From Darkness to Light.
The next time the doctor came below to see his patients he examined Pete Burge.
“Humph!” he ejaculated. “Lucky for you, my man, that you have such a thick skull. You’ll do now; but you’ve had a narrow escape. There, you can go up on deck every day a bit, but keep out of the sun; it’s very hot, and getting hotter. It will do you more good than stopping down in this black hole.”
“Thank ye, master,” said Pete; and he lay still in his hammock, waiting for the doctor to go on deck before getting out and beginning to dress.
“Look here,” said the doctor; “you are not off the sick-list yet, and you will come down and look after this lad till he is fit to go up.—Well, how are you, my lad?—Hold that light closer,” he continued, turning to his assistant. “Humph! fever stronger.—Has he been talking to you—sensibly?”
“Yes, zir,” replied Pete. “A good deal muddled at first, but he began asking questions at last.”
“What about?”
“Didn’t know how he come here, and I had to tell him.”
“Yes! What then?”
“Give a zort of a groan, zir, and been talking to hisself ever zince.”