The Hornet Nest

They took you about the head and neck, dozens in the first breath, and by the time you reached help your voice had gone to a whisper and your lips to gray. The swelling is closing your throat from the inside, breath drawn down a straw's width and narrowing. The doctor sits you upright, packs cold river cloths at your neck, and lays a penknife and a hollow quill on the table where he can reach them fast, because if the swelling wins he will have to open your windpipe below it. Nothing to do now but sit up, breathe slow, and last the night.

• Voice reduced to a whisper, no talking beyond a few words at a time for 2 days
• Sitting upright day and night, no lying flat until the swelling breaks, 2 days minimum
• No riding and no exertion of any kind for 5 days, walking pace only after that
• /me sits bolt upright, chin lifted, each breath drawn thin and whistling through a narrowed throat

Recovery If the swelling breaks by dawn, a week of whispering and rest; the welts fade over 2 weeks.·Doctor, urgently

You threw an arm up too late. They found your face, and worst of all your eyes: lids stung through, both swollen shut within the hour, and under the left lid a hot deep sting the doctor does not like the look of. He bathes them with boric wash and cool cloths and binds them dark, and tells you plainly that the right will open in a few days, but the left eye is a question he cannot answer yet.

• Both eyes bound, fully blind and needing a guiding arm or a led horse for 3 days
• No firelight, lamplight or bright sun on the eyes for a week once the bindings come off
• No shooting, reading or fine work of the eyes for 10 days
• /me turns toward voices with both eyes bound under a dark cloth, one hand out for a shoulder

Recovery The right eye opens in 3 days; the left tells its own story over 2 weeks.·Doctor required

Better than eighty stings by the doctor's count, back, arms and scalp, more than any one body is built to carry. By nightfall you were shaking with a venom fever, heart galloping, water coming off you in sheets. He counts the welts by lamplight, dresses them with saleratus paste and wet clay, doses you with willow bark tea and watered whiskey, and says the poison must burn its way out, there is no drawing it faster.

• Bedridden with venom fever for 3 days, no work, no riding, meals brought to you
• Skin plastered in gray saleratus paste and clay, shirt worn loose or not at all for 4 days
• Joints swollen and stiff, no lifting above 20 pounds for a week after the fever breaks
• /me shivers under a blanket in the heat of the day, skin crusted gray with dried paste

Recovery The fever breaks in 2 or 3 days; the last welts and the weakness take 2 weeks to leave.·Doctor required

You ran with your eyes screwed shut and both arms over your head, and the ground quit under you. A dozen feet down the cutbank you landed wrist first on river stone. The hornets lost interest by the water, but the wrist sits at a wrong angle and grinds when the doctor takes it: a clean break of both forearm bones above the joint. He sets it hard, splints it in ash slats and rawhide, and dresses the stings on your scalp while you swear.

• Right forearm splinted in ash slats, no gripping, lifting or reining with that hand for 4 weeks
• Riding at a walk only, left hand on the reins, for 2 weeks
• A dozen stings across scalp and neck, hat worn loose or carried for 4 days
• /me cradles a splinted forearm against the chest, welts standing red along the neck

Recovery The forearm knits in 4 to 6 weeks; the welts are gone inside 10 days.·Doctor required

Fifty stings, near as the doctor can count them, from your crown to the small of your back. You are fevered and swollen misshapen, one ear thick as a saddle flap, both hands puffed to mitts. He paints you with ammonia water and mud poultice, hands you willow bark for the fever, and says you will look like a man somebody quarreled with for the better part of a week.

• Fevered and swollen for 3 days, light chores only, no full day's work
• Hands too puffed for fine work: no shooting, roping or writing for 4 days
• No hot baths, tight collars or wool against the welts for 5 days
• /me moves stiff and lumpish, face and hands swollen out of their usual shape

Recovery The swelling falls over 4 or 5 days; the fever leaves sooner, the itch last of all.·Doctor required

You batted the nest away barehanded, and they repaid the hand in full. Twenty stings between wrist and fingertips, and by evening the hand had swollen to twice itself, skin stretched shining and hot, fingers like sausages that will not bend. The doctor soaks it in cold well water and epsom salts, binds it loose, and warns you that a hand this tight can go bad: come running at the first red streak up the arm.

• Right hand swollen useless: no gripping, shooting or reining with it for 5 days
• Hand carried high in a sling to bring the swelling down for 3 days
• Forearm checked morning and night for red streaks for a full week
• /me holds a shining, ballooned right hand up at the shoulder, fingers spread and unbending

Recovery The hand shrinks back to its own size over 5 or 6 days if no infection takes hold.·Doctor required

They got in under your chin, six or eight stings along the jaw and throat. The swelling came up thick as a second collar, ugly enough that the doctor made you sit in his front room half the night so he could watch you breathe. Breath held clear, but your neck is a tight hot yoke, swallowing is labor, and your voice comes out a tone lower than the one you own.

• Soft food and small sips only, each swallow slow work, for 3 days
• No collar, bandanna or rope work near the neck for 4 days
• Voice low and short, no shouting or singing for 3 days
• /me tips the head back to swallow, the throat swollen thick as a rolled collar under the jaw

Recovery The neck softens over 3 or 4 days; the voice comes back to its own register with it.·Doctor required

You ran flat out with your head down and met a low oak limb at a dead sprint. It laid your forehead open to the bone and sat you down in the leaves, and mercifully the swarm passed on over a downed man. The doctor closes the gash with eight silk stitches, pronounces the skull sound as a kettle, and dresses the handful of stings you took in the first rush.

• Eight silk stitches across the forehead, kept dry and unbumped for 8 days
• A rung bell for a day: no riding faster than a walk and no shooting for 2 days
• Half a dozen stings on the arms dressed in paste for 3 days
• /me wears a fresh white bandage low across the forehead, one eye purpling beneath it

Recovery Stitches out in 8 days; the headache and the welts are gone before that.·Doctor required

You were moving before the nest hit the ground, and it cost you only a dozen stings across your back and neck, all taken at a dead run. They gave up the chase at the tree line. The welts stand up red and hot as stove lids for a day; a neighbor's paste of saleratus and vinegar takes the worst of the fire out.

• A dozen hot welts across back and neck, no pack, bedroll or rifle sling on the back for 2 days
• Sleeping face-down or not at all for the first night
• /me sits forward in the chair, keeping a welted back clear of the chair rails

Recovery The fire dies in a day; the welts flatten and are gone within a week.·Doctor advised

Two of them went down your collar while the rest chased your hat. You did the only sane thing and tore the shirt off at a run, buttons flying, but not before they wrote a line of six stings from breastbone to belt. The shirt is somewhere back down the trail. The stings raise a row of hot welts down your front like a seam sewn wrong.

• Six hot welts down chest and belly, no gunbelt, apron or tight vest across them for 2 days
• Cold cloths or paste renewed morning and night for 2 days
• /me buttons a borrowed shirt gingerly over a line of paste-daubed welts down the chest

Recovery The fire fades in a day; the welts are flat inside a week.·Doctor advised

Your horse took two stings to the flank and made its own decision. You made yours about a half second later, over its shoulder, and landed on the road hip first. The swarm followed the horse. You carry a bruise from hip bone to knee, a jarred elbow, and exactly three stings, which the horse would tell you is a fair split.

• Deep bruise from hip to knee, mounting from a stump or fence rail only for 3 days
• Jarred elbow, no roping or hard pulling with the left arm for 2 days
• Three stings on the neck dressed with paste for 2 days
• /me walks with one hand pressed to a bruised hip, favoring the whole left side

Recovery Stiff for 3 days and yellow-bruised for 10; the stings are gone before the bruise turns.·Doctor advised

You saw the briar patch and made a leadership decision. The thorns took their toll going in, raked forearms and one cheek, but the hornets circled twice above the tangle and thought better of it. You lay in the briars a full ten minutes, being stung nowhere and bleeding gently from twenty small places, and counted it a bargain.

• Both forearms and one cheek thorn-raked, kept clean and dry for 3 days against festering
• Four stings taken going in, dressed with paste for 2 days
• No pushing through brush or handling rope with bare forearms for 3 days
• /me picks a briar thorn from a forearm crosshatched in fine red scratches

Recovery The scratches scab in 2 days and are gone in 10 if kept clean.·Doctor advised

One found your left ear and stung it twice, inside the curl. By supper the ear had swollen thick and red as a spring cabbage leaf, standing off your head, and every sound on that side comes through wool. Two more welts on the jaw for company. The doctor grins before he can stop himself, then packs the ear in cool wet clay.

• Left ear swollen thick, hearing muffled on that side for 3 days, seat yourself accordingly
• No hat brim resting on that ear, hat worn tipped or carried for 3 days
• /me turns the right ear toward whoever speaks, the left standing out red and thick as a cabbage leaf

Recovery The ear comes back to its own shape and hearing over 4 or 5 days.·Doctor advised

Six stings across your forearms, taken swatting your way clear, and that was the whole of their argument. The welts came up quick, hot and itching, and a paste of saleratus and creek water is already talking them down. You will scratch more than you will suffer.

• Six welts on the forearms, itching worse than hurting, no scratching them open for 3 days
• Sleeves worn loose or rolled clear of the welts for 2 days
• /me rolls a sleeve back to show a forearm dotted with drying daubs of white paste

Recovery Flat and forgotten inside 4 or 5 days.·No doctor needed

One sting, perfectly placed, square on the upper lip. Within the hour it had swollen out past your nose, tight and shining, and it will do your talking for you for a day or two. Every word comes out mushy, whistling past the swelling, and every soul who sees you will ask, so get the story polished.

• Upper lip swollen huge, speech mushy, drinking managed from the side of the mouth for 2 days
• No pipe, no whistling, no hot coffee straight from the pot for 2 days
• /me talks around an upper lip swollen out past the nose, tight and shining

Recovery The lip comes down over 2 or 3 days and leaves no mark.·No doctor needed

Three stings on the back of the neck, right where the collar gapped, each welt raised round and red as a stacked coin. They burn like a branding iron for the first hour and then settle to a fierce itch. A cool cloth and somebody else's sympathy are the whole of the treatment.

• Three welts on the back of the neck, collar worn open or a soft bandanna only for 2 days
• No pack straps or rifle slung across the back of the neck for 2 days
• /me tugs the collar away from three round welts on the back of the neck

Recovery Gone in 3 or 4 days, itching hardest on the second.·No doctor needed

One crawled up where your trouser leg rode above the boot and stung your ankle twice before you could get at it. Hopping on one leg while beating at your own shin was, witnesses agree, the finest part of the whole affair. The ankle is puffed snug against the boot leather by evening.

• Ankle puffed and tender, boot worn loose or swapped for a soft shoe for 2 days
• Walking is fine; running and jumping left to people who were not stung, for 2 days
• /me stands with one boot unlaced, an ankle puffed snug against the leather

Recovery The ankle is its own size again in 2 or 3 days.·No doctor needed

You ran straight through the campfire smoke, and it worked the way the old hands always swore it would. The swarm hit that gray wall and broke apart like a fist opening. You stood in the smoke coughing until your eyes streamed, and came out the far side with a single sting on the back of one hand and a mighty opinion of your own quick thinking.

• One welt on the back of the hand, worth showing off, gone in a couple of days
• Clothes and hair reeking of woodsmoke until the next washing, remark on it freely
• /me holds up the back of one hand to show a single proud welt, smelling strongly of woodsmoke

Recovery The welt is flat by the day after tomorrow.·No doctor needed

You snatched your hat off and fought a rearguard action with it, and the hat lost so you would not have to. By the time you cleared the trees the felt carried a dozen furious hornets, and you carried one sting on the wrist where a cuff rode up. The hat lay in the grass until sundown, and you are not entirely sure it has forgiven you.

• One welt on the wrist, cuff worn loose over it for a day
• The hat retrieved at your own risk and aired overnight before wearing
• /me rubs one small welt on the wrist and eyes a battered hat with new suspicion

Recovery Nothing to mend but the welt, flat inside 2 days.·No doctor needed

The bank was right there and you did not hesitate: three running strides and a flat dive into the creek. You lay on the cold gravel bottom letting your breath out a bubble at a time, and watched through a yard of water as the swarm raged above the surface like a storm you had stepped out of. When you came up, blue-lipped and gasping, they were gone. Not one sting. The nest lies where it fell, and you have a story nobody will believe without the wet clothes.

• Soaked to the skin, dry clothes and a place by a fire owed to you before nightfall
• One boot still somewhere in the creek, worth a look at low water
• /me wrings out a shirt sleeve, grinning, not one sting on the whole soaked length of you

Recovery Nothing to heal; the shivering ends at the first fire.·No doctor needed