Old Brownsmith stopped here, and kept on stroking one of the cats for
such a long time, beginning at the tip of his nose and going right on to
the end of his tail, that I grew impatient.
"And did he perform the operation?" I said eagerly.
"Yes, bravely and well, but of course very clumsily for want of
experience. He cut off the leg, Grant, right above where the bone was
splintered, and all the terrible irritation was going on."
"And the poor fellow died after all?" I said.
"No, he did not, my lad; it left him terribly weak and he was very low
for some days, but he began to mend from the very first, and I suppose
when he grew well and strong he had to make himself a wooden leg or else
to go about with a crutch. About that I know nothing. There was the
poor fellow dying, and there was a gardener who knew that if the broken
place were cut Nature would heal it up; for Nature likes to be helped
sometimes, my boy, and she is waiting for you now."
"Yes, sir, I'll do it directly," I said, glancing at the stump I had
sawn off, and thinking about the swineherd's leg, and half-wondering
that it did not bleed; "but tell me, please, is all that true?"
"I'm afraid not, Grant," he said smiling; "but it is my idea--my theory
about how our great surgeons gained their first knowledge from a
gardener; and if it is not true, it might very well be."
"Yes," I said, looking at him wonderingly as he smoothed the fur of his
cats and was surrounded by them, rubbing themselves and purring loudly,
"but I did not know you could tell stories like that."
"I did not know it myself, Grant, till I began, and one word coaxed out
another. Seriously, though, my boy, there is nothing to be ashamed of
in being a gardener."
"I'm not ashamed," I said; "I like it."
"Gardeners can propagate and bring into use plants that may prove to be
of great service to man; they can improve vegetables and fruits--and
when you come to think of what a number of trees and plants are useful,
you see what a field there is to work in! Why, even a man who makes a
better cabbage or potato grow than we have had before is one who has
been of great service to his fellow-creatures. So work away; you may do
something yet."
"Yes," I cried, "I'll work away and as hard as I can; but I begin to
wish now that you had some glass."
"So do I," said the old gentleman.
"There!" I said, coming down the ladder, "I think that will heal up
now, like the poor swineherd's leg. It's as smooth as smooth."