Then he called over to me and he said, “Look—how I’m chopping it down with my axe! See?”
“Who’s axe?” I said, because I just couldn’t help it.
“Look! See?” he shouted, all excited; “ain’t I a good chopper—ain’t I?”
Maybe you won’t understand how it was, because, gee, I can’t tell things so you’ll see them just right. Anyway, I’m not excusing myself, that’s one thing. But I just looked over at Skinny and I said:
“I don’t want to look at your axe! Shut up you little——” I was going to call him a little thief, but I’m mighty glad I didn’t. “Can’t you see I’m looking at something else?” I said, kind of mad.
“You’d be better off if you never thought about the axe; you’re a——”
Just then I heard somebody yell, “Look out, Westy, the boards are gone! You’ll have to climb!”
After that, everything seemed to be all jumbled up. I saw Skinny standing near his sapling just staring at me and he looked as if I had just hit him and he didn’t understand at all. He didn’t even notice all the other fellows who were running. Then I looked and I didn’t see Westy, but all the fellows were heading for the ditch and I knew right away what had happened. Somebody hollered, “Get your kit, Doc, and hurry up.” There was a ditch near where the saplings grew and usually there were a couple of boards across it. But they weren’t there when all of us fellows went across and we had to go down into the ditch and climb up the other side. I guess the woodsmen had taken them, maybe.
Anyway, when Westy came along the path he was running so hard he didn’t notice in time that the boards weren’t there, and he went head over heels into the ditch. I guess I was the last one to get there, and all the fellows were standing around and Doc was kneeling over Westy, and feeling his pulse. Westy’s face was all white and there was blood coming down from his eye and he looked straight up and didn’t notice anybody. All the fellows were quiet and scared, kind of, and waiting for Doc to speak. But he wasn’t excited, only he said we’d better get a doctor. “It isn’t a fracture,” he said; “it’s only a cut, but anyway, we’d better get the doctor.”
Then I saw some blood on the front of Westy’s khaki shirt. But Doc saw it first and he said, “Open his shirt, maybe he has something hanging from his neck that cut him. Feel and see if he has a knife in his breast pocket. Open his shirt first. Give me the iodine and some bandage, one of you fellows.”