Chapter Thirty Eight.

“Do I look fortunate?”

As the time glided on I used to be quite in despair.

“I don’t get any stronger, Esau,” I used to say, pettishly.

“What? Why, look at you!” he’d cry. “On’y t’other day you was walking with a stick and a crutch.”

“I was not,” I said, indignantly. “I never had a crutch.”

“That you did, sir,” he said, with a chuckle; “and now you’ve chucked ’em both away and goes alone.”

“But my legs feel so weak, and ache so directly.”