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Read Ebook: Henry More Smith: The Mysterious Stranger by Bates Walter
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Ebook has 441 lines and 13727 words, and 9 pages
"Now don't you go to him, Master Joseph; now please don't," said the old lady.
"Mass Joe! hi Mass Joe! Jimmy fine wallaby. Tick fass in big hole big tree."
Just then my first-lieutenant and Nurse Brown's great object of dislike, Jimmy, thrust his shiny black face and curly head in at the door.
"Go away, sir," cried nurse.
"Heap fis--come kedge fis--million tousand all up a creek. Jimmy go way?"
He stood grinning and nodding, with his hands in the pocket holes of his only garment, a pair of trousers with legs cut off to about mid-thigh.
"If you don't take that nasty black fellow away, Master Joseph, I shall be obliged to complain to your poor ma," said nurse.
"Get out!" I said; "Jimmy won't hurt you; and though it don't show, he's as clean as a new pin."
"He isn't clean; he can't be, dear. How can any one be clean who don't wear clothes, Master Joseph? and look at his toes."
Nurse Brown always fell foul of Jimmy's toes. They fidgeted her, for they were never still. In fact Jimmy's toes, which had never probed the recesses of a pair of boots, were more like fingers and thumbs, and had a way of twiddling about when he was supposed to be standing still-- stand perfectly still he never did--and these toes belonged to feet that in climbing he could use like hands. More than once I've seen him pick stones off the ground--just like a monkey, nurse said--or stand talking to any one and keep his attention while he helped himself to something he wanted with his feet.
"There, be off Jimmy," I said, for I wanted to stop indoors.
"Come kedge fis."
"No, not to-day."
"Hi--wup--wup--wup!"
Jimmy threw himself into an attitude, snatching a small hatchet from the waistband of his trousers, and made believe to climb a tree, chop a hole larger, and draw out an animal, which he seemed to be swinging round by its tail.
"No, not to-day, Jimmy," I cried.
"Sleep, sleep," said Jimmy, imitating a kangaroo by giving a couple of hops into the verandah, where he chose a sunny place, well haunted by flies, curled up, and went to sleep.
"Good morning!" cried a hearty voice, and I ran out to welcome our neighbour the doctor, whose horse's hoofs had not been heard, and who was now fastening the rein to the hook in one of the verandah posts.
"Well, Joe," he said as I shook hands and looked up admiringly in his bold well-bearded face.
"Well, doctor, I'm so glad you've come; walk in."
"Ah! nurse," he cried; "how well you look!"
"Yes, yes; but I am glad you're come," she said. "I want you to look at Master Joseph."
"I did look at him."
"Isn't he feverish or something, sir? He's that restless as never was."
"Sign he's growing," cried the doctor. "How's mamma?"
"Oh, she's pretty well," I said. "Gone to lie down."
"That's right," said the doctor. "I had to come and look at Bowman's broken arm, so I came on here to beg a bit of dinner."
"I'm so glad!" I said: for Jimmy, the half-wild black, was my only companion, there being no boys within miles of our run; "stop a week and have some fishing."
"And what's to become of my patients?"
"You haven't got any," I said. "You told me so last time."
"True, O King Joseph! I've come to the wrong place; you don't want many doctors in Australia. Why, nurse, how this fellow grows!"
"I wish he'd grow good," cried the old lady. "He's always doing something to worry away his poor ma's and my life."
"Why, what's the matter now, nurse?"
"Matter, sir! Why, he's took it into his head to go looking for his poor dear dead-and-gone pa. Do, do please tell him he mustn't think of such things."
"Why, Joe!" cried the doctor, turning sharply round to me, and ceasing to beat his high boots with his long-thonged whip.
"I don't care what anybody says," I cried, stamping my foot. "I've made up my mind, and mean to go to New Guinea to find my father."
"There, doctor, did you ever hear any one so wickedly obstinate before?" cried nurse. "Isn't it shocking? and his ma that delicate and worried living all alone, like, here out in these strange parts, and him as ought to be a comfort to her doing nothing but hanker after running away to find him as is dead and gone."
"He's not dead, nurse; he's only gone," I cried; "and I mean to find him, as sure as I live. There, that I will."
"There, doctor, did you ever hear such a boy?" cried nurse.
"Never," said the doctor. "Why, Joe, my boy," he cried as I stood shrinking from him, ready to defend myself from his remonstrances, "your ideas do you credit. I didn't think you had it in you."
"Then you don't think it is wrong of me, doctor?" I said, catching his hand.
"No, my boy, I do not," he said gravely; "but it is a task for strong and earnest men."
"But I am strong," I said; "and if I'm not a man I'm in real earnest."
"I can see that, my lad," said the doctor, with his brown forehead filling with thoughtful wrinkles; "but have you counted the cost?"
"Cost!" I said. "No. I should get a passage in a coaster and walk all the rest of the way."
"I mean cost of energy: the risks, the arduous labours?"
"Oh, yes," I said; "and I sha'n't mind. Father would have done the same if I was lost."
"Of course he would, my lad; but would you go alone?"
"Oh, no," I replied, "I should take a guide."
"Ah, yes; a good guide and companion."
"There, Master Joseph, you hear," said nurse. "Doctor Grant means that sarcastical."
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