“Nurse, how are the contusions getting along?”
“They are much lighter in color, doctor, this morning,” answered the nurse.
“I don’t understand,” said the doctor, standing very straight and putting his forefinger on his chin, “how a fall of the nature of this one, practically on the left side, could have produced so many contusions on the right.”
“What are contusions?” asked Billy.
The doctor began to talk about stasis of the circulation following superficial injuries.
“Show me one,” said Billy.
When the nurse showed him one on his right arm, just below the shoulder, Billy said:
“Oh, one of my black and blue spots! That must have been when I was playing caged lion.”
That time the doctor and the nurse were the ones who didn’t understand.
Then Billy laughed, a happy boyish laugh. He hadn’t laughed that way since he and his father used to have frolics together.