Page:Famous Living Americans, with Portraits.djvu/579

 556 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS through the events of his after-life. He sailed cat-boatSi fishedy swam in the surf, and indulged in all the other whole- some pleasures known to salt-water youths. He went through Middleboro Academy, profiting by experiences common with boys who, though not especially studious, are skilful with boxing gloves — or bare fists — and who are active in other branches of athletics. At Harvard he was noted as the best long-distance runner in school Strongly influenced by the desire of his father, whom an injury during medical service in the War of the Rebellion had crippled for life, young Wood studied medicine at Harvard and on graduation went to Bos- ton for hospital training and practice. Just about this time old Geronimo and his Indian band were making things lively in the Southwest. ^^ Indians Capture American Outpost,** ** Geronimo Drips With Warpaint" — such were the headlines that blazed on front pages of Eastern newspapers. To a certain young doctor sitting idly in a back office in sleepy old Boston, drugs took on the smell of gun- powder and scalpels changed to sabres. Far out on the west- em plains there was fighting to be done, and plenty of it. There was a call for fighting men. So Leonard Wood hit the westward trail by reason of his natural inward promptings and an appetite for battle. In 1885 he passed the examination for army-surgeon, and was attached to Lieutenant-Colonel Lawton's command as civilian-surgeon and soldier in the line at $100 a month. ton of the well-set-up, tow-headed civilian who reported to him at his tent on the dusty prairie. And action is what fell to his lot. It was as if the warfare was carried on with an unseen en- emy. Reports would come to camp that a lonely ranch house had been fired upon, and away the command would clatter only to find all trace of the red-skins covered up in the track- less hills of New Mexico. A still-hunt would ensue, and in that Leonard Wood's cross-country training stood him in good stead.
 * Well, what are you here for?'* snapped Colonel Law-
 * Action,*' replied the young man.