Jack at Sea | Page 6

it well, and relieve yourself of all anxieties, so as to be free both of you to enjoy your cruise."
"Enjoy!" said Jack piteously.
"But the responsibility?" said Sir John thoughtfully. "I should like it vastly. But to take a sick lad to sea? Suppose he were taken worse?"
"Couldn't be."
"Don't exaggerate, doctor. Fancy us away from all civilised help, and Jack growing far weaker--no medical advice."
"I tell you he would grow stronger every day. Well, take a few boxes of pills with you; fish for cod, and make your own cod-liver oil, and make him drink it--oil to trim the lamp of his waning life and make it burn. He won't want anything of the kind--rest for his brain and change are his medicines."
"I dare not risk it," said Sir John sadly, and Jack's face began to light up.
"Well then, if you must do something foolish, take a doctor with you."
"Ah, but how to get the right man?"
"Pooh! Hundreds would jump at the chance."
Jack sighed, and looked from one to the other, while Sir John gazed hard at the doctor, who said merrily--
"There, don't sit trying to bring up difficulties where there is nothing that cannot be surmounted. What have you got hold of now?"
"I have not got hold of him. I am only trying to do so."
"What do you mean?"
"The doctor. Will you go with us, Instow?"
"I?" cried Doctor Instow, staring. "Only too glad of the chance. I'm sick of spending all my days in the sordid practice of trying to make money, when the world teems with wonders one would like to try and investigate. If I did not know that I was doing some little good amongst my fellow-creatures, my life would be unbearable, and I would have thrown it all up long ago."
"Then if I decide to follow out your advice, you will come with us?"
"No," said the doctor firmly; "it would not do."
Jack brightened up again.
"Why would it not do?" said Sir John anxiously. "The plan is excellent, and I am most grateful to you for the suggestion. Come with us, Instow, for I certainly will go."
Jack groaned.
"Look at him," cried the doctor. "There's spirit. The sooner you get to sea the better."
"Yes, I have decided upon it, if you will come."
"No, no; impossible."
"Because of leaving your practice?"
"Oh no; I could arrange that by having a locum tenens--`local demon' as the servant-girl in Punch called him."
"Then what objection is there?"
"Why, it's just as if I had been planning a pleasure-trip for myself at your expense."
"That's absurd, Instow, and an insult to an old friend. Look here, if you will come I shall look upon it as conferring a great favour upon us. We shall both be under a greater obligation to you than ever."
"I say, don't tempt me, Meadows. I'm not a bad doctor, but I'm a very weak man."
"But I will tempt you," cried Sir John eagerly. "Come, you can't let your old friend go without a companion, and stop here at home, knowing that there will be times when you could help Jack there on his way to health and strength."
"No, I can't--can I?" said the doctor, hesitating. "But no, no, it wouldn't do."
"Here, Jack, come and help me press him to go with us."
"I can't, father; oh, I can't," cried the boy despairingly.
"Oh, that settles it!" said Doctor Instow, jumping up. "You've done it now, Jack. You're worse than I thought."
"Then you will come?" cried Sir John, holding out his hand.
"I will," cried the doctor, "wherever you like to go;" and he brought down his hand with a sounding slap into his friend's. "Here, Jack," he cried directly after, "shake hands too. Come, be a man. In less than six months those dull filmy eyes of yours will be flashing with health, and you'll be wondering that you could ever have sat gazing at me in this miserable woe-begone fashion. There, pluck up, my lad. You don't know what is before you in the strange lands we shall visit. Why, when your father and I were boys of your age, we should have gone wild with delight at the very anticipation of such a cruise, and rushed off to our bedrooms to begin packing up at once, and crammed our boxes with all kinds of impossible unnecessaries--eh, Meadows?"
"Yes; our skates, cricket-bats--" cried Sir John.
"And fishing-rods, and sticks. I say, though, we must take a good supply of sea and fresh-water tackle. Fancy trying some river or lake in the tropics that has never been fished before."
"Yes, and a walk at the jungle edge, butterfly-catching," cried Sir John eagerly.
"Yes, and a tramp after rare birds, and always in expectation of bringing down one never yet seen by science," said the doctor.
"And the flowers and plants," said Sir John, "We must take plenty of cases and