he cutters."

"Yes, please, Bob, I wish you would."

They were shown into the surgery, where the doctor soon joined them.

"I've brought these two young chaps for you to look at their hands,
Dr. Maxwell. They got them burnt last night at the fire. Mrs.
Andrews, the mother of this lad, wished me to say that she would pay
the charges when you have done with them; but as if it hadn't been for
them the works would have been burnt down as sure as you are standing
there, I expect the firm will take the matter in their own hands."

"Yes, they are nasty burns," the doctor said, examining the boys'
hands. "Can you open and shut them, boy?"

"I think I could if tried, sir," George said, "but I shouldn't like to
try, for if I move my fingers at all it hurts them awfully."

"I see you have had oil and cotton-wool on your hands."

"Yes."

"The best thing you can do, boys, is to put on some soothing
poultices. Tell your mother to get some linseed and mix it with
olive-oil. I will give you a bottle of laudanum. Let her put about
twenty drops of that into the oil before she mixes it with the
linseed. Every four or five hours change the poultices. I think you
will find that will relieve the pain a good deal. I see your faces are
scorched too. You can do nothing better than keep them moistened with
sweet-oil. I should advise you to keep as quiet as possible for three
or four days."

"But we shall want to get to work, sir," George said.

"Nonsense! You will be very lucky if you can use your hands in
another fortnight. I will send in the usual certificate to the works."

"Will you tell the foreman, Bob," George said when they left the
doctor's, "how it is we can't come to work? You tell him we wanted to,
and that we hope to come back as soon as our hands are all right;
because, you see, the men and boys at the shops which have been burnt
down will be all out of work, and it would be awful if we found our
places filled up when we went to work again."

"Don't you be afraid, George; there is no fear of your being out of
work after what you have done."

"Well, what did the doctor say?" was Mrs. Andrews' first question when
they returned home.

"He didn't say much, mother, except that we must not think of going to
work for a fortnight anyhow, and we are to have poultices made with
linseed mixed with oil, and twenty drops of laudanum from this bottle,
and it must be put on fresh every three or four hours. I am afraid it
will be