ch as my mother and Annie had planted under her
soft brown hair. It had been my duty, as well as my true interest (for
Uncle Ben was more and more testy, as he went on gold-digging), to ride
thither, now and again, to inquire what the doctor thought of her. Not
that her wounds were long in healing, but that people can scarcely
be too careful and too inquisitive, after a great horse-bite. And she
always let me look at the arm, as I had been first doctor; and she held
it up in a graceful manner, curving at the elbow, and with a sweep of
white roundness going to a wrist the size of my thumb or so, and
without any thimble-top standing forth, such as even our Annie had. But
gradually all I could see, above the elbow, where the bite had been,
was very clear, transparent skin, with very firm sweet flesh below, and
three little blue marks as far asunder as the prongs of a toasting-fork,
and no deeper than where a twig has chafed the peel of a waxen apple.
And then I used to say in fun, as the children do, "Shall I kiss it, to
make it well, dear?"

Now Ruth looked very grave indeed, upon hearing of this my enterprise;
and crying, said she could almost cry, for the sake of my dear mother.
Did I know the risks and chances, not of the battlefield alone, but
of the havoc afterwards; the swearing away of innocent lives, and the
hurdle, and the hanging? And if I would please not to laugh (which was
so unkind of me), had I never heard of imprisonments, and torturing with
the cruel boot, and selling into slavery, where the sun and the lash
outvied one another in cutting a man to pieces? I replied that of all
these things I had heard, and would take especial care to steer me free
of all of them. My duty was all that I wished to do; and none could harm
me for doing that. And I begged my cousin to give me good-speed, instead
of talking dolefully. Upon this she changed her manner wholly, becoming
so lively and cheerful that I was convinced of her indifference, and
surprised even more than gratified.

"Go and earn your spurs, Cousin Ridd," she said: "you are strong enough
for anything. Which side is to have the benefit of your doughty arm?"

"Have I not told you, Ruth," I answered, not being fond of this kind of
talk, more suitable for Lizzie, "that I do not mean to join either side,
that is to say, until--"

"Until, as the common proverb goes, you know which way the cat will
jump. Oh, John Ridd! Oh, John Ridd!"

"Nothing of the sort,"