I found the following in the November 1913 issue of Ladies’ Home Journal:

The little son of the physician, together with a friend, was playing in his father’s office during the absence of the doctor, when suddenly the young host threw open a closet door and disclosed to the terrified gaze of his little friend an articulated skeleton.

When the visitor had sufficiently recovered from his shock to stand the announcement the doctor’s son explained that his father was extremely proud of that skeleton.

“Is he?”’ asked the other. ‘‘ Why?”

“I don’t know,” was the answer; ‘‘maybe it was his first patient.”

©Colcannon Metropolis