I said I would, but she'd have to be handed over too, for Uncle Burt told me to take care of her for him.
I got better, and so did Aunty May. As fast as I grew better, she got more cheerful, and we used to have lots of fun. But all the time we stayed in the tent, and never went to the house. I used to hear hammerings and things, but I never saw anything, because I wasn't allowed to walk yet on account of the anti-toxin. I don't know whether that word is spelled right, but I don't like to ask Aunty May, it always makes her pale when I say the word.
One day, Aunty May brought a boy down the path with her. A mule boy. I heard the mules waiting for him outside, and it was the "cap and eel" boy, and he said, "How are you, young feller? Heerd you was sick!"
"Who told you?" I said.
"The Mushrat," he said. "He came a-whooping and a-running up the canal one night, an' hollered to me in passing that he wasn't going to bring no pitcher-books back to no diphtheria sore-throaters. Kina cowardly fellers, them mush-rats, so I brung it myself. Say, when ye going to get up and paste me?"
"When you put those turkey-red trousers on your mule," I said.
And then we both laughed, and Aunty May give him another picture-book, and some fruit, and asked him to come again, and he promised, and I lay back and heard his mule bells jingling up the path. It seemed so nice and peaceful, and everybody was so kind to me, that I felt lumpy inside, especially when I thought of Uncle Burt coming.
But would he be angry with me for bringing germs to his house, and right close to Aunty May? I asked Aunty May what she thought, and she said Uncle Burt would agree with her that I really couldn't help it, and that he wouldn't blame me, especially if she handed me over all right.
So we went to work on jellies and things and tried to get well, as fast as anything before he came.
One afternoon Aunty May said to me, "Billy, I think you're strong enough to go back to the house now. We've got rid of all the germs and the sickness in this nice big white tent, and now, my little soldier, we'll go back to barracks and wait for our Commanding Officer."