"I guess perhaps you'd better run back to the house for my book," remarked he presently. "I shall be having a fit of the blues if I have to hang round here so long with nothing to do."
"I'm perfectly willing to go back," Mr. Hazen said. "But are you sure——"
"Oh, I'm all right," cut in the boy sharply. "I guess I can sit in a boat by myself for a little while."
"Still, I'm not certain that I ought to——"
"Leave me? Nonsense! What do you think I am, Hazen? A baby? What on earth is going to happen to me, I'd like to know?"
"Nevertheless I don't like to——"
"Oh, do stop arguing. It makes me tired. Cut along and get the book, can't you? Why waste all this time fussing?" burst out the invalid fretfully. "How am I ever going to get well, or think I am well, if you keep reminding me every minute that I am a helpless wreck? It is enough to discourage anybody. Why can't you treat me like other people? If you chose to sit in a boat alone for half an hour nobody'd throw a fit. Why can't I?"
"I suppose you can," retorted the tutor unwillingly. "Only you know we never do——"
"Leave me? Don't I know it? The way people tag at my heels drives me almost crazy sometimes. You wouldn't like to have some one dogging your footsteps from morning until night, would you?"
"I'm afraid I shouldn't," admitted Mr. Hazen.