t, all the same, he was
in the war,
And he fought,--for I asked him,--and he's been ill ever since, and
that's why he's not afloat, but ashore;
And why somebody else has got his ship; and she behaved so beautifully
in the battle, and he loves her quite as much as his wife,
and rather better than the rest of his relations, for I asked
him; and now he's afraid she will never belong to him
any more.
I like him. I've seen him three times out walking with two sticks, when
I was driving in the bath-chair, but I never talked to him
till to-day.
He'd only one stick and a telescope, and he let me look through it at
the big ship that was coming round the corner into the bay.
He was very kind, and let me ask questions. I said, "Are you a
sea-captain?" and he said, "Yes." And I said, "How funny it
is about land things and sea things!
There are captains and sea-captains, and weeds and sea-weeds, and
serpents and sea-serpents. Did you ever meet one, and is it
really like the dragons on our very old best blue tea-things?"
But he never did. So I asked him, "Have you got convalescence? Does
your doctor say it is fairly established? Do your eyes ache
if you try to read, and your neck if you draw, and your back
if you sit up, and your head if you talk?
Don't you get tired of doing nothing, and worse tired still if you do
anything; and does everything wobble about when you walk?
Wouldn't you rather go back to bed? I think I would. Don't you wish
you were well? Wouldn't you rather be ill than only better?
I do hate convalescence, don't you?"
Then I stopped asking, and he shut up his telescope, and sat down on
the shingle, and said, "When you come to my age, little chap,
you won't think 'What is it I'd rather have?' but, 'What is
it I've got to do?'
'What have I got to do or to bear; and how can I do it or bear
it best?'
That's the only safe point to make for, my lad. Make for it, and
leave the rest!"
I said, "But _wouldn't_ you rather be in battles than in bed, with
your head aching as if it would split?"
And he said, "Of course I would; so would most men. But, my