Fathers and daughters -- Fiction; Social classes -- England -- Fiction
"Ye never cried 'Pi-_lot_' little lass." How hard he tried to make
his voice cheerful, and how well he succeeded, too!--mere mass of
breathless pain that he was. The least word a man can speak over whom a
waggon has passed, crushing both legs, will show the constitution of a
giant behind it, even if it is followed perforce by a groan; and Jim
suppressed even that. Were not those his little lass's lips that had
just touched his cheek? She, poor child, could only say "Daddy!" or mix
it with a sob. Which of the two Jim heard, who can say? But just at
that moment the nip of brandy began to tell, and Jim was able to make
a great effort. "Never you fret, little lass," he said. "The ship's
doctor, he'll make a square job of my leg. You run away home and say
I'm took proper care of." What Lizarann's daddy said was to be done was
the thing to do, past doubt, and nothing else could be right. Lizarann
started straight for home.
Poor Jim!--he knew what he was and where he was well enough. But he
couldn't find his words right. So he talked of the ship's doctor,
knowing all the while that the surgeon of the Z division was going to
attend to his leg. As to the extent of his hurt and how it came about,
he knew almost as little as the story does, so far. All he was sure
of was that he lost his bearings after leaving his precious board at
the barber's shop, was shouted at to stand clear, didn't stand clear,
and was overwhelmed by what he should have stood clear of, and knocked
silly. Beyond that, the little that had reached him, since he recovered
consciousness, related so much to the prophetic certainty of its
speakers that what had happened had been sure to happen, and they could
have foreseen it any day, that it made him little the wiser. And what
the crash had left of his faculties was too actively employed about his
child to feel curious about the details of the accident.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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