n
in the mud, and he kept his head in the mud for two or three days. He
got well all right. Your foot cannot be any worse than if you had been
snake-bitten, surely, and you and I ought to have as much sense as the
dog. My hand does not hurt now, and I'll warrant Skookie and I will fix
up your foot in a jiffy."

He put his head out of the door and called for John and Skookie, both of
whom presently came, the latter soon returning with a double handful of
mud, for which Rob had asked. Meantime they had taken off Jesse's shoe
and stocking, cleaned the wound, and Rob had cut it open even a little
wider with his knife--at which Jesse made a wry face.

"I hate to do it, Jess," said Rob, "but that is what I read doctors do
in a case like this. Now for a good poultice. You will be all right in a
day or so."

In truth, they very probably did the very best that could be done in
such circumstances. There might have been serious trouble from a wound
from an old _klipsie_ barb. Surgeons have died from poison received from
knives used in post-mortem work. Lockjaw might very well follow upon a
wound from a piece of dirty iron of this kind; but, luckily, the germ of
that disease seemed not to exist in this case; at least the treatment
which Rob applied proved quite effective and no evil results followed.
Although Jesse limped for a time, in a few days he became quite well,
and the swelling in the foot amounted to very little.

"But now," said John one morning, as the three of them sat by the
fireside in the barabbara, "we are a fine-looking lot, aren't we? Just
look at us--every one of us has got something the matter with him!" They
all took a glance and broke out in a loud laugh together, in which
Skookie joined uproariously. As a matter of fact, each one of them was
wearing a bandage. Rob had his hand done up, Jesse's foot was encased in
a mud plaster, and John still wore his handkerchief tied over his nose,
whose tip he had nearly severed in his attempt at eating after the Aleut
fashion.

"Well," said Rob, "it's lucky that none of us is hurt bad enough to
cripple him seriously, anyway; although I guess Skookie will have to do
most of the work of getting wood and water for a day or so yet."

"There's no reason why I could not carry wood and water," said John. "My
nose is not in the road."

"I shouldn't say it was," said Jesse. "It never was long enough to get
in the road, John, and it seems as though you had tried your best t