The doctor left a message for you, he said he wanted to see
you again very much, and hoped to find you here on his return, which
will be about four o'clock in the afternoon. He desired me to say, if
you sailed before he got back, he hoped you would leave word what port
he would find you in, as he would follow you."
"Oh," said I, "we shall not go before to-morrow, at the earliest, so
he will be in very good time. But who in the world is Doctor Ovey? He
is the most singular man I ever met. He is very eccentric; ain't he?"
"I don't know who he is," she replied. "Father agrees with you. He
says he talks sometimes as if he was daft, but that, I believe, is
only because he is so learned. He has a house a way back in the
forest, where he lives occasionally; but the greater part of the year
he wanders about the woods, and camps out like--"
She hesitated a moment, and then brought out the reluctant word: "an
Indian. He knows the name of every plant and flower in the country,
and their uses; and the nature of every root, or bark, or leaf that
ever was; and then he knows all the ores, and coal mines, and
everything of that kind. He is a great hand for stuffing birds and
animals, and has some of every kind there is in the province. As for
butterflies, beetles, and those sort of things, he will chase them
like a child all day. His house is a regular--.
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