第6章 Ward No.I(1)

For some days,nothing was seen and little was heard of the "dear sufferers,"as the old ladies called them.But they were not forgotten;the first words uttered when any of the young people met were:"How is Jack?""Seen Jill yet?"and all waited with impatience for the moment when they could be admitted to their favorite mates,more than ever objects of interest now.

Meantime,the captives spent the first few days in sleep,pain,and trying to accept the hard fact that school and play were done with for months perhaps.But young spirits are wonderfully elastic and soon cheer up,and healthy young bodies heal fast,or easily adapt themselves to new conditions.So our invalids began to mend on the fourth day,and to drive their nurses distracted with efforts to amuse them,before the first week was over.

The most successful attempt originated in Ward No.I,as Mrs.

Minot called Jack's apartment,and we will give our sympathizing readers some idea of this place,which became the stage whereon were enacted many varied and remarkable scenes.

Each of the Minot boys had his own room,and there collected his own treasures and trophies,arranged to suit his convenience and taste.Frank's was full of books,maps,machinery,chemical messes,and geometrical drawings,which adorned the walls like intricate cobwebs.A big chair,where he read and studied with his heels higher than his head,a basket of apples for refreshment at all hours of the day or night,and an immense inkstand,in which several pens were always apparently bathing their feet,were the principal ornaments of his scholastic retreat.

Jack's hobby was athletic sports,for he was bent on having a strong and active body for his happy little soul to live and enjoy itself in.So a severe simplicity reigned in his apartment;in summer,especially,for then his floor was bare,his windows were uncurtained,and the chairs uncushioned,the bed being as narrow and hard as Napoleon's.The only ornaments were dumbbells,whips,bats,rods,skates,boxing-gloves,a big bath-pan and a small library,consisting chiefly of books on games,horses,health,hunting,and travels.In winter his mother made things more comfortable by introducing rugs,curtains,and a fire.Jack,also,relented slightly in the severity of his training,occasionally indulging in the national buckwheat cake,instead of the prescribed oatmeal porridge,for breakfast,omitting his cold bath when the thermometer was below zero,and dancing at night,instead of running a given distance by day.

Now,however,he was a helpless captive,given over to all sorts of coddling,laziness,and luxury,and there was a droll mixture of mirth and melancholy in his face,as he lay trussed up in bed,watching the comforts which had suddenly robbed his room of its Spartan simplicity.A delicious couch was there,with Frank reposing in its depths,half hidden under several folios which he was consulting for a history of the steam-engine,the subject of his next composition.

A white-covered table stood near,with all manner of dainties set forth in a way to tempt the sternest principles.Vases of flowers bloomed on the chimney-piece gifts from anxious young ladies,left with their love.Frivolous story-books and picture-papers strewed the bed,now shrouded in effeminate chintz curtains,beneath which Jack lay like a wounded warrior in his tent.But the saddest sight for our crippled athlete was a glimpse,through a half-opened door,at the beloved dumb-bells,bats,balls,boxing-gloves,and snow-shoes,all piled ignominiously away in the bath-pan,mournfully recalling the fact that their day was over,now,at least for some time.

He was about to groan dismally,when his eye fell on a sight which made him swallow the groan,and cough instead,as if it choked him a little.The sight was his mother's face,as she sat in a low chair rolling bandages,with a basket beside her in which were piles of old linen,lint,plaster,and other matters,needed for the dressing of wounds.As he looked,Jack remembered how steadily and tenderly she had stood by him all through the har4times just past,and how carefully she had bathed and dressed his wound each day in spite of the effort it cost her to give him pain or even see him suffer.

"That's a better sort of strength than swinging twenty-pound dumb-bells or running races;I guess I'll try for that kind,too,and not howl or let her see me squirm when the doctor hurts,"thought the boy,as he saw that gentle face so pale and tired with much watching and anxiety,yet so patient,serene,and cheerful,that it was like sunshine.

"Lie down and take a good nap,mother dear,I feel first-rate,and Frank can see to me if I want anything.Do,now,"he added,with a persuasive nod toward the couch,and a boyish relish in stirring up his lazy brother.

After some urging,Mamma consented to go to her room for forty winks,leaving Jack in the care of Frank,begging him to be as quiet as possible if the dear boy wished to sleep,and to amuse him if he did not.

Being worn out,Mrs.Minot lengthened her forty winks into a three hours nap,and as the "dear boy"scorned repose,Mr.Frank had his hands full while on guard.

"I'll read to you.Here's Watt,Arkwright,Fulton,and a lot of capital fellows,with pictures that will do your heart good.Have a bit,will you?"asked the new nurse,flapping the leaves invitingly for Frank bad a passion for such things,and drew steam-engines all over his slate,as Tommy Traddles drew hosts of skeletons when low in his spirits.

"I don't want any of your old boilers and stokers and whirligigs.Im tired of reading,and want something regularly jolly,"answered Jack,who had been chasing white buffaloes with "The Hunters of the West,"till he was a trifle tired and fractious.

"Play cribbage,euchre,anything you like";and Frank obligingly disinterred himself from under the folios,feeling that it was hard for a fellow to lie flat a whole week.