hot
water. By this time Charlie had finished the broth. The doctor then
bathed his head for some time in hot water, but was obliged to cut
off some of his hair, in order to remove the bandage. As he
examined the wound, Charlie was astounded to hear him mutter to
himself:

"It is a mighty nate clip you have got, my boy; and, if your skull
had not been a thick one, it is lying out there on the turf you
would be."

Charlie burst into a fit of laughter.

"So you are English, too," he exclaimed, as he looked up into the
surgeon's face.

"At laste Irish, my boy," the doctor said, as surprised as Charlie
had been. "To think we should have been talking Swedish to each
other, instead of our native tongue. And what is your name? And
what is it you are doing here, as a Swede, at all?"

"My name is Charles Carstairs. I come from Lancashire, just on the
borders of Westmoreland. My father is a Jacobite, and so had to
leave the country. He went over to Sweden, and I, with some friends
of his, got commissions."

"Then our cases are pretty much alike," the doctor said. "I had
gone through Dublin University, and had just passed as a surgeon,
when King James landed. It didn't much matter to me who was king,
but I thought it was a fine opportunity to study gunshot wounds, so
I joined the royal army, and was at the battle of the Boyne. I had
plenty of work with wounds, early in the day, but when, after the
Irish had fairly beat the Dutchman back all day, they made up their
minds to march away at night, I had to lave my patients and be off
too. Then I was shut up in Limerick; and I was not idle there, as
you may guess. When at last the surrender came, I managed to slip
away, having no fancy for going over with the regiments that were
to enter the service of France. I thought I could have gone back to
Dublin, and that no one would trouble about me; but someone put
them up to it, and I had to go without stopping to ask leave. I
landed at Bristol, and there, for a time, was nearly starving.

"I was well nigh my wits' end as to what to do for a living, and
had just spent my last shilling, when I met an English captain, who
told me that across at Gottenburg there were a good many Irish and
Scotchmen who had, like myself, been in trouble at home. He gave me
a passage across, and took me to the house of a man he knew. Of
course, it was no use my trying to doctor people, when they could
not tell me what was the matter with them, and I wo