Chapter III. Ward No. 1
For some days, nothing was seen and little was heard of the "dearsufferers," as the old ladies called them. But they were not forgotten;the first words uttered when any of the young people met were: "How isJack?" "Seen Jill yet?" and all waited with impatience for the momentwhen they could be admitted to their favorite mates, more than everobjects of interest now.
Meantime, the captives spent the first few days in sleep, pain, andtrying to accept the hard fact that school and play were done with formonths perhaps. But young spirits are wonderfully elastic and soon cheerup, and healthy young bodies heal fast, or easily adapt themselves tonew conditions. So our invalids began to mend on the fourth day, andto drive their nurses distracted with efforts to amuse them, before thefirst week was over.
The most successful attempt originated in Ward No. 1, as Mrs. Minotcalled Jack's apartment, and we will give our sympathizing readers someidea of this place, which became the stage whereon were enacted manyvaried and remarkable scenes.
Each of the Minot boys had his own room, and there collected his owntreasures and trophies, arranged to suit his convenience and taste.Frank's was full of books, maps, machinery, chemical messes, andgeometrical drawings, which adorned the walls like intricate cobwebs.A big chair, where he read and studied with his heels higher than hishead, a basket of apples for refreshment at all hours of the day ornight, and an immense inkstand, in which several pens were alwaysapparently bathing their feet, were the principal ornaments of hisscholastic retreat.
Jack's hobby was athletic sports, for he was bent on having a strong andactive body for his happy little soul to live and enjoy itself in. So asevere simplicity reigned in his apartment; in summer, especially, forthen his floor was bare, his windows were uncurtained, and the chairsuncushioned, the bed being as narrow and hard as Napoleon's. The onlyornaments were dumbbells, whips, bats, rods, skates, boxing-gloves, abig bath-pan and a small library, consisting chiefly of books on games,horses, health, hunting, and travels. In winter his mother made thingsmore comfortable by introducing rugs, curtains, and a fire. Jack,also, relented slightly in the severity of his training, occasionallyindulging in the national buckwheat cake, instead of the prescribedoatmeal porridge, for breakfast, omitting his cold bath when thethermometer was below zero, and dancing at night, instead of running agiven distance by day.
Now, however, he was a helpless captive, given over to all sorts ofcoddling, laziness, and luxury, and there was a droll mixture of mirthand melancholy in his face, as he lay trussed up in bed, watching thecomforts which had suddenly robbed his room of its Spartan simplicity.A delicious couch was there, with Frank reposing in its depths, halfhidden under several folios which he was consulting for a history of thesteam-engine, the subject of his next composition.
A white-covered table stood near, with all manner of dainties set forthin a way to tempt the sternest principles. Vases of flowers bloomed onthe chimney-piece,--gifts from anxious young ladies, left with theirlove. Frivolous story-books and picture-papers strewed the bed, nowshrouded in effeminate chintz curtains, beneath which Jack lay likea wounded warrior in his tent. But the saddest sight for our crippledathlete was a glimpse, through a half-opened door, at the beloveddumb-bells, bats, balls, boxing-gloves, and snow-shoes, all piledignominiously away in the bath-pan, mournfully recalling the fact thattheir day was over, now, at least for some time.
He was about to groan dismally, when his eye fell on a sight which madehim 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 rollingbandages, with a basket beside her in which were piles of old linen,lint, plaster, and other matters, needed for the dressing of wounds. Ashe looked, Jack remembered how steadily and tenderly she had stood byhim all through the hard times just past, and how carefully she hadbathed and dressed his wound each day in spite of the effort it cost herto give him pain or even see him suffer.
"That's a better sort of strength than swinging twenty-pound dumb-bellsor running races; I guess I'll try for that kind, too, and not howl orlet her see me squirm when the doctor hurts," thought the boy, as he sawthat gentle face so pale and tired with much watching and anxiety, yetso patient, serene, and cheerful, that it was like sunshine.
"Lie down and take a good nap, mother dear, I feel first-rate, and Frankcan see to me if I want anything. Do, now," he added, with a persuasivenod toward the couch, and a boyish relish in stirring up his lazybrother.
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 aspossible if the dear boy wished to sleep, and to amuse him if he didnot.
Being worn out, Mrs. Minot lengthened her forty winks into a threehours' nap, and as the "dear boy" scorned repose, Mr. Frank had hishands full while on guard.
"I'll read to you. Here's Watt, Arkwright, Fulton, and a lot of capitalfellows, with pictures that will do your heart good. Have a bit, willyou?" asked the new nurse, flapping the leaves invitingly.--for Frankhad a passion for such things, and drew steam-engines all over hisslate, as Tommy Traddles drew hosts of skeletons when low in hisspirits.
"I don't want any of your old boilers and stokers and whirligigs. I'mtired 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 obliginglydisinterred himself from under the folios, feeling that it _was_ hardfor a fellow to lie flat a whole week.
"No fun; just two of us. Wish school was over, so the boys would comein; doctor said I might see them now."
"They'll be along by and by, and I'll hail them. Till then, what shallwe do? I'm your man for anything, only put a name to it."
"Just wish I had a telegraph or a telephone, so I could talk to Jill.Wouldn't it be fun to pipe across and get an answer!"
"I'll make either you say;" and Frank looked as if trifles of that sortwere to be had for the asking.
"Could you, really?"
"We'll start the telegraph first, then you can send things over if youlike," said Frank, prudently proposing the surest experiment.
"Go ahead, then. I'd like that, and so would Jill, for I know she wantsto hear from me."
"There's one trouble, though; I shall have to leave you alone for a fewminutes while I rig up the ropes;" and Frank looked sober, for he was afaithful boy, and did not want to desert his post.
"Oh, never mind; I won't want anything. If I do, I can pound for Ann."
"And wake mother. I'll fix you a better way than that;" and, fullof inventive genius, our young Edison spliced the poker to part of afishing-rod in a jiffy, making a long-handled hook which reached acrossthe room.
"There's an arm for you; now hook away, and let's see how it works,"he said, handing over the instrument to Jack, who proceeded to show itsunexpected capabilities by hooking the cloth off the table in attemptingto get his handkerchief, catching Frank by the hair when fishing for abook, and breaking a pane of glass in trying to draw down the curtain.
"It's so everlasting long, I can't manage it," laughed Jack, as itfinally caught in his bed-hangings, and nearly pulled them, ring andall, down upon his head.
"Let it alone, unless you need something very much, and don't botherabout the glass. It's just what we want for the telegraph wire orrope to go through. Keep still, and I'll have the thing running in tenminutes;" and, delighted with the job, Frank hurried away, leaving Jackto compose a message to send as soon as it was possible.
"What in the world is that flying across the Minots' yard,--a brown henor a boy's kite?" exclaimed old Miss Hopkins, peering out of her windowat the singular performances going on in her opposite neighbor's garden.
First, Frank appeared with a hatchet and chopped a clear space in thehedge between his own house and the cottage; next, a clothes line waspassed through this aperture and fastened somewhere on the other side;lastly
, a small covered basket, slung on this rope, was seen hitchingalong, drawn either way by a set of strings; then, as if satisfied withhis job, Frank retired, whistling "Hail Columbia."
"It's those children at their pranks again. I thought broken boneswouldn't keep them out of mischief long," said the old lady, watchingwith great interest the mysterious basket travelling up and down therope from the big house to the cottage.
If she had seen what came and went over the wires of the "GreatInternational Telegraph," she would have laughed till her spectaclesflew off her Roman nose. A letter from Jack, with a large orange, wentfirst, explaining the new enterprise:--
"Dear Jill,--It's too bad you can't come over to see me. I am prettywell, but awful tired of keeping still. I want to see you ever so much.Frank has fixed us a telegraph, so we can write and send things. Won'tit be jolly! I can't look out to see him do it; but, when you pull yourstring, my little bell rings, and I know a message is coming. I send youan orange. Do you like _gorver_ jelly? People send in lots of goodies,and we will go halves. Good-by.
"Jack"
Away went the basket, and in fifteen minutes it came back from thecottage with nothing in it but the orange.
"Hullo! Is she mad?" asked Jack, as Frank brought the despatch for himto examine.
But, at the first touch, the hollow peel opened, and out fell a letter,two gum-drops, and an owl made of a peanut, with round eyes drawn at theend where the stem formed a funny beak. Two bits of straw were the legs,and the face looked so like Dr. Whiting that both boys laughed at thesight.
"That's so like Jill; she'd make fun if she was half dead. Let's seewhat she says;" and Jack read the little note, which showed a sadneglect of the spelling-book:--
"Dear Jacky,--I can't stir and it's horrid. The telly graf is very niceand we will have fun with it. I never ate any _gorver_ jelly. The orangewas first rate. Send me a book to read. All about bears and shipsand crockydiles. The doctor was coming to see you, so I sent him thequickest way. Molly Loo says it is dreadful lonesome at school withoutus. Yours truly,
"Jill"
Jack immediately despatched the book and a sample of guava jelly, whichunfortunately upset on the way, to the great detriment of "The WildBeasts of Asia and Africa." Jill promptly responded with the loan of atiny black kitten, who emerged spitting and scratching, to Jack's greatdelight; and he was cudgelling his brains as to how a fat white rabbitcould be transported, when a shrill whistle from without saved Jill fromthat inconvenient offering.
"It's the fellows; do you want to see them?" asked Frank, gazing downwith calm superiority upon the three eager faces which looked up at him.
"Guess I do!" and Jack promptly threw the kitten overboard, scorning tobe seen by any manly eye amusing himself with such girlish toys.
Bang! went the front door; tramp, tramp, tramp, came six booted feet upthe stairs; and, as Frank threw wide the door, three large beingspaused on the threshold to deliver the courteous "Hullo!" which is theestablished greeting among boys on all social occasions.
"Come along, old fellows; I'm ever so glad to see you!" cried theinvalid, with such energetic demonstrations of the arms that he lookedas if about to fly or crow, like an excited young cockerel.
"How are you, Major?"
"Does the leg ache much, Jack?"
"Mr. Phipps says you'll have to pay for the new rails."
With these characteristic greetings, the gentlemen cast away their hatsand sat down, all grinning cheerfully, and all with eyes irresistiblyfixed upon the dainties, which proved too much for the politeness ofever-hungry boys.
"Help yourselves," said Jack, with a hospitable wave. "All the dear oldladies in town have been sending in nice things, and I can't begin toeat them up. Lend a hand and clear away this lot, or we shall have tothrow them out of the window. Bring on the doughnuts and the tarts andthe shaky stuff in the entry closet, Frank, and let's have a lark."
No sooner said than done. Gus took the tarts, Joe the doughnuts, Ed thejelly, and Frank suggested "spoons all round" for the Italian cream. Afew trifles in the way of custard, fruit, and wafer biscuits were notworth mentioning; but every dish was soon emptied, and Jack said, as hesurveyed the scene of devastation with great satisfaction,--
"Call again to-morrow, gentlemen, and we will have another bout. Freelunches at 5 P.M. till further notice. Now tell me all the news."
For half an hour, five tongues went like mill clappers, and there is noknowing when they would have stopped if the little bell had not suddenlyrung with a violence that made them jump.
"That's Jill; see what she wants, Frank;" and while his brother sent offthe basket, Jack told about the new invention, and invited his mates toexamine and admire.
They did so, and shouted with merriment when the next despatch from Jillarrived. A pasteboard jumping-jack, with one leg done up in cotton-woolto preserve the likeness, and a great lump of molasses candy in a brownpaper, with accompanying note:--
"Dear Sir,--I saw the boys go in, and know you are having a nice time,so I send over the candy Molly Loo and Merry brought me. Mammy says Ican't eat it, and it will all melt away if I keep it. Also a picture ofJack Minot, who will dance on one leg and waggle the other, and make youlaugh. I wish I could come, too. Don't you hate grewel? I do.--In haste,
"J.P."
"Let's all send her a letter," proposed Jack, and out came pens,ink, paper, and the lamp, and every one fell to scribbling. A drollcollection was the result, for Frank drew a picture of the fatal fallwith broken rails flying in every direction, Jack with his head swollento the size of a balloon, and Jill in two pieces, while the various boysand girls were hit off with a sly skill that gave Gus legs like a stork,Molly Loo hair several yards long, and Boo a series of visible howlscoming out of an immense mouth in the shape of o's. The oxen wereparticularly good, for their horns branched like those of the moose, andMr. Grant had a patriarchal beard which waved in the breeze as he borethe wounded girl to a sled very like a funeral pyre, the stakes beingcrowned with big mittens like torches.
"You ought to be an artist. I never saw such a dabster as you are.That's the very moral of Joe, all in a bunch on the fence, with a blotto show how purple his nose was," said Gus, holding up the sketch forgeneral criticism and admiration.
"I'd rather have a red nose than legs like a grasshopper; so you needn'ttwit, Daddy," growled Joe, quite unconscious that a blot actually didadorn his nose, as he labored over a brief despatch.
The boys enjoyed the joke, and one after the other read out his messageto the captive lady:--
"Dear Jill,--Sorry you ain't here. Great fun. Jack pretty lively. Lauraand Lot would send love if they knew of the chance. Fly round and getwell.
"Gus"
"Dear Gilliflower,--Hope you are pretty comfortable in your 'dungeoncell.' Would you like a serenade when the moon comes? Hope you will soonbe up again, for we miss you very much. Shall be very happy to help inany way I can. Love to your mother. Your true friend,
"E.D."
"Miss Pecq.
"_Dear Madam_,--I am happy to tell you that we are all well, and hopeyou are the same. I gave Jem Cox a licking because he went to your desk.You had better send for your books. You won't have to pay for the sledor the fence. Jack says he will see to it. We have been having a spreadover here. First-rate things. I wouldn't mind breaking a leg, if Ihad such good grub and no chores to do. No more now, from yours, withesteem,
"Joseph P. Flint"
Joe thought that an elegant epistle, having copied portions of it fromthe "Letter Writer," and proudly read it off to the boys, who assuredhim that Jill would be much impressed.
"Now, Jack, hurry up and let us send the lot off, for we must go,"said Gus, as Frank put the letters in the basket, and the clatter oftea-things was heard below.
"I'm not going to show mine. It's private and you mustn't look,"answered Jack, patting down an envelope with such care that no one had achance to peep.
But Joe had seen the little note copied, and while the oth
ers were atthe window working the telegraph he caught up the original, carelesslythrust by Jack under the pillow, and read it aloud before any one knewwhat he was about.
"My Dear,--I wish I could send you some of my good times. As I can't, Isend you much love, and I hope you will try and be patient as I am goingto, for it was our fault, and we must not make a fuss now. Ain't motherssweet? Mine is coming over to-morrow to see you and tell me how you are.This round thing is a kiss for good-night.
"Your Jack"
"Isn't that spoony? You'd better hide your face, I think. He's gettingto be a regular mollycoddle, isn't he?" jeered Joe, as the boys laughed,and then grew sober, seeing Jack's head buried in the bedclothes, aftersending a pillow at his tormentor.
It nearly hit Mrs. Minot, coming in with her patient's tea on a tray,and at sight of her the guests hurriedly took leave, Joe nearly tumblingdownstairs to escape from Frank, who would have followed, if his motherhad not said quickly, "Stay, and tell me what is the matter."
"Only teasing Jack a bit. Don't be mad, old boy, Joe didn't mean anyharm, and it _was_ rather soft, now wasn't it?" asked Frank, trying toappease the wounded feelings of his brother.
"I charged you not to worry him. Those boys were too much for the poordear, and I ought not to have left him," said Mamma, as she vainlyendeavored to find and caress the yellow head burrowed so far out ofsight that nothing but one red ear was visible.
"He liked it, and we got on capitally till Joe roughed him about Jill.Ah, Joe's getting it now! I thought Gus and Ed would do that littlejob for me," added Frank, running to the window as the sound of stifledcries and laughter reached him.
The red ear heard also, and Jack popped up his head to ask, withinterest,--
"What are they doing to him?"
"Rolling him in the snow, and he's howling like fun."
"Serves him right," muttered Jack, with a frown. Then, as a wail arosesuggestive of an unpleasant mixture of snow in the mouth and thumps onthe back, he burst out laughing, and said, good-naturedly, "Go and stopthem, Frank; I won't mind, only tell him it was a mean trick. Hurry! Gusis so strong he doesn't know how his pounding hurts."
Off ran Frank, and Jack told his wrongs to his mother. She sympathizedheartily, and saw no harm in the affectionate little note, which wouldplease Jill, and help her to bear her trials patiently.
"It isn't silly to be fond of her, is it? She is so nice and funny, andtries to be good, and likes me, and I won't be ashamed of my friends, iffolks do laugh," protested Jack, with a rap of his teaspoon.
"No, dear, it is quite kind and proper, and I'd rather have you playwith a merry little girl than with rough boys till you are big enoughto hold your own," answered Mamma, putting the cup to his lips that thereclining lad might take his broma without spilling.
"Pooh! I don't mean that; I'm strong enough now to take care of myself,"cried Jack, stoutly. "I can thrash Joe any day, if I like. Just lookat my arm; there's muscle for you!" and up went a sleeve, to the greatdanger of overturning the tray, as the boy proudly displayed his bicepsand expanded his chest, both of which were very fine for a lad of hisyears. "If I'd been on my legs, he wouldn't have dared to insult me, andit was cowardly to hit a fellow when he was down."
Mrs. Minot wanted to laugh at Jack's indignation, but the bell rang, andshe had to go and pull in the basket, much amused at the new game.
Burning to distinguish herself in the eyes of the big boys, Jill hadsent over a tall, red flannel night-cap, which she had been making forsome proposed Christmas plays, and added the following verse, for shewas considered a gifted rhymester at the game parties:--
"When it comes night, We put out the light. Some blow with a puff, Some turn down and snuff; But neat folks prefer A nice extinguis_her_. So here I send you back One to put on Mr. Jack."
"Now, I call that regularly smart; not one of us could do it, and I justwish Joe was here to see it. I want to send once more, something goodfor tea; she hates gruel so;" and the last despatch which the GreatInternational Telegraph carried that day was a baked apple and a warmmuffin, with "J. M.'s best regards."