh is said first to have bestowed upon the Caucasian races, the doctor made use of his hands to extract from his pocket his pipe, match-box, and tobacco-pouch.

After a few whiffs he would have been quite reconciled to his situation, but for the discovery that the sun had shifted its place in the heavens, and was no longer shaded from his face by the elm-tree.