"That's right," he said. "Now, kick out your legs as if you were
swimming."
I looked up at him sharply, for it seemed so strange for him to say that
just after I had been thinking of being nearly drowned. I kicked out,
though, as he told me.
"No bones broken there," he said; and he proceeded then to feel my ribs.
"Capital!" he said after a few moments. "Why, there's nothing the
matter but a little bark off your forehead, and I'm afraid you'll have a
black eye. A bit of sticking-plaster will set you right after all, and
we sha'n't want the doctor."
"Doctor! Oh! no," I said. "My head aches a bit, and that place smarts,
but it will soon be better."
"To be sure it will," he said, nodding pleasantly.--"Well, is he
coming?"
This was to Ike, who came up to the open door. "He's out," said Ike
gruffly. "Won't be home for two hours, and he'll come on when he gets
home."
"That will do," said Old Brownsmith.
"Shall I see 'bout loading up again?"
"Oh, no!" said Old Brownsmith sarcastically. "Let the baskets lie where
they are. It doesn't matter about sending to market to sell the things.
You never want any wages!"
"What's the good o' talking to a man like that, master?" growled Ike.
"You know you don't mean it, no more'n I meant to send the sieves atop
o' young Grant here. I'm werry sorry; and a man can't say fairer than
that."
"Go and load up then," said Old Brownsmith. "We must risk the damaged
goods."
Ike looked hard at me and went away.
"Had you said anything to offend him, my lad?" said the old man as soon
as we were alone.
"Oh! no, sir," I cried; "we were capital friends, and he was telling me
the best way to load."
"A capital teacher!" cried the old gentleman sarcastically. "No; I
don't think he did it intentionally. If I did I'd send him about his
business this very night. There!--lie down and go to sleep; it will
take off the giddiness."
I lay quite still, and as I did so Old Brownsmith seemed to swell up
like the genii who came out of the sealed jar the fisherman caught
instead of fish. Then he grew cloudy and filled the room, and then
there was the creaking of baskets, and I saw things clearly again. Old
Brownsmith was gone, and the soft evening air came through the open
window by the pots of geraniums.
My eyes were half-closed and I saw things rather dimly, particularly one
pot on the window-sill, which, instead of being red and regular
pot-shaped, seemed to be rounder and light-coloured, and to have a
couple of eyes, and grinning white teeth. There were no leaves above it
nor scarlet blossoms, but a straw hat upside-down, with fuzzy hair
standing up out of it; and the eyes kept on staring at me till it seemed
to be Shock! Then it grew dark and I must have fallen asleep, wondering
what that boy could have to do with my accident.
Perhaps I came to again--I don't know; for it may have been a dream that
the old gentleman came softly back and dabbed my head gently with a
towel, and that the towel was stained with blood.
Of course it was a dream that I was out in the East with my father, who
was not hurt in the skirmish, but it was I who received the wound, which
bled a good deal; and somehow I seemed to have been hurt in the
shoulder, which ached and felt strained and wrenched. But all became
blank again and I lay some time asleep.
When I opened my eyes again I found that I was being hurt a good deal by
the doctor, who was seeing to my injuries. Old Brownsmith and Ike were
both in the room, and I could see Shock peeping round the big _arbor
vitae_ outside the window to see what was going on.
The doctor was holding a glass to my lips, while Old Brownsmith raised
me up.
"Drink that, my boy," said the doctor. "That's the way!--capital! isn't
it?"
I shuddered and looked up at him reproachfully, for the stuff he had
given me to drink tasted like a mixture of soap and smelling-salts; and
I said so.
"Good description of the volatile alkali, my lad," he said, laughing.
"There!--you'll soon be all right. I've strapped up your wound."
"My wound, sir!" I said, wonderingly.
"To be sure; didn't you know that you had a cut upon your forehead?"