Dorothy on a House Boat

Yet once more into his drowsing ear fell a peculiar sound.

“Ah – umph! A-ah – oomph – ph – h – h!”

That prolonged bray so electrified him that he got up, to his knees, then to his swaying feet, a ghostly figure in his white suit, and with a last spurt of breath, cried:

“Billy! It’s —Billy!”

Billy it was. Why then and there his mulish brain couldn’t understand. He had come a tiresome way, through woods and along country roads and found it a painfully new experience. Of course, he had rested often and long. He had been bidden, innumerable times: “Billy, lie down!” and after an interval: “Billy, get up.” Now, as he was wearily trudging through the night came this apparition in white, right in his path.

Billy had heard the stumbling of human feet long before his rider had, and had announced the fact by mild remarks about it. But, sidewise upon Billy’s broad back – his head pillowed on Billy’s neck, the Colonel had known nothing of this until the mule’s abrupt stop shocked him awake and to a sight of the ghostly apparition on the roadside.

“Hello, Spook!” exclaimed the Colonel, inclined to be friends with anybody or anything which would relieve the loneliness of his night ride.

“Hel – Hello, yourself! Ha, ha, ha!” returned Gerald, in great delight yet half-confused by fatigue and the surprise of this meeting. They were mutual “apparitions,” arisen out of the earth to confront one another. “Where you come from? Where you going? I’m – I’m awful tired.”

“So ’m I. Always tired. Always expect to be. I come from going to and fro upon the earth seekin’ that I cayn’t find. No, I cayn’t. And of all the bad luck I’ve had this is the worst. Ah! hum.”

“I’m sorry,” murmured Gerald, stumbling near enough Billy to lay his head on the animal’s shoulder, where he immediately went to sleep.

“Sho! That’s odd! But everything is in this topsy-turvy world. I’ll be glad to be out of it. I never had no luck, Billy, an’ you know it. This yeah ’s a piece with all the rest. To have this boy, or his spook, rise up this-a-way, an’ go to sleep, standin’. Well, Billy, it cayn’t be helped. The trouble is I was born with a heart, and it’s always gettin’ us into trouble. It’s that old heart o’ mine makes me feel I cayn’t just shove this creatur’ off an’ leave him to his own deserts. Ah! hum.”

In his mournful tones the Colonel thus addressed the intelligent beast, who responded with a sympathetic bray; but he stood rigidly still while his master loosened and slipped from his back the blanket strapped there and spread it on the grassy bank beside the road. Then, as if Gerald had been a little child, the Colonel carried him to the blanket, laid and covered him in it. He even took off his own coat and made a pillow of it for Gerald’s head. Next, he ordered: “Billy, lie down!” and having been obeyed, calmly composed himself for another nap upon the back of “his only friend.”

The night passed. Gerald slept as he had never done in all his life. The healthful fatigue of his tramp across lots and the pure outdoor air did more for him than all the medicine he’d swallowed. When he awoke the sun was shining in his eyes and Billy was braying an injunction to get up, while the Colonel sat on the roadside pensively reading out of his little brown book.

“My! You’re an early student!” cried Gerald, who had lain still for a moment after waking, trying to understand the situation. “Must be an interesting story, that!”

“Story? Life’s too short – or too long – to waste on stories, young man. This is Marcus Aurelius, the sage of all the ages. Now, talk, tell, how come, et cetery. For me, I’m seekin’ a lost wallet, and I don’t expect to find it. I shan’t. Course. But I’m on the road to that pickaninny and if I cayn’t squeeze the wallet out of his clo’es I’ll squeeze the truth out of his insides, what he done with it. The idee! ’T one measly little nigger could force me to break the vow of years an’ come here, where I never meant to set foot ’s long as I lived. Ah! hum.”

“Eh, what? Lost wallet? Why, I know something about that. Jim Barlow had it. He picked it up.”

“Where is he? Quick, young man! That wallet’s mighty precious and it’s mine – mine, I tell you! Mine by the right of findin’ and preservin’. Where’s he at, quick?”

The Colonel had never shown such excitement, nor such depths of depression as when Gerald answered:

“I don’t know. I haven’t the least idea.”

“Ah! hum. Course you haven’t. I didn’t suppose you had. They couldn’t be any such good luck in this world. ‘Don’t know’! Course not. Don’t reckon you know anything.”

“Ah! yes I do! I know that I’m so hungry I could almost eat this grass. Where can we get a breakfast?”

The Colonel scanned the surrounding country. Had there been even a melon-patch in sight he wouldn’t have troubled himself to answer. He was hungry himself, but he often was that and food always came his way sometime and of some kind. Why worry or hurry?

Fortunately, the rumble of approaching wheels was heard just then, and presently there came into sight around the bend in the road a mule-team, driven by a man in a blue smock. Gerald recognized him at a glance – the same teamster who had brought him and his mates through the “gust” from the Landing. He had a sadly confused remembrance of how that ride had ended, and this was a good thing; for he was now able to hail the man in real pleasure and no anger.

“Hello, there, driver! Do you want a job?”

A startled expression came to the teamster’s face as his own mind returned to the hour when these two had last met. However, he braced himself for whatever was to come, and answered:

“That depends. What job?”

“To carry us two and lead the mule to wherever the Water Lily is now. That’s my boat – I mean, it was – and they’re my friends aboard. Do you know her and where she lies?”

The man knew perfectly well. On the morning after his ugly treatment of his four passengers, he had repaired to Deer-Copse on the Ottawotta and collected from Mrs. Calvert the sum of five dollars. This was more than double the price asked of the lads but none of them happened to be in sight, and he made a great matter of delivering the row-boat uninjured. Knowing no better she promptly paid him. Though he was sober now, he was just as greedy as ever for money and cautiously answered:

“I might guess. But I’m off for the Landing and some hauling there. It would be with a couple dollars for me to turn about an’ hunt her up now.”

“All right, I’ll pay it. I mean, if I can’t my sister will. She’s on the Water Lily and would about give her head to see me back again. I’ve been sick. I’ve been – ”

But the teamster had no sympathy for Gerald’s past ailments. He was busy getting his wagon turned about and in another moment Gerald was on the seat beside him, the Colonel riding at the back of the wagon, feet dangling, leading Billy. This last task was needless, for the mule would have followed his master anywhere and unguided.

The teamster “guessed” so accurately that he drove straight and swift along the road bordering the Ottawotta and to the beautiful spot where the Water Lily shone in all the glory of white paint and gilt, her brasses polished to the last degree by Ephraim, and all her little company pressing to the front at the rumble of wheels.

Not many vehicles passed that way and the coming of each was an event in the quiet life of the house-boat. It was Dorothy who first recognized the newcomers and her cry of delight which brought Aurora around from the nook where she was busily embroidering a cushion for the Lily.

“Gerald! Oh! Gerald, my brother!”

The lad had never felt her so dear nor thought her so pretty as when her arms closed about him and her happy face looked into his. But the face clouded when he asked:

“Got any money, Sis?”

“Huh! Can’t you be glad to get home without begging for money? Popper gave you just as much as he did me when he started and – ”

The stumping of crutches interrupted them. It was the old captain who had caught sight of the teamster, waiting for his money, and was hurrying forward in anger.

“Step aside, younkers! Lemme deal with him! Lemme! Oh! you old villain, here again be ye? Tryin’ to cheat widders an’ orphans outen their livin’ substance! Oh! I know. I’ve heered. I’ve been told. Two dollars was the price agreed – a quarter a-piece for us folks an’ fifty a-piece for the monks! The boat was throwed in. That was the bargain fixed an’ fast, an’ deny it, if ye can, with this here Melvin an’ me an’ this poor sick Gerry for witnesses. You haul in your sails an’ put for shore! Don’t ye come around here a-tryin’ to cheat no more. I’ve been layin’ for ye ever sence that night. I’ve ’lowed I’d meet up with ye an’ get even. Pay? Not this side Davy Jones’s locker! Be off with ye an don’t ye dare to show your face here again till you’ve l’arnt common honesty, such as ary yuther Marylander knows. What would these here women an’ childern do if it wasn’t for Cap’n Jack Hurry a pertectin’ of ’em? Tell me that, you ornery land-lubber, you!”

But the teamster was already gone. He had not tarried the completion of the Captain’s tirade. He saw that there was little prospect of receiving pay for that morning’s ride except after much discussion and many hard words, and decided that if he were ever to secure further patronage from these silly people who lived on a boat he would better not quarrel with them now.

With his departure peace was restored and the welcomes bestowed upon Gerald made him very happy and roused a wish in his heart to become as good a fellow as they all seemed to imagine him to be. With some shame he remembered his often ungrateful treatment of Mrs. Lucetta and her children, and described the family so graphically that Dorothy clapped her hands, exclaiming:

“I’m going right away to know them! I am! What darlings they must be, those little ‘Saints’ and sinners, and what a charming woman the mother must be. Melvin has told us how she served them with that poor pudding and sour buttermilk, just as if they were the greatest luxuries.”

Mrs. Calvert nodded, smiling:

“Yes, dear, I shall be glad to have you know her. She is a born gentlewoman and a good one – which is better. But now, has everybody had all the breakfast wanted? If so, let’s all go off to our arbor in the woods. ‘The Grotto,’ the girls named it, Gerald, and it’s beautiful. But where is Jim? Why should he have gone away from the Stillwell cottage before you, in that sudden way you mentioned?”

“I reckon he went to search for a runaway kid. The one they called Saint Augustine. Fancy such a name as that for the wildest little tacker ever trod shoe-leather – or went barefoot, I mean. That youngster looked like an angel and acted like a little imp. I should think his folks’d be glad to lose him.”

“No, Gerry, you don’t think that. You don’t want anybody to be unhappy now that we’re all so glad you’re well and back. I hope Jim will find the little Saint right soon and be back, too; but don’t you think they’ll be frightened about you? It just came to me – what can they think, when they come back and find you gone, except that you were out of your mind and wandered off? You that had been in bed till then!” asked Dorothy.

“Oh! they won’t bother about me. Jim’s been as good as gold and I’ve been pretty hateful, sometimes, I know. It’ll be a relief to him and Mrs. Stillwell that I’m off their hands. Why, folks, do you know? That slender slip of a woman does almost all their farm work, herself? Her husband – I fancied from what I had sense enough to understand – hates work, that kind, anyway, and she adores him. I know Jim took a hand, soon’s I was well enough, or good-natured enough, to let him off sticking inside with me. I never saw a fellow work so, I could see through the window by my bed. They hadn’t any horse and he ploughed with a cow! Fact. He dug potatoes, hoed corn, cleared up brush-wood – did that with his jack-knife – carried water – Couldn’t tell what he didn’t do! Oh! Mrs. Stillwell will be glad enough to be rid of me but she’ll hate to miss Jim. Hello, Elsa! What in the world!”

Mabel laughed and clapped her hands.

“Isn’t it the queerest thing? and isn’t it just jolly?

“She fell in love with them that morning when they came. Elsa, timid Elsa, is the only one of us not afraid of the monkeys! She’s captivated them, some way, and is actually training them to do whatever she wants. She’s taught them to walk, arm in arm, and to bow ‘Thank you’ for bits of Chloe’s cake. She punishes them when they catch the birds and – lots of things. Are you taking them for their ‘constitutional’ now, Elsa dear?”

The shy girl, whose poverty and ungraceful manners had made Aurora and Mabel look down upon her at the beginning of the trip, had now become the very “heart of things,” as Dolly said. Elsa was always ready to mend a rent, to hunt up lost articles, to sit quietly in the cabin when anybody had a headache and soothe the pain and loneliness, and to do the many little things needed and which none of the others noticed. It had come to be “Elsa, here!” or “Elsa, there!” almost continually; and the best of it was that the more she was called upon for service the happier and rosier she grew.

“Indeed, Papa Carruthers will see a fine change in his little girl, when he gets her home again!” Aunt Betty had said, that very morning, drawing the slender little figure to her side. “We have all learned to love you dearly, Elsa. You are a daily blessing to us.”

“That’s because you love me – and let me love you. Love is the most beautiful thing in all the world, isn’t it? It’s your love has made me grow strong and oh! so happy!”

Indeed, it was love, even for such humble creatures as the monkeys, that had given her power over them. She had been the first, save Dorothy, to pity them for being caged; and she hadn’t been afraid, as Dorothy was, to let them out to freedom. They had been very wild at first, springing into the trees and leaping about so far and fast that all except Elsa believed they were lost.

Then she would beg everyone to go away and putting the opened cage upon the ground would sit quietly beside it, with their favorite food near, for a long, long time. The first time her patience was rewarded by their return to the cage, she still sat quiet and let them settle themselves to rest. After that the training was easier, and by common consent the little animals were left to her charge till they were soon called “Elsa’s monks!” Hardest part of their training was the punishment they daily needed.

“Elsa, your monks have torn Mabel’s hat to ribbons!” “Elsa, the monkeys have ripped all the buttons off my uniform.” “Elsa, Metty’s heart is broken! They’ve chewed his ‘libery’ to bits!”

“They didn’t mean it for badness. I’ll fix the hat, Mrs. Bruce. I’ll hunt up the buttons and sew them on, Cap’n Jack. I’ll mend Metty’s finery;” and the pleasure she seemed to get from doing all these things amazed the others.

Now, since all the others were engaged with Gerald and the Colonel, she slipped away into the woods which she had learned to visit alone and without fear. Melvin had found some small brass chains in a locker of the tender and the Captain had made some collars for the animals, so that she was able to lead them with her wherever she wished. Jocko, the larger of the pair, had developed a limp so like Elsa’s own that it was ludicrous and Dorothy declared that he had done so “on purpose.” He now hobbled after her while Joan, his mate ran ahead, pulled backward at her chain, and cut up so many “monkey shines” in general as kept her young mistress laughing so that she scarcely saw where she walked nor how far.

But, at length, she looked up, surprised that she had taken a new direction from that she commonly followed. Here the trees were larger, and the undergrowth closer. Ferns which reached to her shoulder hid the ground from her sight and she stumbled over fallen limbs and unseen vines, but constantly urged onward by the discovery of some rare flower or shrub, which she might take home to Dorothy.

These two flower-lovers had daily studied the simple botany which Aunt Betty had brought on the trip, and the science opened to bookish Elsa a wonder-world of delight.

“Ah! there’s a creeping fern! I mean a walking one. We read how rare they are and Dorothy will just be wild to come and see it for herself. Let me see. It was yesterday we studied about ferns. Be still, Joan. No, Jocko, I’ll go no further, on account of your poor, lame foot. You may jump to my shoulder if you like. I think it was this way. Listen, dears! ‘Order, Filices, Genera, Asplenium. Asplenium Rhizophyllum – Walking Fern!’ There I said it, but the little common name suits me best. Heigho, beasties! What you jabbering about now? and what are you peering at with your bright eyes? Come on. There’s nothing to be afraid of in the woods, though I was once so scared of them myself. Come on, do. I must get – My heart! What —what—is this?”