“That didn’t make it any better for Johnny. Laura knows all those things, doesn’t she? And Trudy, too?”
“I think they know what to do in the simpler emergencies of life.”
“I wish I did. I took a first-aid course, but it didn’t have stings in it, not as far as we’d gone when I came away. We were taught bandaging and using splints and things like that.”
“Very useful knowledge.”
“But Johnny got stung,” said Elliott, as though nothing mattered beyond that fact. “Do you think you could teach me things, now and then, Aunt Jessica? the things Laura and Trudy know?”
“Surely,” said Aunt Jessica, “and very gladly. There are things that you could teach Laura and Trudy, too. Don’t forget that entirely.”
“Could I? Useful things?” She asked the question with humility.
“Very useful things in certain kinds of emergency. What did Mrs. Gordon do for Johnny when she got home?”
“Oh, she washed his hand and soaked it in strong soda and water, baking-soda, and then she bound some soda right on, for good measure, she said.”