He ate but sparingly, and, evidently feeling assured, wagged his tail in acknowledgment.
"See how grateful he is," said Horace.
"He knows he's among friends," replied Rich.
"Better kill him at once," said Mrs. Clemens, "and put him out of misery. He will die."
"Kill him!" howled Dan; "kill him! O, mother, I shouldn't think you would talk so. He's worth forty old cats. We're going to make him get well. What's the use of studying so much to be a doctor, if you can't help anybody?"
"Well spoken, Dan," said Rich. "Take him to the barn."
Rich cut off the leg of one of Dan's old boots, and drew it over Rover's nose, to prevent him from biting them. They placed him on the table, and strapped him down.
"Boys," he said, after examination, "this is a compound fracture. The bones of the foot are all ground up, the skin broken, and the muscles bruised, and filled with gravel. The limb can't be set; it will rot off, this warm weather, before it will heal. The only way to save him is to amputate below the hock, and save the hock joint. Which would you prefer, kill him, let him alone to die himself, or amputate, and have a dog with three legs?"
The boys were a unit in favor of amputation. He therefore, having previously instructed his young assistants in what manner to hold the arteries and the limb, took it off, and tied the blood-vessels, sponged and bound up the wound.