Hare of the
medical school. None of us children ever heard anything like the
original story. The servant girls told us that "Dandy Doctors," clad
in long black cloaks and supplied with a store of sticking-plaster of
wondrous adhesiveness, prowled at night about the country lanes and
even the town streets, watching for children to choke and sell. The
Dandy Doctor's business method, as the servants explained it, was with
lightning quickness to clap a sticking-plaster on the face of a
scholar, covering mouth and nose, preventing breathing or crying for
help, then pop us under his long black cloak and carry us to Edinburgh
to be sold and sliced into small pieces for folk to learn how we were
made. We always mentioned the name "Dandy Doctor" in a fearful
whisper, and never dared venture out of doors after dark. In the short
winter days it got dark before school closed, and in cloudy weather
we sometimes had difficulty in finding our way home unless a servant
with a lantern was sent for us; but during the Dandy Doctor period the
school was closed earlier, for if detained until the usual hour the
teacher could not get us to leave the schoolroom.
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