Syd Belton | Page 8

paths of
medicine and surgery."
"Uncle won't know. Do pull up; let me come."
"Well," said the doctor, smiling grimly, "I don't see that it can do you
any harm, Syd. Here, jump in."
There was no need for a second consent. Almost before the horse could
be stopped the boy had leaped lightly in, and with his face bright and
eager once more, and the dark misty notions upon which he had been
brooding gone clean away, he began chatting merrily to his old friend,
whose rounds he had often gone.

"Yes, yes, Syd, that's all very well," said the doctor, making his
whip-lash whistle through the air, "but you don't know what a doctor's
life is. All very well driving here on a bright autumn morning to get an
appetite for breakfast, but look at the long dark dismal rides I have at
all times in the winter."
"Well, they can't be half so bad as keeping a watch in a storm right out
at sea. Why, I've heard both father and Uncle Tom say that it's awful
sometimes."
"Only sometimes, Syd."
"Well, I can't help it. I hate it, and I won't go."
"Must, my boy, must. Take it like a dose of my very particular. You
know, Syd," said the doctor, nudging the boy with his elbow; "that rich
thick morning draught I gave you after a fever."
"Oh, I say, don't," cried Sydney, with a wry face and a shudder; "it's
horrid. I declare, when I'm a doctor, I'll never give any one such stuff."
"No, Syd, you'll be a captain, and the physic for your patients will be
cat-o'-nine-tails."
Sydney frowned, and as they neared the busy town, with its little forest
of masts rising beyond the houses, Doctor Liss glanced sideways at the
boy's gloomy and thoughtful countenance.
"Why, Syd," he said at last merrily, "you look as gloomy as if you had
been pressed. Come, my lad, take your medicine, and then you can
have that sweet afterwards that we call duty."
Sydney made no reply, but his face did not brighten, for duty seemed to
him then a nauseous bitter.
"Doctor Liss," he said, just as they reached the docks, down one of
whose side lanes the patient lay, "if I make up my mind to be a
doctor--"

"You can't, Syd. You are too young to have one yet. A man's mind is as
strong as if it had bone and muscle. Yours is only like jelly."
Syd was silent again for a minute. Then he began once more--
"If I determined to be a doctor, and wouldn't be anything else, would
you teach me?"
"No, certainly not."
"Then I'd teach myself," cried Syd, fiercely.
"Oh, indeed! Humph! I retract my words about your young mind being
jelly. I see there is some substance in it growing already. But no, Syd,
you are not going to be a doctor; and here we are."
He drew up at a cottage door, where a couple of rough-looking men
were waiting about, one of whom held the horse while the doctor
descended, and Syd followed into the room, where a poor fellow lay in
great agony with a badly fractured leg.
This was reduced, Syd looking on, and handing the doctor splints and
bandages as they were required. After this the pair re-entered the gig,
and drove back toward the Heronry.
"Just a quarter to nine, Syd. You'll be back in time for breakfast."
"I think I could set a broken leg now," said Syd, whose thoughts were
still at the cottage.
"Bless the boy!" exclaimed the doctor. "Take one off, I suppose, if it
were wanted?"
"No," said Syd, gravely, "I shouldn't feel enough confidence to do
that."
"I should think not, indeed," muttered the doctor, as he gave a sidelong
look at his companion. "Why, you morbid young rascal, you ought to
be thinking of games and outdoor sports instead of such things as this.

Here we are. Ready for your breakfast?"
"Yes, I am getting hungry," said Syd. "How long will those bones be
growing together again?"
"Confound you--young dog! Go and pick grilled chicken bones. I'll
never take you out with me again. Jump out. Good-bye, sailor."
The doctor nodded and drove off, while Syd walked slowly up to the
house, and entered the dining-room just as his father and uncle came
down, punctual to the moment.
"Ah, Syd," said his father; "you are first."
"Morning, boy, morning," cried his uncle. "Been for a walk on deck?"
"No, uncle; I've been for a drive."
"Drive! Drive!" said his father. "Who with?"
"Doctor Liss, father."
Bang!
Sir Thomas's hand made the coffee-cups rattle this time, as he said
sharply--
"Harry, my lad, if I were you I should take this spark up to