“Oh! back to the boat again, I think,” answered Boy; but when he turned to the Quay he found that the boat had disappeared.
“Why, it’s gone!” he cried.
“Oh yes,” said the M.D., “it only stays here for a few moments; you had better come with me,” he suggested kindly.
Boy thought that they might as well do that as anything else, so One-and-Nine and he followed the M.D. through the quaint street with the curious old houses.
“There’s my Bronchitis,” cried the M.D. suddenly, pointing to a large house on the right, “and there’s my Sciatica opposite; I have a Whooping Cough in the next street, and the Measles a little further on,” he added proudly.
Boy looked around in alarm, wondering whatever the M.D. meant.
“Oh, here comes my Lumbago,” he cried, as an old gentleman walking with crutches came hobbling along the street, and then Boy could see that he had been referring to his patients.
The M.D. stopped to speak to his Lumbago, and Boy could see the page-boy, taller than ever, hurrying down the street with a basket on his arm containing some medicine-bottles.
“That boy grows very quickly,” said Boy to One-and-Nine while they were waiting for the M.D.
“Doctors’ Bills always do,” said One-and-Nine unconcernedly; “that’s how the Doctors live, you know.”’