Horrid! answers NURSE MARY.
Do you feel better? asks POLLY.
I can't tell yet, answers NURSE MARY. I suppose I must wait a little for the medicine to work.
And while we are waiting, says JACK, tell us about when Father was a little boy.
So Nurse Mary sits down, and takes Polly on her lap, while Jack sits on a stool at her feet, and then NURSE MARY begins, When Dr. John was a very little boy—
But, Nurse Mary, JACK says, interrupting, he wasn't named "Dr. John" then, was he?
No, answers NURSE MARY, he was just "Master John" then. Well, when he was a very little boy, so that I could carry him upstairs to bed without any trouble at all, he was the most beautiful boy you ever saw. He had fat rosy cheeks, and fine big eyes, and stout little legs.
Was he big enough to walk, when you first took care of him? asks POLLY.
No, indeed, answers NURSE MARY; and the first time he ever went to a Christmas tree, I had to carry him. I held him up to see the candles.
Did he like it? asks JACK.