Jack at Sea | Page 5

would give him tonics. What will you give him to take--bark?"
"No: something to make him bite."
"Well, what?"
"Nothing!"
"Nothing?"
"Ah, you are like the rest of the clever people, Meadows. You think a doctor is of no good unless he gives you pills and draughts. But don't be alarmed, Jack, boy. I am not going to give you either."
"What then?"
"Nothing, I tell you. Yes, I am; fresh air--fresh water."
"Yes; and then?"
"More fresh air, and more fresh water. Look here, Meadows; food is the best medicine for his case--good, wholesome food, and plenty of it as soon as he can digest. I want to hear him say, `What's for dinner to-day?' That's a fine sign of a boy being in good health."
"Well, Jack, what do you say to all this?" said Sir John.
"I don't know what to say, father," replied the lad. "I did not know I was unwell."
"I suppose not," interposed the doctor. "But you are, and the worst of it is that you will get worse."
"Then give your instructions," said Sir John, "and we will try and follow them out--eh, Jack?"
"I will do anything you wish, father," said the boy, with a sigh.
"Yes, of course you will, my boy. Well, doctor, we are waiting. Let's take the stitch in time."
"Ah! but we can't now," said Doctor Instow. "We shall have to take nine, or eighty-one, or some other number in what our young philosopher calls geometrical progression--that's right, isn't it, Jack, eh?"
"Yes, I suppose so," said the lad, smiling. "Well, then, thread the needle for us, Instow," said Sir John merrily; "and we will begin to stitch, and be careful not to neglect our health for the future. Now then, we're both ready."
"Yes; but I'm not," said the doctor thoughtfully. "This is a ticklish case, and wants ticklish treatment. You see I know my patient. He is so accustomed to one particular routine, that it will be hard to keep him from longing for his customary work and habits. Suppose I prescribe outdoor work, riding, walking, cricket or football, according to the season; I shall be giving him repellent tasks to do. I can't make him a little fellow eager and longing to begin these things which he sees his bigger school-fellows enjoying. He would be disgusted with games directly, because others would laugh at him and call him a muff."
"Yes," said Sir John with a sigh, "the rent has grown very large, and I don't see how we are to sew it up."
"Neither do I," said the doctor; "it's past mending. We must have a new coat, Jack."
"You mean a new boy, Doctor Instow," said the lad, smiling sadly. "Had you not better let me be?"
"No," cried Sir John, bringing his fist down heavily upon he table. "That won't do, Jack. We've done wrong, taken the wrong turning, and we must go back and start afresh--eh, Instow?"
"Of course," said the doctor testily, "and give me time. I've got plenty of ideas, but I want to select the right one. Ah! I have it."
"Yes," cried Sir John eagerly, and his son looked at him in dismay.
"That's the very thing. Right away from books and the ordinary routine of life--fresh air of the best, fresh people, fresh scenes, constant change; everything fresh but the water, and that salt."
"Some country place at the seaside," said Sir John eagerly.
"No, no; bore the boy to death; make him miserable. Seaside! No, sir, the whole sea, and get away from the side as soon as possible."
"A sea voyage!" cried Sir John; and his son's face contracted with horror.
"That's the thing, sir. You have always been grumbling about the narrowness of your sphere, and envying men abroad who send and bring such fine collections home. Be off together, and make a big collection for yourselves of everything you come across worth saving."
"Yes; but where?"
"Anywhere--North Pole; South Pole; tropics. Start free from all trammels, open new ground away from the regular beaten tracks. You don't want to go by line steamers to regular ports. Get a big ocean-going yacht, and sail round the world. Here, what are you grinning at, patient?"
"At your idea, sir. It is so wild."
"Wild to you, sir, because you are so tame. It may have seemed a little wild for Captain Cook and Bougainville and the old Dutch navigators, with their poor appliances and ignorance of what there was beyond the seas. Wild too for Columbus; but wild now! Bah! I'm ashamed of you."
"You must recollect that Jack is no sailor," said Sir John, interposing. "He was very ill when we crossed to Calais."
"Iii! A bit sea-sick. That's nothing."
"I am not sailor enough to manage a yacht."
"What of that? Charter a good vessel, and get a clever captain and mate, and the best crew that can be picked. You can afford it, and to do