"What for?"

"Sea-serpents, sir. I've seen 'em."

"What! have you seen the sea-serpent?" said Carey, laughing.

"Ah, I mean the black and yaller ones as basks in the calm sea 'bout
these parts, six, eight, and ten foot long, and as poisonous as any o'
them on land; so be on the look-out, sir; I knowed one man as died from
a bite."

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

"Oh, do make haste and get me quite well, doctor," cried Carey.

"What a fellow you are!" said the doctor, laughing. "I can do no more."

"Can't you?" said the boy, plaintively. "Oh, do try. I heard the
captain say one day to one of the passengers that you were one of the
cleverest surgeons he ever knew."

"That was very complimentary of the captain, I'm sure."

"Then if you are, can't you get my bone mended more quickly? It's so
miserable to be like this."

"Why, you told me last night after our supper that you never enjoyed a
day more in your life. Surely you had adventures enough, finding
pearl-oysters and pearls, eating green cocoanuts off the trees, fishing,
and finishing off with an interview with a gigantic saurian and a sail
back here."

"Yes, yes, yes, it was all glorious, but every minute I was being
checked either by you or old Bob, or by a sharp pain. Can't you put
some ointment or sticking plaster over the broken place and make it heal
or mend up more quickly?"

"No, sir, I cannot," said the doctor, smiling. "That's Dame Nature's
work, and she does her part in a slow and sure way. She is forming new
bone material to fill up the cracks in your breakage, and if you keep
the place free from fretting it will grow stronger than ever; but you
must have patience. The bark does not grow over the broken limb of a
tree in a week or two; but it covers the place at last. Patience,
patience, patience. Just think, my boy, isn't it wonderful that the
mending should go on as it does? Waking or sleeping, the bony matter is
forming."

"Oh, yes, I suppose it's all very wonderful, but--"

"But you want me to perform a miracle, my dear boy, and you know as well
as I do that I can't."

Carey sighed.

"I know it is very irksome," continued the doctor; "but just think of
your position. Only the other day I was afraid you were going to die.
Now here you are, hale and hearty, with nothing the matter with you but
that tender place where the bone is knitting together. Don't you think
you ought to be very thankful?"

"Of course I do!" cried Carey.