rs began to put
their heads together, being maddened by the smell o' beef-tea an' the
like, an' said they was going to be ill too, and both the invalids got
into a fearful state of excitement.

"'You'll only spoil it for all of us,' ses Harry, 'and you don't know
what to have without the book.'

"'It's all very well doing your work as well as our own,' ses one of the
men. 'It's our turn now. It's time you two got well.'

"'WELL? ses Harry, 'well? Why you silly iggernerant chaps, we shan't
never get well, people with our complaints never do. You ought to know
that.'

"'Well, I shall split, 'ses one of them. "'You do!' ses Harry, 'you
do, an' I'll put a 'ed on you that all the port wine and jellies in the
world wouldn't cure. 'Sides, don't you think the skipper knows what's
the matter with us?'

"'Afore the other chap could reply, the skipper hisself comes down,
accompanied by the fust mate, with a look on his face which made Harry
give the deepest and hollowest cough he'd ever done.

"'What they reely want,' ses the skipper, turning to the mate, 'is
keerful nussing.'

"'I wish you'd let me nuss 'em,' ses the fust mate, 'only ten
minutes--I'd put 'em both on their legs, an' running for their lives
into the bargain, in ten minutes.'

"'Hold your tongue, sir,' ses the skipper; 'what you say is unfeeling,
besides being an insult to me. Do you think I studied medicine all these
years without knowing when a man's ill?'

"The fust mate growled something and went on deck, and the skipper
started examining of 'em again. He said they was wonderfully patient
lying in bed so long, an' he had 'em wrapped up in bedclo'es and carried
on deck, so as the pure air could have a go at 'em. WE had to do the
carrying, an' there they sat, breathing the pure air, and looking at the
fust mate out of the corners of their eyes. If they wanted anything from
below one of us had to go an' fetch it, an' by the time they was taken
down to bed again, we all resolved to be took ill too.

"Only two of 'em did it though, for Harry, who was a powerful,
ugly-tempered chap, swore he'd do all sorts o' dreadful things to us if
we didn't keep well and hearty, an' all 'cept these two did. One of 'em,
Mike Rafferty, laid up with a swelling on his ribs, which I knew myself
he 'ad 'ad for fifteen years, and the other chap had paralysis. I never
saw a man so reely happy as the skipper was. He was up an down with his
medicines and his instruments all day