t she did not speak.

"I wish the surgeon had come first," he whispered, "and then they would
have had my foot off before you came. When _will_ he come?"

"He is here,--they are both here."

"Oh, then, do make them make haste. Mr. Tooke says I shall go to sleep
afterwards. You think so? Then we will both go to sleep, and have our
talk in the morning. Do not stay now,--this pain is _so_ bad,--I can't
bear it well at all. Do go, now, and bid them make haste, will you?"

His mother whispered that she heard he had been a brave boy, and she
knew he would be so still. Then the surgeons came up, and Mr. Shaw.
There was some bustle in the room, and Mr. Shaw took his sister down
stairs, and came up again, with Mr. Tooke.

"Don't let mother come," said Hugh.

"No, my boy, I will stay with you," said his uncle.

The surgeons took off his foot. As he sat in a chair, and his uncle
stood behind him, and held his hands, and pressed his head against him,
Hugh felt how his uncle's breast was heaving,--and was sure he was
crying. In the very middle of it all, Hugh looked up in his uncle's
face, and said,

"Never mind, uncle! I can bear it."

He did bear it finely. It was far more terrible than he had fancied; and
he felt that he could not have gone on a minute longer. When it was
over, he muttered something, and Mr. Tooke bent down to hear what it
was. It was--

"I can't think how the Red Indians bear things so."

His uncle lifted him gently into bed, and told him that he would soon
feel easy now.

"Have you told mother?" asked Hugh.

"Yes; we sent to her directly."

"How long did it take?" asked Hugh.

"You have been out of bed only a few minutes--seven or eight, perhaps."

"Oh, uncle, you don't mean really?"

"Really: but we know they seemed like hours to you. Now, your mother
will bring you some tea. When you have had that, you will go to sleep:
so I shall wish you good night now."

"When will you come again?"

"Very often, till you come to me. Not a word more now. Good-night."

Hugh was half asleep when his tea came up, and quite so directly after
he had drunk it. Though he slept a great deal in the course of the
night, he woke often,--such odd feelings disturbed him! Every time he
opened his eyes, he saw his mother sitting by the fire-side; and every
time he moved in the least, she came softly to look. She would not let
him talk at all till near morning, when she found that he could not
sleep any more, and