His
nose, usually the smallest article of the kind that I ever saw, was now
swollen as large as my fist, and as purple as a mulberry--the distension
of the skin, from the venomous sting of the reptile--for stung he had
been by a scorpion--made it semi--transparent, so that it looked like a
large blob of currant jelly hung on a peg in the middle of his face, or
a gigantic leech, gorged with blood, giving his visage the semblance of
some grotesque old--fashioned dial, with a fantastic gnomon.
"A poultice--a poultice--a poultice, good people, or I shall presently
be all nose together,"--and a poultice was promptly manufactured from
mashed pumpkin, and he was put to bed, with his face covered up with it,
as if an Italian artist had been taking a cast of his beauties in
plaster of Paris.
In the application of this said poultice, however, we had nearly
extinguished poor Aaron amongst us, by suffocating him outright; for the
skipper, who was the operating surgeon in the first instance, with me
for his mate, clapped a whole ladleful over his mouth and nose, which,
besides being scalding hot, sealed those orifices effectually, and
indeed about a couple of tablespoonfuls had actually been forced down
his gullet, notwithstanding his struggles, and exclamations of "Pumpkin
bad--softened with castor oil--d--n it, skipper, you'll choke me"
spurt--sputter--sputter--"choke me, man.
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