Closely reported, the substance of her commentary ran as follows--"Dave tooktited the mud when I fessed him the mud in my flock"--this was illustrated in a way that threatened to outrage a sensitive propriety, the speaker's aunt's--"and spooshed up the worty and spooshed up the worty"--this repetition had great value--"and spooshtited the worty back, and then there wasn't no more mud ... it was all fessed away in my flock ... All dorn!--ass, it was--_all_ dorn!"--this was in a minor key, and thrilled with pathos--"and Dave dode to fess more where the new mud was, and was took to the Horsetickle and never come back no more ..." At this point it seemed best to lay stress upon the probable return of Dave, much to Dolly's satisfaction; though she would have been better pleased if a date had been fixed.
Our own belief is that Dolly thought the Horsetickle was an institution for the relief of sufferers from accidents occasioned by horses, and that no subsequent experience ever entirely dissipated this impression. The chances are that nine or ten of the small people one sees daily and thinks of as "the children," are laying up, even at this moment, some similar fancy that will last a lifetime. But this is neither here nor there.
What is more to the purpose is that a fortnight later Dave was brought home in a cab--the only cab that is recorded in History as having ever deliberately stood at the entrance to Sapps Court, with intent. Cabs may have stood there in connection with other doorways in the _cul-de-sac_, but ignoring proudly the archway with the iron post. Dave was carried down the Court by his uncle with great joy, and Michael Ragstroar seized the opportunity to tie himself somehow round the axle of the cab's backwheels, and get driven some distance free of charge.
Dave, as seen by Dolly on his return, was still painfully white, and could not walk. And Dolly might not come banging and smashing down on him like a little elephant, because it would hurt him; so she had to be good. The elephant simile was due to a lady--no doubt well-meaning--who accompanied Dave from the Hospital, and came more than once to see him afterwards. But it was taking a good deal on herself to decide what Dolly ought or ought not to do to Dave.