“Never mind dat!” exclaimed Noel. “Shut up an’ lay quiet! You shut up too, McAllister! You start him talkin’ crazy ag’in, maybe.”
“Dogs know me, and that red breed better than any,” said Sherwood. “I think that the red dogs inherited a friendship for me.”
“Maybe so, Dick; but Noel is right. Rest now. Don’t try to think any more or yer fever’ll be up again. We’ve got four miles to carry you yet.”
They started after breakfast with Sherwood in the stretcher. They made the four miles by noon. They set the stretcher down behind a clump of bushes at the back of the barnyard and Jim went ahead to warn his sister and get little Marion out of the way. Marion was given lessons to learn in the library.
Sherwood was unconscious, murmuring, dry of hand and lip and flushed of brow by the time Jim laid him on the bed in the big spare room. His appearance shocked Mrs. O’Dell and at sight of his right hand she turned away to hide her tears. But she dried her tears and set to work as soon as the men had cut and pulled away Sherwood’s tattered clothing and placed him between the cool sheets. She gave the torn hand and swollen arm the most thorough and tender treatment it had yet received.
The little girl was told of the sick man in the spare room whom Uncle Jim and Noel Sabattis had found in the woods. She was cautioned not to play in the hall outside his door or make a noise in the garden under his windows, for he was very weak and needed sleep. She was impressed. She questioned old Noel.
“Where did you find him in the woods, Noel?” she asked.
“Way off nort’, layin’ on de moss,” replied Noel. “Red Chief find ’im first.”
“Do you often find sick men lying in the woods?”
“Nope. Sometime.”