Dick had repeated to his mother all the instructions given him by the physician, and before he was awake next morning Mrs. Stevens set about dressing the wound in a more thorough manner than had ever been possible before.
She was yet engaged in this task when the boy opened his eyes, and learning to his surprise that the day was at least an hour old, sprang to his feet like one who has been guilty of an indiscretion.
"What! up already?" he cried in surprise, as looking through the flap of the wagon-covering, he saw what his mother was doing.
"Yes, Dick dear, and I have good news for you. Both your father and I now think he was mistaken in believing the bone was shattered by the bullet. Perhaps it is splintered some, but nothing more serious."
"Then you won't be obliged to have it cut off, daddy, an' should be able to get round right soon."
"There's this much certain, Dick, whether the bone is injured or not, my life has been saved through your efforts; for I know enough about gun-shot wounds to understand that I couldn't have pulled through without something more than we were able to get here."
"Yet you would have prevented me from leaving if I had told you what was in my mind."
"I should for a fact; because if one of us two must go under, it would be best for mother an' Margie that I was that one."
"Why, daddy! you have no right to talk like that!"
"It's true, Dick. I've been a sort of ne'er-do-well, otherwise I wouldn't have been called Roving Dick, while you are really the head of the house."