To-morrow I must be on the road all day, and, to tell the truth, I
must think over one or two of my cases before I go to bed. Won't you
hand me my old prescription book? I was trying to remember something
as I came home."
Nan, half-comforted, went to find the book, while Dr. Leslie, puffing
his cigar-smoke very fast, looked up through the cloud abstractedly at
a new ornament which had been placed above the mantel shelf since we
first knew the room. Old Captain Finch had solaced his weary and
painful last years by making a beautiful little model of a ship, and
had left it in his will to the doctor. There never was a more touching
gift, this present owner often thought, and he had put it in its place
with reverent hands. A comparison of the two lives came stealing into
his mind, and he held the worn prescription-book a minute before he
opened it. The poor old captain waiting to be released, stranded on
the inhospitable shore of this world, and eager Nan, who was
sorrowfully longing for the world's war to begin. "Two idle heroes,"
thought Dr. Leslie, "and I neither wished to give one his discharge
nor the other her commission;" but he said aloud, "Nan, we will take a
six o'clock start in the morning, and go down through the sandy plains
before the heat begins. I am afraid it will be one of the worst of the
dog-days."
"Yes," answered Nan eagerly, and then she came close to the doctor,
and looked at him a moment before she spoke, while her face shone with
delight.
Pages:
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165