The Big Brother | Page 8

them off, leaving the blood pure again for another round.
Now the arteries are long elastic tubes, that is to say, they will stretch a
little, and fly back again, if you pull them, and when one is cut nearly
but not quite off, the contraction keeps it wide open. If it is cut or torn
entirely in two, the end draws back, and nine times in ten, if the artery
is a small one, the drawing back shuts the end up entirely and the blood
stops. But it is better to tear it than to cut it, because when torn the
edges are jagged and it shrivels up more. I don't quite understand why,
myself, but that is what the surgical books say. When anybody is hurt
and bleeding badly, the first thing to do is to find out whether it is an
artery or a vein that's cut. If the blood is bright and comes out in spurts,
it's an artery. If it is dark, and flows steadily, it's a vein. If it's an artery
and isn't cut quite in two, tear it in two. If that don't stop it, you must
make a knot in a handkerchief and then press your finger above the cut
in different places till you find where the artery is by the blood
stopping. Then put the knot on that place and tie the handkerchief
around the limb. You can stop a vein in the same way and more easily,
but if it's a vein you must tie the handkerchief so that the cut place will
be between it and the heart. You see the blood comes from the heart in
the arteries, and goes back towards the heart in the veins, and so to stop
an artery you tie inside, and to stop a vein outside of the cut place."
I think it altogether probable that Master Sam would have gone into
quite a lecture on anatomy and minor surgery, if little Judie had not
waked up just then complaining of hunger. What he told the boys,
however, is well worth remembering. He took little Judie on his lap and
sent the two boys out to find a field of potatoes or corn. When they
came back all four made a breakfast of raw sweet potatoes, drinking
water which Tom brought in his wool hat from a creek not very far
away. Sam grew stronger during the day, and at night the party set out

on their way to Fort Glass. Sam's foot was not painful, but he was
afraid of starting the blood again, and so he held it up, walking with a
rude crutch which he had made during the day.
CHAPTER IV.
SAM FINDS IT NECESSARY TO THINK.
It was twelve miles from their first encampment to Fort Glass, and if
Sam had been strong and well, and the way open, they might easily
have made the journey before morning, by carrying little Judie a part of
the way. As it was, they had to go through the thickest woods to avoid
Indians, and must move cautiously all the time, as they could never
know when they might stumble upon a party of savages around a
camp-fire, or sleeping under a tree. Those of my readers who live in the
far South know what thick woods are in that part of the country, but
others may not. The trees grow as close together as they can, and the
underbrush chokes up the space between them pretty effectually. Then
the great vines of various kinds wind themselves in and out until in
many places they literally stop the way so that a strong man with an axe
could not go forward a hundred feet in a week. In other places the thick
cane makes an equally impenetrable barrier, and Sam needed all his
knowledge of the forest to enable him to work his way southward at
night through such woods as those. The little party of wanderers
sometimes found themselves apparently walled in in the pitchy
darkness, with no possible way out but Sam's instinct, as he called it,
which was simply his ability to remember the things he had learned,
and to put two facts together to find out a third, always extricated them.
Once they found themselves in a swamp, where the water was about
eight inches deep. The underbrush, canes and vines made it impossible
for them to see any great distance in any direction.
"Oh, I know we will never get out of here," whined poor little Judie,
ready to sink down in the water.
"Yes we will, lady bird," said Sam cheerily. "What's the good of having
a big brother if he can't take care of you? Tell me that, will you? Keep

your courage up,