16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
die, and I was mortally frostbitten.'
'Was it very painful, Doctor?' asked Pullings,
looking grave.
'Not at all, at all, until the feeling began to
return. And even then the whole lesion was
less severe than I had expected. At one time I
thought to have lost my leg below the knee,
but in the event it was no more than a couple
of unimportant toes. For you are to consider,'
he observed, addressing his words to Reade,
'that your foot bases its impulse and equilibrium
on the great toe and the least: the loss of
either is a sad state of affairs entirely, but with
the two one does very well. The ostrich has but
two the whole length of her life, and yet she
outruns the wind.'
'Certainly, sir,' said Reade, bowing.
'Yet though the leg was spared, I could not
well travel; above all after I had removed the