"Till this clay dries. And I shall hold your foot just where it is till then."
"Why, Mr. Richardson," said Mrs. Merrill, "it will take all day for that clay to dry."
"No, it won't, with the warmth of the leg on one side, and that of the sun on the other, it won't take half a day."
"But the academy bell will ring in about fifteen minutes."
"Parson Meek is going to take my place this forenoon; so you may prepare to give me some dinner, for I shall sit here till the clay hardens, if it is till to-morrow evening."
The clay was stiff, though not dry, before noon, and Frank's leg immovably fixed in the position Rich had placed it.
"Now, Frank, you have behaved so well, I am going to put you in a chair."
Rich and Mr. Merrill took Frank up, placed him in a chair, and put the leg, box and all, on two others.
"Now, my boy, you may sit at the table and eat dinner with us, if you will eat only what I prescribe; and you may thank the blue clay in Milliken's Gully for that. Blue clay, forever, Frank. Were it not for that you would have had to lie on your back twenty days or more."
After the meal was ended, Rich, with a saw, cut out a portion of the clay, in order to be able to get at that part of the leg the bone had penetrated. The box was also lined with paper, that the clay might not stick to it, and put together with screws, in order that it might be taken to pieces. This was Rich's fracture box, not very elegant, and for which he never took out any patent; being made, the sides, of the cover of an old herring box; but it answered the purpose completely, fastening the limb as firmly in the box as though it grew there, and as effectually preventing any motion of the ankle or toes, by which the bones might be displaced.