Kitabı oku: «Dorothy on a House Boat», sayfa 4
CHAPTER V
THE STORM AND WHAT FOLLOWED
In an instant a crowd of terrified people had gathered in the cabin, clasping one another’s hands, sobbing and shivering as gust after gust shook the Water Lily so that it seemed its timbers must part.
“We mought ha’ knowed! Thirteen po’ creatures shet up in dis yeah boat! Oh! My – ”
The greatest outcry was from poor Chloe, now kneeling, or crouching, at the feet of her Miss Betty, and clutching the lady’s gown so that she could not move. But if her feet were hindered her tongue was not. In her most peremptory manner she bade:
“Chloe, get up and be still! This is no time for nonsense. Close those windows. Stop the rain pouring in. Call back your common sense. Do – ”
“O, Ole Miss! I’se done dyin’! I’se gwine – ”
“No, you’re not. You couldn’t screech like that if you were anywhere’s near death. Shut – those – windows – or – let – me!”
Habit was stronger than fear. The idea of her mistress doing Chloe’s own task roused the frightened creature to obey, scarce knowing that she did so. Seeing her at work restored the calmness of the others, in a measure, and Dorothy and Mabel rushed each to the sliding panels of glass, which had been left open for the night and pushed them into place.
This lessened the roar of the tempest and courage returned as they found themselves still unhurt, though the constant flashes of light revealed a group of very white faces, and bodies still shaking with terror of nature’s rage. Mrs. Bruce had always been a coward during thunderstorms, but even she rallied enough to run for a wrap and fold it about Mrs. Calvert, who was also shaking; but from cold rather than fear.
Then between claps, they could hear the scurrying of feet on the roof overhead, the stumping of Captain Jack’s crutches, and the issuing of sharp orders in tones that were positively cheerful!
“Hark! What are they doing? Can anybody see the tender?” asked Dorothy, excitedly.
Strangely enough, it was frail, timid Elsa who answered:
“I’ve been listening. They’re taking off the canvas. The boys are up there. The other boat is away out – yonder. See? Oh! it’s grand! grand! Doesn’t it make us all seem puny! If it would only last till everyone was humble and – adoring!”
Even while she answered, the slender girl turned again to the window and gazed through it as if she could not have enough of the scene so frightful to her mates. These watched her, astonished, yet certainly calmed by her own fearless behavior; so that, presently, all were hastily dressing.
Mabel had set the example in this, saying quaintly:
“If I’ve got to be drowned I might as well look decent when I’m picked up.”
“Mabel and her clothes! The ‘ruling passion strong in death’!” cried Dorothy, in a tone meant to be natural but was still rather shaky. Somebody laughed and that lessened the excitement, so that even Chloe remembered she had appeared without her white turban and hastily put her hands smoothing her wool, as if afraid now only of her mistress’s reprimand.
But that lady had joined Elsa at the glass; and standing with her arm about the girl, drew the slight figure within the folds of her own roomy wrapper, with a comforting warmth and pressure. For it had turned icy cold and the unusual heat of the evening before seemed like a dream.
“Dear little girl, I am glad you came. Brave soul and frail body, you’re stronger than even my healthy Dorothy. And it is magnificent – magnificent. Only, I dread what the morning will reveal. If we are damaged much it will mean the end of our trip – at its very beginning.”
“Dear lady; it won’t mean that. Even if it had to do it would be all right – for me, at least. I should have some beautiful things to remember always.”
Then the cheerfulest of whistling was heard; Cap’n Jack’s warning that he was coming down the stairs and that any feminines in night attire might take warning and flee.
But nobody fled, and Dorothy tried to turn on the electric light which had been one of the fine features of this palatial house-boat. No radiance followed, and, watching from the doorway, Cap’n Jack triumphantly exclaimed:
“Didn’t I know it? What’s them new-fangled notions wuth in a case o’ need? Taller’s the stuff, or good, reli’ble whale-ile. Well, ship’s comp’ny, how’d ye like it? Warn’t that the purtiest leetle blow ’t ever you see? Didn’t I warn ye ’twas comin’? Yet ye went an’ allowed I warn’t no real captain and couldn’t run a boat like this easy as George Washin’ton! Now you’re wiser. That there leetle gale has larnt ye all somethin’. And ’nough said. Give old Jack a couple o’ sail or so an’ a man to climb the riggin’ an’ he’ll beat all the steam engines ever was hatched. Oh! I’m just feelin’ prime. That bit o’ wind has blowed all the land-fog out o’ my head an’ left it clear as glass.
“‘A life on the ocean wave,
A home on the rolling de-e-ep.’”
The old man’s rich voice trailed off toward the tender – or where the tender should have been – while a clear and boyish one took up the ditty from the roof above, with:
“‘Where the scattered waters rave
And the wi-i-inds their vigils ke-e-ep!’”
“Melvin! Jim! Gerald! Are you all up there? Come down, come down!”
“Yes, Captain Dolly! Coming! Here!” shouted Melvin, rattling down the crooked stair, while Jim’s voice responded: “Present!” and Gerald finished with a merry: “Accounted for!”
Then Aurora ran to meet her brother and to kiss him with an unexpected affection. To his credit it was that he gently returned her caress, but laughed at her statement that she had feared he was drowned.
“Not a bit of it! But this doesn’t look much like mourning, if you did!” he jested, pointing at the white silk frock she had again put on.
“Well, it was the first one I got hold of. That’s why. But, tell – tell – how came you up there?”
“Yes, everything, tell everything!” begged Dorothy, fairly dancing about them in her eagerness.
“Melvin – Melvin did it!” said Jim. “We might all be at the bottom of the sea – ”
“Hush!” almost screamed Aurora, beginning to tremble. “It was so horrible – I – ”
With more of sympathy than had been between them before, Dolly slipped her arm around Aurora’s shoulders and playfully ordered:
“If you boys don’t tell how you came on our promenade deck, when you belonged on the tender, you sha’n’t have any breakfast!”
“Melvin. I tell you it was Melvin. He’s the only one of us didn’t sleep like a log. He felt the hurricane coming, right through his dreams, and waked the lot of us, as soon as the first clap came. So he rushed us over the plank to take off the awnings – ”
“With such a wind sucking under them might have made the boat turn turtle, Mrs. Calvert, don’t you know? At sea – that’s why I presumed to give orders without – ”
“Oh, my dear lad, I now ‘order’ you to ‘give orders’ whenever you think best. We can trust you, and do thank you. But how dark it seems now the lightning has stopped. Isn’t there any sort of light we can get?” said Aunt Betty, sitting down with Elsa and folding a steamer rug around them both.
Cap’n Jack came stumping back from the rear of the boat in a high state of excitement and actual glee.
“Clean gone! Plank a-swingin’ loose – caught it a-board just in time – t’other boat flip-floppin’ around like she was all-possessed. Reckon she is. The idee! A reg’lar steam engine on a craft not much bigger ’n itself! What this house-boat needs isn’t steam engines but a set of stout sails an’ a few fust-class poles. Come, lads, let’s anchor her – if the fool that built her didn’t put them on the tender, too, alongside his other silly contraptions.”
Mrs. Calvert wondered if the old fellow knew what he was talking about, but found the resolute tones of his voice a comfort. Whoever else was frightened he was not and she liked him better at that moment than she would have thought possible. All his whining discontent was gone and he was honestly happy. What the others felt to be a terrible misfortune was his opportunity to prove himself the fine “skipper” he had boasted of being.
But now that the roar of the storm had subsided, there came across the little space of water between the Lily and its Pad the outcries of Ephraim and Methuselah, mingled with halloes of the engineer, John Stinson.
“They want to come alongside! They’re signallin’!” cried Cap’n Jack, promptly putting his hands before his mouth, trumpet-fashion, and returning such a lusty answer that those near him clapped hands over ears.
Then came Melvin, more sea-wise than the other lads, saying:
“I’ve been fumbling around and there are some poles lashed outside the rail. Let’s unsheath ’em, but it’ll take us all to keep them from tumbling over.”
“That’s so! You’re right! When Pop had this boat built he was told to provide for all sorts of things. The engine going broke was the last notion he had, but he had the poles made to please Mommer. I know – I mean – I guess I do – how they use ’em, but they’re mighty heavy.”
It was Captain Hurry who again came to the front. In a twinkling he had inspected the stout poles and explained, that by putting one end of each down through the water till it reached the bottom, the house-boat could not only be held steady but could be propelled.
“It’s slow but it’s safe an’ easy, Ma’am,” he informed Mrs. Calvert.
“Then it’s the very thing, the only thing, we want,” she answered, promptly. “I never did believe in that engine in the hands of an amateur.”
Jim didn’t fancy this reflection on his skill, believing that he already knew as much about machinery as an expert did and that he had mastered all that John Stinson could teach him. However, he was beyond reach of the beloved little engine now and the first thing to do was to bring the two boats together again.
Under Cap’n Jack’s direction this was promptly done; and great was old Ephraim’s rejoicing when, at last, the familiar gang-plank was once more in place and he had crossed over it to his beloved mistress’s presence.
“T’ank de Lord, Miss Betty, you didn’t get sca’ed to death! I sutney beliebed we was all gwine to de bottom of de ribbah! An’ I was plumb scan’lized ter t’ink o’ yo’ po’ li’l white body all kivvered wid mud, stidder lyin’ in a nice, clean tomb lak yo’ oughter. I – ”
“That’ll do, Ephraim. I’ll take all the rest you were going to say for granted. Here, Metty, sit down in that corner and keep still. You’re safe now and – are you hungry?”
The morning light was rapidly increasing and seen by it the little black face looked piteous indeed. But there were few troubles of Methuselah’s which “eatings” couldn’t cure; so his mistress promptly dispatched Dorothy to her stateroom for a big box of candy, brought along “in case of need.” Never would need be more urgent than now, and not only did the little page’s countenance brighten, when the box appeared, but everybody else dipped into it as eagerly – it seemed such a relief to do such an ordinary thing once more.
The sun rose and shone as if to make them forget the night of storm; and after a breakfast, hastily prepared on the little oil stove in the tender, a feeling of great content spread through the little company. Engineer Stinson had missed his train, but was now glad of it; for he had gained time to examine the engine, though disappointed at the report he had to make.
“Useless, for the present, Madam, I regret to say. Owing to the sudden jar against the end of the wharf, or the wind’s dashing the tender about, some parts are broken. To get it repaired will take some time. Shall I send down a tug to tow you back to the city? And have a man from the shop attend to it? My own job will keep me from doing it myself, though I’d like to.”
“Thank you,” said Aunt Betty, and, for a moment, said nothing more. But she looked from one to another of the eager young faces about her and read but one desire on all. This was so evident that she smiled as she asked:
“Who thinks best to give up this trip? Or, rather, to go back and start over again – if we dare?”
Nobody spoke but a sort of groan ran around the little company.
“All in favor of going on, with some other sort of ‘power,’ or of anchoring the Water Lily at some pleasant point near shore and staying there, say ‘Aye’.”
So lusty a chorus of “Ayes” answered that Aunt Betty playfully covered her ears, till the clamor had subsided. Then a council of ways and means was held, in which everyone took part, and out of which the decision came:
That Cap’n Jack should rig up the sails which was another one of Mr. Blank’s provisions against just such a dilemma, and instruct the three lads how to use them; that when they didn’t want to sail they should use the poles; or using neither, should remain quietly at rest in the most delightful spot they could find; that the Lily and its Pad should be fastened together in the strongest way, so that no more separation by wind or storm could be possible.
“The tender adds a great weight to your ‘power’ in such a case,” suggested Mr. Stinson. “Without it you could move much faster.”
“And without it, where could Ephy sleep and Chloe cook? The boys, too, will need their warm bunks if it happens to be cold,” said Dolly. “Besides – the kitchen is out there. Oh! we can’t possibly spare the tender.”
“Most house-boats get along without one,” explained the engineer.
“What about a horse, or a mule? I’ve seen such a thing somewhere, on some of our little trips with Mr. Bruce,” suggested the widow, then touched by her own reference to the dead relapsed into silence.
“Many of the little rivers of the Western Shore have banks as level as those of a canal,” said Mrs. Calvert. The idea had approved itself to her. “I’m afraid you lads would get very tired of the poling, even if the water was shallow enough. Without wind, sails wouldn’t help us; so Mrs. Bruce’s notion is the best one yet.”
“A mule would be nice and safe!” commented Mabel.
“First catch your mule,” cried Gerald.
“And who’d ride it?” asked Jim.
“You would,” promptly answered Melvin, laughing.
“Not all the time, sir!” retorted Jim, yet with an expression which showed he was really considering the subject. “Turn and turn about’s fair play.”
“All right. I’ll stand my turn and call it my ‘watch.’ I could fancy I was still on shipboard, don’t you know?”
“I’d do my third – if we didn’t keep it up all the time. A fellow wants a little chance to fish and have some fun,” added Gerald. Now that they had all been in danger together he was acting like the really fine lad he was and had dropped the silly affectations of his first manner.
Aurora, too, seemed more sensible, and, breakfast over, had shut herself in her tiny stateroom to put on the plainest frock she had. An approving smile from Mrs. Calvert greeted her reappearance and the girl began to think it wasn’t so bad after all have an old lady aboard.
“Really, Mabel, there doesn’t seem anything old about her except a few of her looks. I mean her white hair and some wrinkles. I guess it was all right she came, anyway.”
“It surely was all right. Why, what would any of us have done if she hadn’t been here? Mamma was scared worse than I was, even. You know she saw a person killed by lightning once and has never got over it. You’ll find, if you watch out, that Mrs. Calvert will help us have a good time, rather than spoil it; if – if – we don’t go back. I guess Mamma wishes we’d have to do that.”
Aurora did not answer, for just then the others were eagerly discussing the situation. They were to “up anchor,” run up the sails to catch the stiff breeze that was rising with the sun, and proceed down the coast as far as they could while the engineer remained, as he had agreed to do for a few hours longer, because of Mrs. Calvert’s earnest request.
“Get us safe into some snug harbor, please Mr. Stinson, and I will see that you lose nothing by the delay.”
“That is all right, Madam. I only wish I could join your cruise for all its length. I’m sure you’re bound to have a grand trip, despite the bad beginning – which should bring the proverbial good ending.”
“I wish you could. Oh! I do wish you could,” said Aunt Betty. She was somewhat surprised to find the engineer a man of culture, but was delighted by the fact. She felt that the presence of such a man would keep her three boys straight, for she was a little afraid of “pranks” should they indulge in any.
She had hoped, too, to make the most of their trip up and down the Severn, with which lovely river her earliest memories lingered. However, they were not to reach it yet. The friendly wind forsook them and both Cap’n Jack and Mr. Stinson felt that it would be wise to enter a little bay further north; and making their slow way between some islands come to anchor on the shores of the Magothy.
“The Maggotty! That’s where the best cantaloupes come from!” cried Mabel. “Who’ll buy my fine wattymillyouns, growed on de Maggotty, down in An’erunnel! Wattymillyouns! Cant-e-lopes! Oh! I want one this minute!”
“What a dreadful name for a river! Who’d eat melons full of maggots!” demanded Aurora, with a little shiver. Evidently, though she must often have heard them, she had paid scant attention to the cries of the negro hucksters through her own city’s streets.
“It isn’t ‘Maggotty’ but ‘Magothy’,” explained Dorothy. “I used to think just as you do until I learned better. I’m bad as Mabel. I just can’t wait. I must have a ‘cantaloupe’ for supper, I must! Scooped out and filled with ice – sweet and juicy – ”
“Hold on! Hold on! Wait till I fetch it!” returned Gerald, with a smack of his own lips. Then leaving the others to follow as they chose he ran to the stern of the tender which the men had brought close to a grassy bank, and leaped ashore.
“Wheah’s he gwine at?” demanded Ephraim, who had been in the way and unceremoniously pushed aside.
“Wattymillyouns!” yelled Jim, following the other boy’s lead.
“Wattymillyouns? Wat-ty-mill-youns? My hea’t o’ grace! I’se done gwine get some fo’ my Miss Betty!”
“For yo’se’f you-all means, yo’ po’ triflin’ ornery ole niggah! Ain’t it de trufe?” laughed Chloe, coming to the old man’s side, and laying a restraining hand upon his shoulder, while all her white teeth showed in a wide grin.
Safely anchored, the engineer gone, the old Captain bustling about on the roof of the boat, making all snug and shipshape for the coming night, every heart was light. None more so than those of the colored folks, always in the habit of leaving care to “their white” friends and like children in their readiness to forget the past.
Ephraim didn’t leap the plank, his “roomaticals” prevented; but he displayed a marvelous agility in getting ashore and speed in following the vanishing lads.
“What’s up?” demanded Melvin, running to where Chloe stood, holding her sides and shaking with laughter, “where have they gone?”
“Maggotty millyouns! Spyed a millyoun patch ovah yondah an’ – Lan’ ob Goshen! If he ain’ done gwine, too! Well, my sake! Mebbe Chloe doan’ lub millyouns same’s anuddah, mebbe!”
As Melvin disappeared over the side, his own mouth watering for the southern delicacies so rare to his own northern home, mistress Chloe gathered up her petticoats and sprang ashore.
Little Methuselah called after her but she did not pause. She meant to get her own share from that distant melon-patch, and her maternal ears were deaf to his outcries.
Sharing the common feeling of repose and safety which had fallen upon all the company when the Water Lily had been tied up for the night, Metty had felt it a fine time to don his livery and show off his finery before the white folks. Clad in its loose misfit, but proud as ever, he clung to the stern-rail of the Pad and gazed after his departing parent.
What had happened? Why were all those people running away so fast? Was another frightful tempest coming?
“Mammy! Mam-my! Lemme! Lemme come! Mammy, Mammy, wait – I’se com – ”
A point on the water side of the Pad commanded a better view of the fleeing figures, climbing the gentle rise of ground beyond. Thither the little fellow rushed; gave one glance downward into the water and another upon his gorgeous attire; then upward and onward where a fold of scarlet calico fluttered like a signal; shut his great eyes, and leaped.
Alas! The fat little legs couldn’t compass that space! and Methuselah Bonaparte Washington Brown sank beneath the waves his own impact had created.
