Jimmy stopped blowing the fire and looked round suddenly.
“Sure, I know well you’re wanting to put me away,” he said.
“It’s for your own good,” said the sergeant.
“It’ll do him no harm anyway,” said Finnegan, “if so be he’s not kept there.”
“Kept!” said the sergeant. “Is it likely now that they’d keep a boy like Jimmy? He’ll be out again as soon as ever he’s in. I’d say now a fortnight is the longest he’ll be there.”
“I wouldn’t like,” said Finnegan, “that he’d be kept too long. I’ll be wanting him for spring work, but I’m willing to spare him from this till Christmas if you like.”
Dr. Lovaway, though a young man and constitutionally timid, was capable of occasional firmness.
“I’m certainly not going to certify that boy as a lunatic,” he said.
“Come now, doctor,” said the sergeant persuasively, “after coming so far and the wet day and all. What have you to do only to put your name at the bottom of a piece of paper? And Jimmy’s willing to go. Aren’t you, Jimmy?”
“I’ll go if I’m wanted to go,” said Jimmy.