Dorothy on a House Boat Part 15

"Another familiar custom, dear, among country neighbors in this old State. Why, my own dear mother thought nothing of having a party of uninvited guests arrive with the sunrise, expecting just the same cordial welcome she would have accorded later and invited ones. It never made any difference in the good old days. There was always plenty of food in the storehouse and plenty of help to prepare it. The Colonel isn't so very old but he seems to cling to the traditions of his ancestors. I wonder, will he expect us to feed Billy also! And I do hope Mrs. Bruce will have something nice for breakfast. The poor gentleman looks half-starved."

"Oh! yes, she has. We bought a half-dozen pairs of 'broilers' last night; but she meant them to last for supper, too."

"Run. Bid her cook the lot. There'll be none too many."

"But, Auntie, dear! They cost fifty cents a-piece. Six whole dollars for one single breakfast? Besides the potatoes and bread and other stuff! Six dollars a meal, eighteen dollars a day, how long will what is left of three hundred dollars last, after we pay for Billy, as you said we must?"

This was on the morning after the Colonel's first call at the Water Lily. This had been a prolonged one because of--Billy. That wise animal saw no stable anywhere about and, having been petted beyond reason by his loving, sad-hearted master, decided that he dared not--at his time of life--sleep out of doors. At least that was the way James Barlow understood it, and no persuasion on the part of his new friends could induce the mule to remain after the Colonel started for home.

"Tie him to the end of the wharf," suggested Gerald.

"That would be cruel. He might fall into the water in his sleep. We don't want two to do that in one day," protested Dorothy.

At that point Billy began to bray; so mournfully and continuously that Mrs. Calvert sent word:

"Stop that beast! We shan't be able to sleep a wink if he keeps that noise up!"

The Colonel paused once more. His departure had been a succession of pauses, occasioned by two things: one that the lazy man never walked when he could ride; the other, that he could not bring himself to part from his "only faithful friend." The result was that he had again mounted the stubborn beast and disappeared in the darkness of his melon-patch.

Now he was back again, making his mount double himself up on the ground and so spare his rider the trouble of getting off in the usual way.

"My hearties! Will you see that, lads?" demanded Melvin, coming down the bank with his towels over his arm. He had promptly discovered a sheltered spot, up stream, where he could take his morning dip, without which his English training made him uncomfortable. "Pooh! He's given the mule and himself with it! He's fun for a day, but we can't stand him long. I hope Mrs. Calvert will give him his 'discharge papers' right away."

"If she doesn't I will!" answered Gerald, stoutly. "A very little of the 'Cunnel' goes a long way with yours truly."

Jim looked up sharply. His own face showed annoyance at the reappearance of the farmer but he hadn't forgotten some things the others had.

"Look here, fellows! This isn't our picnic, you know!"

Melvin flushed and ducked his head, as if from a blow, but Gerald retorted:

"I don't care if it isn't. I'd rather quit than have that old snoozer for my daily!"

"I don't suppose anybody will object to your quitting when you want to. The Water Lily ain't yours, though you 'pear to think so. And let me tell you right now; if you don't do the civil to anybody my mistress has around I'll teach you better manners--that's all!"

With that Jim returned to the polis.h.i.+ng of his useless engine, making no further response to Gerald's taunts.

"Mistress! _Mistress?_ Well, I'll have you to know, you young hireling, that I'm my own master. _I_ don't work for any mistress, without wages or with 'em, and in my set we don't hobn.o.b with workmen--ever. Hear that? And mind you keep your own place, after this!"

An ugly look came over Jim's face and his hands clenched. With utmost difficulty he kept from rising to knock the insolent Gerald down, and a few words more might have brought on a regular battle of fists, had not Melvin interposed in his mild voice yet with indignation in his eyes:

"You don't mean that, Gerald. 'A man's a man for a' that.' I'm a 'hireling,' too, d'ye mind? A gentleman, that you boast you are, doesn't bully his inferiors nor behave like a ruffian in a lady's house--or boat--which is the same thing. Gentlemen don't do that--Not in our Province."

Then, fortunately, Chloe appeared, asking if one of them would go to the nearest farmhouse and fetch a pail of cream for breakfast.

"They's quality come, so li'l Miss says, an' ole Miss boun' ter hev t'ings right down scrumptious, lak wese do to home in Baltimo'."

With great willingness each and every lad offered to do the errand; and in a general tussle to grab her outstretched "bucket" their anger vanished in a laugh. The "good side" of Gerald came uppermost and he awkwardly apologized:

"Just forget I was a cad, will you, boys? I didn't mean it. I'd just as lief go for that cream as not."

"I'd liefer!" said Melvin.

Jim said nothing but the ugly look vanished from his face and it was he who secured the pail and started with it on a run over the plank and the field beyond.

"I'll beat you there!" shouted Melvin; and "You can't do it!" yelled Gerald; while Chloe clasped her hands in dismay, murmuring:

"Looks lak dere won't be much cweam lef' in de bucket if it comes same's it goes!"

That visit to the farmhouse, short though it was, gave a turn to affairs on the Water Lily. The farmer told the lads of a little branch a few miles further on, which would be an ideal place for such a craft to anchor, for "a day, a week, or a lifetime."

"It's too fur off for them village loafers to bother any. You won't have to anchor in midstream to get shet of 'em, as would be your only chance where you be now. I was down with the crowd, myself, last night an' I was plumb scandalized the way some folks acted. No, sir, I wasn't aboard the Water Lily nor set foot to be. I come home and told my wife: 'Lizzie,' says I, 'them water-travellers'll have a lot o'

trouble with the Corner-ites and Jimpson-ites. It's one thing to be civil an' another to be imperdent.' I 'lowed to Lizzie, I says: 'I ain't volunteerin' my opinion till it's asked, but when it is I'll just mention Deer-Copse on the Ottawotta Run. Ain't a purtier spot on the whole map o' Maryland 'an that is. Good boatin', good fis.h.i.+n', good springs in the woods, good current to the Run and no malary.

Better 'n that--good neighbors on the high ground above.' That's what I says to Lizzie."

Jim's attention was caught by the name Deer-Copse. He thought Mrs.

Calvert would like that, it was so much like her own Deerhurst on the Hudson. Also, he had overheard her saying to Mrs. Bruce: "I do wish we could find some quiet stream, right through the heart of green woods, where there'd be no danger and no intruders." From this friendly farmer's description it seemed as if that bit of forest on the Ottawotta would be an ideal camping-ground.

There followed questions and answers. Yes, the Water Lily might be hauled there by a mule walking on the bank, as far as the turn into the branch. After that, poling and hauling, according to the depth of the water and what the Lily's keel "drawed," or required. They could obtain fresh vegetables real near.

"I'm runnin' a farm that-a-way, myself; leastwise me an' my brother together. He's got no kind of a wife like Lizzie. A poor, s.h.i.+ftless creatur' with more babies under foot 'an she can count, herself. One them easy-goin' meek-as-Moses sort. Good? Oh! yes, real good. Too good. Thinks more o' meetin' than of gettin' her man a decent meal o'

victuals. Do I know what sort of mule Cunnel Dillingham has? Well, I guess! That ain't no ornery mule, Billy Dillingham ain't. You see, him and the Cunnel has lived so long together 't they've growed alike.

After the Cunnel's daughter quit home an' married Jabb, Cunnel up an'

sold the old place. Thought he'd go into truck-farmin'--him the laziest man in the state. Farmin' pays, course, 'specially here in Annyrunnell. Why, my crop o' melons keeps my family all the year round an' my yuther earnin's is put in the bank. Cunnel's got as big a patch as mine an' you cayn't just stop melons from growin' down here in Annyrunnell! No, sir, cayn't stop 'em! Not if you 'tend 'em right.

They's an old sayin', maybe you've heard. 'He that by the plough would thrive, Himself must either hold or drive.' The Cunnel won't do ary one. He leaves the whole thing to his crew o' n.i.g.g.e.rs an', course, they're some s.h.i.+ftlesser 'n he is. They're so plumb lazy, the whole crowd, 't they won't even haul their truck as fur as Jimpson's, to have it loaded on a boat for market, an' that ain't further 'n you could swing a cat! Losin' his old home an' losin' his gal, an' failin'

to make truck pay, has made him downhearteder'an he was by natur'--and that's sayin' consid'able. Must ye go, boys? Got any melons? Give ye as many as ye can carry if ye want 'em. Call again. Yes, the cream's wuth five cents. Not this time, though. Lizzie'd be plumb scandalized if I took pay for a mite o' cream for breakfast--such a late one, too.

We had ours couple hours ago. Eh? About Billy? Well, if he war mine, which he ain't, an' if I war asked to set a price on him, which I couldn't, I should say how 't he war a fust-cla.s.s mule, but not wuth a continental without the Cunnel--nor with him, nuther. If you take one you'll have to take t'other. Call again. My respects to the lady owns the house-boat an'--Good-by!"

As the lads thanked their talkative neighbor and hurried down the fields, Jim exclaimed:

"Was afraid this cream'd all turn to b.u.t.ter before he'd quit and let us go! But, we've learned a lot about some things. I'm thinking that Ottawotta Run is the business for us: and I fear--Billy isn't. There must be other mules in Anne Arundel county will suit us better. Mrs.

Calvert won't want him as a gift--with the Colonel thrown in!"

Mrs. Bruce met them impatiently.

"Seems as if boys never could do an errand without loitering. There's all those chickens drying to flinders in that oil-stove-oven, and that horrid old man talking Mrs. Calvert into a headache. Least, he isn't talking so much as she is. Thinks she must entertain him, I suppose.

The idea! Anybody going visiting to _breakfast_ without being asked!"

But by this time the good woman had talked her annoyance off, and while she dished up the breakfast--a task she wouldn't leave to Chloe on this state occasion--Jim hastily condensed the information he had received and was glad that she promptly decided, as he had, that a sojourn on the quiet, inland Run would best please Aunt Betty.

"It would certainly suit me," a.s.sented the matron.

"Oh! hang it all! What's the use? Hiding in a silly little creek when there's the whole Chesapeake to cruise in!" cried the disgusted Gerald, leaning upon the little table and hungrily eyeing the platter of chicken.

"How can we dare, how could we if we dared, try the Bay? We haven't any engine to use now," said Jim.

"Well, get one, then! If that girl can afford to run a house-boat and ask folks to stay on it, she ought to provide something decent for their entertainment. When _we_ owned the Water Lily we did things up to the queen's taste. I'm not going to bury myself in any backwoods.

I'll quit first."