Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1884-02-21

ly objection To IL being tnat tney COulu
not all play the principal part in it.
They decided who should be the lucky
one by the ll-pupulr method Of toss
ing, aud Pet won the toss. This was
fortunate, for besides having distinct
" the first right to his own idea, which
the lad did not think of, he was the on
ly one of the three who would have
been capable of acting his part but
Pet did not know this either.
He only gave Jimmy and Bill a few
hints as to what they were to do, how
they were to look as scared as possible
when Bil'S father came home at night,
and how they were TO say they knew
nothing of Pet, except that he was sud
denly "took bad. p"
Whereupon the taking" promptly
occurred, and with thud that was un.
expected even to Jimmy and Bill, Pet
threw himself down at full length on
the pavement. A small crowd instant
| ly collected rouHd them. Most of the
people only stared a moment and then
passed on !; one or two expressed pity !;
and after few moments the inevitable
policeman arriYed and pushed his way
up To Pets side, roughly questioning
Jimmy and Bill. They whimpered
bit and looked frightened-tO order,
and the policeman, after rolling Pet ov-
er with his foot and finding him appar-
ebtly altogether unconscious, said he
must 60 TO the hospital, and, with the
help of a gOod-natured bystander, him
self carried him there, Jimmy and Bill
and several others following.
1t was something to be inside those
great walls,a ,as Jimmy and Bill and Pet,
too, thonght, while the latter was be-
ing carried by the porter on a stretcher
into the casualty ward and big bell
was rung for Number One-that is, a
young dresser always handy, who sees
a case first, and, if it be trifing, attends
to it without sending for the honse sur
geoE. But Of Pet the dresser could
make nothing at all, and he soon called
the house surgeon, who came running
down from the top of the high builning
and applied himself with the rapldity
of a hard worked man to the considera-
tion of the case before him. He did
not look over thirty, but there was an
amount of decision, a firmn eSS and
gentleness in his touch of Pet, which
spoke we'll for the use he had make of
his head and of his heart. The police
man stated what he knew and was dis
missed, while the surgeon looked for
all the most likely symptoms in Pet,
and was able to find none of them.
The patient was simply unconscious.
The boys were asked whether Pet had
been i'll before he fell suddenly, and
they said mo, only the cough -
Aud as they both cried, or howled
steadily, all the time, the dresser sent
them away, telling them they might
come the next morning to hear what
was the matter with their friend.
They, not sorry to get their dismissal
after the surgeon had arrived on the
scene, scampered off. ~
Then the surgeon, Systematically and
very patiently indeed, began at Pets
head and examined him down to his
feet to find some cause for this extraor-
dinary unconsciousness, and coulc find
none. Disease he found indeed, for the
poor little fellows lungs were half
gone, but as he said to the dresser
"Boys don't drop down unconscious
from that - Being strangely baflled,
the surgeon ordered Pet to be taken to
the children's ward, undressed and put
to bed.
"We'll see what we can make of him
then," he said.
IC was not by any means easy for
Pet to keep up his acting. especially
when strong ammonia was pnt under
his nose and almost boiling water to
his feet, but he managed it, more now
from pride than from longing after the
Christmas tree, even. Only when he
was lifted by the nurse into a soft,
clean, warm bed, such as he had never
dreamt of before, that small closed
mouth of his involuntarily parted, and
something very like smile, like the
ghost of smile, stole over his face.
The surgeon, noticing it, was struck
with the idea that the boy might be
! shamming.
",Fetch the battery here,' he said,
Pet did not know what battery
meant, or his smile would certainly
have disappeared as involuntatily as it
had come.
The surgeon waited by his side, hold
ing his small hand and thinking to
himself that, shamming or not sham
ming. Pet had the most pathetic face
he had met with in all his experience
of sadness and suffering.
Then the battery was brought and a