Peyton, and she looked displeased. "I think there are quite
enough sad sights in the world for his young eyes without taking him
into the midst of suffering. I should not have permitted it if you had
consulted me."
It was true that Doctor Churchill possessed a frank and boyish face,
wearing ordinarily an exceedingly genial expression; but the friendly
gray eyes were capable of turning steely upon provocation, and they
turned that way now. He returned his cousin's look with one which
concealed with some difficulty both surprise and disgust.
"I took Ran nowhere that he would see any extreme suffering," he
explained. "This ward contains only convalescents from various injuries
and operations. The graver cases are elsewhere, and he saw nothing of
those. A visit to this ward is likely to excite sympathy, it is true,
but not sympathy of a painful sort. The boys have very good times among
themselves, after a limited fashion, and I think Ran had a good time
with them. How about it, Ran?"
"Oh, I did! I taught two of 'em to play waggle-finger. Their legs were
hurt, but their hands were all right, and they could play waggle-finger
as well as anybody.
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