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.