most often , however , the doctor would be in his laboratory , puttering with his vials and specimen jars and drawers full of bones and dried viscera , through the dead hours of the night , until at dawn he would climb the stairs to the kitchen , rising with the sun from that pit of peculiarities and putrefaction to prepare our morning repast ( or , as was more common , hastily eat what i had prepared ) , his smock speckled with blood and bits of tissue and other biological drippings , the nature and origin of which i cared not to speculate about .