'Indeed mamma does almost all the doctoring
with her medicine chest,' said the girl.
On which Clarence declared that he would let the doctor know that he
himself would be responsible for the cost of the attendance, and set
off for Wattlesea, a kind of town village in the flat below. He
could not get back till dinner was half over, and came in alarmed
and apologetic; but he had nothing worse to encounter than Griff's
unmerciful banter (or, as you would call it, chaff) about his knight
errantry, and Emily's lovely heroine in the sweetest of cottage
bonnets.
Griff could be slightly tyrannous in his merry mockery, and when he
found that on the ensuing day Clarence proposed to go and inquire
after the patient, he made such wicked fun of the expectations the
pair entertained of hearing the sweet cottage bonnet reading a tract
in a silvery voice through the hovel window, that he fairly teased
and shamed Clarence out of starting till the renowned Tom Petty
arrived and absorbed all the three brothers, and even their father,
in delights as mysterious to me as to Emily. How she shrieked when
Martyn rushed triumphantly into the room where we were arranging
books with the huge patriarch of all the rats dangling by his tail!
Three hopeful families were destroyed; rooms, vaults, and cellars
examined and cleared; and Petty declared the race to be
exterminated, picturesque ruffian that he was, in his shapeless hat,
rusty velveteen, long leggings, a live ferret in his pocket, and
festoons of dead rats over his shoulder.
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