"I got to go out to see the doctor, and I'd take it friendly would you sit wid th' boy, till I get back. I'll not be long."
"Why, yes, of course," said Rattleton, feeling how much worse it might have been.
The woman took down her shawl, and throwing it over her head, drew out the bottle she had just hidden, and tucked it under her arm out of sight. "I'll ask the doctor whether this is good for the kid," she muttered. "If Jamsey don't need it, I can sell it. I know some one else it ain't good for."
Opening the door she first looked out cautiously, then hurried down-stairs.
"Wonder what I ought to do now?" thought Rattleton. Blathers was over at the bed making friends with the patient.
"Dis your dog? nice one, ain't he. Is you one o' de student fellers?"
Jack admitted that he was, knowing that the word "student" was used in its generic, not its strict sense.
"You're a friend o' Mr. Varnum's, eh? He's nice, ain't he?"
Rattleton agreed emphatically that Varnum was "nice."
"Yare," continued the boy, "he's a daisy. He comes in and reads to me all de time. Mr. Talcot, he comes too sometimes; but he ain't as nice as Mr. Varnum. Hullo, you been to de game?"