“What is it, Thorndyke?” said Aleck, springing towards him.
Thorndyke covered his face with his fingers, and his whole frame quivered as Aleck had never seen it before, but as the doctor saw it once under the overhanging of the old rock.
“O Aleck, I cannot bear it! Didn’t you see? I can bear anything else. I can let a strong man look down at me, but that wondering, pitying look of a little child! That is the one thing I cannot bear! Oh, why must I always be a soldier? I am so tired, and I had almost forgotten I was one to-day!”
Aleck drew him quickly into the shelter of the desk, and got his arm round his neck.
“There, there, rest a little if you are so tired! you are the bravest little soldier in all the world, and the lightest weapons are the hardest to stand against sometimes. Is that the reason you always get out of the way when a child comes in? I noticed it, but I never knew. Why didn’t you tell me? Don’t, old fellow! don’t mind. I’ve got lots I want to say to you this morning, and I thought it should be such a happy day. If you only knew, if you only would believe how wonderful you are to every one! The doctor and Nelly would think they had nothing in the world to be proud of, if it weren’t for you; and you know what Uncle Ralph thought and everybody else is finding out. And as for fighting, you get victories every day where the strongest of us would go down.”
But Aleck had to wait awhile for his talk. The next customer that came in saw the queer little form going about just as usual, but Aleck knew it was no time for him, and waited till evening when he got Thorndyke by himself in his own room, the fire crackling and the room shining as if there had never been such a thing as a shadow in the world.
“Now, old fellow,” he began, after he had been going on merrily for a while, “I’ve got a little business proposal to make. I want you to buy me out.”
The great eyes opened in amazement.
“Buy you out, Aleck! What do you mean?”