“Nothing but leave it to Nature. She may do what I can’t.”
“Danger?”
“Of being a cripple; not of anything fatal.”
“Poor fellow!” said the Colonel sadly.
“Yes, poor fellow!” said the Doctor. “I’m doing all I know, and must be off now, for you keep me very busy.”
Roberts had been sitting with the patient that same afternoon, and towards evening the Major dropped in, glass in eye, and sat talking for a bit, with Bracy fighting hard to keep down his irritability, for the Major was a bad visitor in his way.
“You ought to be up and about, Bracy,” he said.
“Yes; I long to be.”
“Then why don’t you try to brace yourself up—be bracy by nature as well as by name—eh? Ha, ha! Don’t you see?”
“Because I am so weak, sir,” replied the patient grimly.