"I daren't, Ben. I don't know how a physician does it. I might cut wrong and not be able to stop the flow." "I'll do well enough." "Yes, but you must eat, or you'll weaken." Ben considered this. He was hungry, yes, but wasn't some difficulty connected with the idea of eating? Meanwhile someone, apparently himself, was burdened with a bladder about to burst. "Must go outside." "Watch out!" Reuben somewhere sounded frightened or angry. "You'll fetch down the roof if you try to stand." That was sensible, Ben observed--of course he would, and then they'd have all the trouble of building it over. He located Reuben kneeling in a whiteness outside, ready to help him in spite of his stupidity, and crawled to him. Improbably, the boy transformed himself into a pillar under Ben's right arm, a curve of warm iron around Ben's middle--only Reuben who knew everything could have thought of that. Out here in the blind white morning, Ben was distressed by inability to interpret what he saw. The swirling pallor might conceal a thousand significant shapes. He simply must not urinate on what might easily turn out to be Grandmother Cory's doorstep. He asked with care: "Here?" "Anywhere. Hurry! You must get back under cover." "That's right," said Ben humbly, suffering a panic dread that his bladder would never let go; it did, with relief like an end of pain. But still the gray and white was all a whirling bewilderment. He knew the sentinel monsters to be trees; nothing or everything might be stirring just beyond reach of his vision in these enormous distances. "Where is the way where light dwelleth?" "What?" "Which way is Roxbury?" "That's east," said Reuben, and jerked his head. "Don't think about it now. Come back under cover. Damnation, Ben, help me a little! You know I can't lift you if you fall." Ben walked with extreme care, and then crawled, back on the pile of leaves. Darkness approached and slid away. Reuben was shaking his shoulder, urging him to eat something. "What? What is it?" "Some of the ham I stole--don't you remember?" "Yes. But.... How much have we?" "A plenty. See--all this. And the turkey too--I'll cook that when I have a fire going." "Oh yes, the turkey.... Ru----" "I ate all I wanted while you were sleeping." He would lie of course, Ben thought. But with a face changeable as sunlight on a wind-rippled pond, Reuben had never been a good liar. Ben lifted a heavy arm to turn that face into the wan daylight. "You--did?" "I swear to you, Ben, we have enough for several days, and I ate all I needed an hour ago."