It was a soft and sunny morning in October month when Dr. Beckerleg,
having given his patient leave to dress and set foot outside the door
for the first time, stepped down into the garden to seek the two
captains and send them upstairs to help the invalid.
As he opened the front-door a searching odour caused him to pause in
the porch and sniff. He traced this odour round to the back of the
house, and there found Captain Barker, Captain Runacles and Narcissus
Swiggs. Between them they had managed to clear the garden of an
enormous crop of weeds, of which they were now making a bonfire.
Behind the thick and yellowish coils of smoke Dr. Beckerleg could
just discern the forms of the two captains. By their gestures they
seemed to be engaged in an acrimonious discussion. Narcissus, little
heeding, stolidly poked the bonfire with a charred stake.
"I will not!" said Captain Runacles.
"But I say that you shall!" said Captain Barker.
"The lad is yours, and yours only."
"He is yours also."
"By a cast of dice you won him."
"By law he was given back to you."
"You have brought him up."
"You found him again when I lost him."
"Yes, by means of an art which you taught him."
"Gentlemen, gentlemen," interposed the doctor, advancing, "what is
all this fuss?"
"Why," began Captain Barker, "I was proposing that, for the future,
we should take equal shares in the superintendence of Tristram's
education; and he won't listen to it.
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