He did not now dip water from the tank at the cabin door but from a nearby spring, which Jim had found and cleared of rubbish. The spring had always been there; but it had been easier for lazy Alaric, the herder, to fill the barrel now and then—or let the rain do it for him—and use from that till the supply failed. He did not yet understand how the stagnant water had had anything to do with his own fever, that had followed on Jim’s partial recovery.
Children are quick witted. José came running back with the dipper, after having carefully rinsed and filled it at the spring, as Jim had taught him. His eyes were bright and there was a winning smile on his chubby face, now clean. He recognized Dorothy as the girl to whom he had given his pet lamb and promptly demanded:
“El cordero? Donde?”
Dorothy stared at him, then put her hands on each side his chubby face and kissed him. The child screamed with delight and repeated his question. At which the girl also laughed and turned to Jim, asking:
“What does he say? What does he want?”
“I reckon he wants his lamb. He’s asking you where it is,” answered the lad, gladly using this chance to air his own new knowledge.
That broke the spell of not knowing how to begin and their loosened tongues wagged fast enough after that. Dorothy forgot all about her lost company and seizing a piece of the coarse bread her old friend had been eating devoured it as if it had been a great delicacy.
Jim laughed, glad to see her so hungry and so eager, and obeyed her command:
“Now begin just as we used to do at home at Deerhurst. ‘I went from here’ and don’t you miss a single thing until you come to ‘and here I am.’ I’ll help you start. You went from San Leon the very night you got there. Now why?”
“I shall never know why, girlie. I was crazy with fever, I guess. I hadn’t been real well before I came west and that was one reason Dr. Sterling made me come. He thought the change would cure me. It didn’t. I must have got out the window but I don’t really know, only I half remember that. Then the next thing I did know I was in Alaric’s cabin yonder with him and little José here. I was pretty sick. I couldn’t write but I was wild to tell you where I was and not to worry nor think me terrible mean. I didn’t want to act that way, you know, even though I did find myself in the wrong box with those other rich boys——”