THE DIFFICULTIES OF GETTING UNDER WAY.
How that week flew! How busy was everybody concerned in the cruise of
the wonderful Water Lily!
Early on the morning after his arrival, Jim Barlow repaired to Halcyon
Point, taking an expert engineer with him, as Aunt Betty had insisted,
and from that time till the Water Lily sailed he spent every moment of
his waking hours in studying his engine and its management. At the end
he felt fully competent to handle it safely and was as impatient as
Dorothy herself to be off; and, at last, here they all were waiting on
the little pier for the word of command or, as it appeared, for one
tardy arrival.
From her own comfortable steamer-chair, Aunt Betty watched the
gathering of the company and wondered if anybody except Dolly could
have collected such a peculiar lot of contrasts. But the girl was
already "calling the roll" and she listened for the responses as they
came.
"Mrs. Elisabeth Cecil Somerset Calvert?"
"Present!"
"Mrs. Charlotte Bruce?"
"Here."
"Mabel Bruce?"
"Present!"
"Elsa Carruthers?"
"Oh! I--don't know--I guess--." But a firm voice, her father's,
answered for the hesitating girl, whose timidity made her shrink from
all these strangers.
"Aurora Blank? Gerald Blank?"
"Oh, we're both right on hand, don't you know? Pop's pride rather
stood in the way, but--Present!"
"Mr. Ephraim Brown-Calvert?"
The old man bowed profoundly and answered:
"Yeah 'm I, li'l miss!"
"That ends the passengers. Now for the crew. Captain Jack Hurry?"
Nobody responded. Whoever owned the rapid name was slow to claim it.
But Dorothy smiled and proceeded. "Cap'n Jack" was a surprise of her
own. He would keep for a time.
"Engineer James Barlow?"
"At his post!"
"Master Engineer, John Stinson?"
"Present!" called that person, laughing. He was Jim's instructor and
would see them down the bay and into the quiet river where they would
make their first stop.
"Mrs. Chloe Brown, assistant chef and dishwasher?"
"Yeah 'm I?" returned the only one of Aunt Betty's household-women who
dared to trust herself on board a boat "to lib." She was Methuselah's
mother and as his imposing name was read, answered for him; while the
"cabin boy and general utility man" ducked his woolly head beneath her
skirts, for once embarrassed by the attention he received.
"Miss Calvert, did you know that you make the thirteenth person?"
asked Aurora Blank, who had kept tally on her white-gloved fingers.
"I hope I do--there's 'luck in odd numbers' one hears. But I'm
not--I'm not! Auntie, Jim, look yonder--quick! It's Melvin! It surely
is!"
With a cry of delight Dorothy now rushed down the pier to where a
street-car had just stopped and a lad alighted. She clasped his hands
and fairly pumped them up and down in her eagerness, but she didn't
offer to kiss him though she wanted to do so. She remembered in time
that the young Nova Scotian was even shyer than James Barlow and
mustn't be embarrassed. But her questions came swiftly enough, though
his answers were disappointing.
However, she led him straight to Mrs. Calvert, his one-time hostess at
Deerhurst, and there was now no awkward shyness in his respectful
greeting of her, and the acknowledgment he made to the general
introductions which followed.
Seating himself on a rail close to Mrs. Betty's chair he explained his
presence.
"The Judge sent me to Baltimore on some errands of his own, and after
they were done I was to call upon you, Madam, and say why her father
couldn't spare Miss Molly so soon again. He missed her so much, I
fancy, while she was at San Leon ranch, don't you know, and she is to
go away to school after a time--that's why. But----"
The lad paused, colored, and was seized by a fit of his old
bashfulness. He had improved wonderfully during the year since he had
been a member of "Dorothy's House Party" and had almost conquered that
fault. No boy could be associated for so long a time with such a man
as Judge Breckenridge and fail to learn much; but it wasn't easy to
offer himself as a substitute for merry Molly, which he had really
arrived to do.
However, Dolly was quick to understand and caught his hands again,
exclaiming:
"You're to have your vacation on our Water Lily! I see, I see! Goody!
Aunt Betty, isn't that fine? Next to Molly darling I'd rather have
you."
Everybody laughed at this frank statement, even Dolly herself; yet
promptly adding the name of Melvin Cook to her list of passengers.
Then as he walked forward over the plank to where Jim Barlow smilingly
awaited him, carrying his small suit-case--his only luggage, she
called after him:
"I hope you brought your bugle! Then we can have 'bells' for time, as
on the steamer!"
He nodded over his shoulder and Dorothy strained her eyes toward the
next car approaching over the street line, while Mrs. Calvert asked:
"For whom are we still waiting, child? Why don't we go aboard and
start?"
"For dear old Cap'n Jack! He's coming now, this minute."
All eyes followed hers and beheld an old man approaching. Even at
that distance his wrinkled face was so shining with happiness and
good nature that they smiled too. He wore a very faded blue uniform
made dazzlingly bright by scores of very new brass buttons. His white
hair and beard had been closely trimmed, and the discarded cap of a
street-car conductor crowned his proudly held head. The cap was
adorned in rather shaky letters of gilt: "Water Lily. Skipper."
Though he limped upon crutches he gave these supports an airy
flourish between steps, as if he scarcely needed them but carried
them for ornaments. Nobody knew him, except Dorothy; not even Ephraim
recognizing in this almost dapper stranger the ragged vagrant he had
once seen on a street car.
But Dorothy knew and ran to meet him--"last but not least of all our
company, good Cap'n Jack, Skipper of the Water Lily."
Then she brought him to Aunt Betty and formally presented him,
expressing by nods and smiles that she would "explain him" later on.
Afterward, each and all were introduced to "our Captain," at whom some
stared rather rudely, Aurora even declining to acknowledge the
presentation.
"Captain Hurry, we're ready to embark. Is that the truly nautical way
to speak? Because, you know, we long to be real sailors on this cruise
and talk real sailor-talk. We cease to be 'land lubbers' from this
instant. Kind Captain, lead ahead!" cried Dorothy, in a very gale of
high spirits and running to help Aunt Betty on the way.
But there was no hurry about this skipper, except his name. With an
air of vast importance and dignity he stalked to the end of the pier
and scanned the face of the water, sluggishly moving to and fro. Then
he pulled out a spy glass, somewhat damaged in appearance, and tried
to adjust it to his eye. This was more difficult because the lens was
broken; but the use of it, the old man reckoned, would be imposing on
his untrained crew, and he had expended his last dollar--presented him
by some old cronies--in the purchase of the thing at a junk shop by
the waterside. Indeed, the Captain's motions were so deliberate, and
apparently, senseless, that Aunt Betty lost patience and indignantly
demanded:
"Dorothy, who is this old humbug you've picked up? You quite
forgot--or didn't forget--to mention him when you named your guests."
"No, Auntie, I didn't forget. I kept him as a delightful surprise. I
knew you'd feel so much safer with a real captain in charge."
"Humph! Who told you he was a captain, or had ever been afloat?"
"Why--he did;" answered the girl, under her breath. "I--I met him on a
car. He used to own a boat. He brought oysters to the city. I think it
was a--a bugeye, some such name. Auntie, don't you like him? I'm so
sorry! because you said, you remember, that I might choose all to go
and to have a real captain who'll work for nothing but his
'grub'--that's food, he says----"
"That will do. For the present I won't turn him off, but I think his
management of the Water Lily will be brief. On a quiet craft--Don't
look so disappointed. I shall not hurt your skipper's feelings though
I'll put up with no nonsense."
At that moment the old man had decided to go aboard and leading the
way with a gallant flourish of crutches, guided them into the cabin,
or saloon, and made his little speech.
"Ladies and gents, mostly ladies, welcome to my new ship--the Water
Lily. Bein' old an' seasoned in the knowledge of navigation I'll do my
duty to the death. Anybody wishin' to consult me will find me on the
bridge."
With a wave of his cap the queer old fellow stumped away to the
crooked stairway, which he climbed by means of the baluster instead of
the steps, his crutches thump-thumping along behind him.
By "bridge" he meant the forward point of the upper deck, or roof of
the cabin, and there he proceeded to rig up a sort of "house" with
pieces of the awning in which there had been inserted panes of glass.
But the effect of his address was to put all these strangers at ease,
for none could help laughing at his happy pomposity, and after people
laugh together once stiffness disappears.
Gerald Blank promptly followed Melvin Cook to Jim's little engine-room
on the tender, and the colored folks as promptly followed him. Their
own bunks were to be on the small boat and Chloe was anxious to see
what they were like.
Then Mrs. Bruce roused from her silence and asked Aunt Betty about the
provisions that had been brought on board and where she might find
them. She had been asked to join the party as housekeeper, really for
Mabel's sake, from whom she couldn't be separated now, and because
Dorothy had argued:
"That dear woman loves to cook better than anything else. She always
did. Now she hasn't anybody left to cook for, 'cept Mabel, and she'll
forget to cry when she has to get a dinner for lots of hungry
sailors."
The first sight of Mrs. Bruce's sad face, that morning, had been most
depressing; and she was relieved to find a change in its aspect as the
woman roused to action. There hadn't been much breakfast eaten by
anybody and Dorothy had begged her old friend to:
"Just give us lots of goodies, this first meal, Mrs. Bruce, no matter
if we have to do with less afterwards. You see--three hundred dollars
isn't so very much----"
"It seems a lot to me, now," sighed the widow.
But Dorothy went on quickly:
"And it's every bit there is. When the last penny goes we'll have to
stop, even if the Lily is right out in the middle of the ocean."
"Pshaw, Dolly! I thought you weren't going out of sight of land!"
"Course, we're not. That is--we shall never go anywhere if my skipper
doesn't start. I'll run up to his bridge and see what's the matter.
You see I don't like to offend him at the beginning of things and
though Jim Barlow is really to manage the boat, I thought it would
please the old gentleman to be put in charge, too."
"Foolish girl, don't you know that there can't be two heads to any
management?" returned the matron, now really smiling. "It's an odd
lot, a job lot, seems to me, of widows and orphans and cripples and
rich folks all jumbled together in one little house-boat. More 'n
likely you'll find yourself in trouble real often amongst us all. That
old chap above is mighty pleasant to look at now, but he's got too
square a jaw to be very biddable, especially by a little girl like
you."
"But, Mrs. Bruce, he's so poor. Why, just for a smell of salt
water--or fresh either--he's willing to sail this Lily; just for the
sake of being afloat and--his board, course. He'll have to eat, but he
told me that a piece of sailor's biscuit and a cup of warmed over tea
would be all he'd ever 'ax' me. I told him right off then I couldn't
pay him wages and he said he wouldn't touch them if I could. Think of
that for generosity!"
"Yes, I'm thinking of it. Your plans are all right--I hope they'll
turn out well. A captain for nothing, an engineer the same, a
housekeeper who's glad to cook for the sake of her daughter's
pleasure, and the rest of the crew belonging--so no more wages to earn
than always. Sounds--fine. By the way, Dorothy, who deals out the
provisions on this trip?"
"Why, you do, of course, Mrs. Bruce, if you'll be so kind. Aunt Betty
can't be bothered and I don't know enough. Here's a key to the
'lockers,' I guess they call the pantries; and now I _must_ make that
old man give the word to start! Why, Aunt Betty thought we'd get as
far as Annapolis by bed-time. She wants to cruise first on the Severn
river. And we haven't moved an inch yet!"
"Well, I'll go talk with Chloe about dinner. She'll know best what'll
suit your aunt."
Dorothy was glad to see her old friend's face brighten with a sense
of her own importance, as "stewardess" for so big a company of
"shipmates," and slipping her arm about the lady's waist went with her
to the "galley," or tiny cook-room on the tender. There she left her,
with strict injunctions to Chloe not to let her "new mistress"
overtire herself.
It was Aunt Betty's forethought which had advised this, saying:
"Let Chloe understand, in the beginning, that she is the helper--not
the chief."
Leaving them to examine and delight in the compact arrangements of the
galley she sped up the crooked stair to old Captain Jack. To her
surprise she found him anything but the sunny old fellow who had
strutted aboard, and he greeted her with a sharp demand:
"Where's them papers at?"
"Papers? What papers?"
"Ship's papers, child alive? Where's your gumption at?"
Dorothy laughed and seated herself on a camp-stool beside him.
"Reckon it must be 'at' the same place as the 'papers.' I certainly
don't understand you."
"Land a sissy! 'Spect we'd be let to sail out o' port 'ithout showin'
our licenses? Not likely; and the fust thing a ship's owner ought to
'tend to is gettin' a clean send off. For my part, I don't want to hug
this dock no longer. I want to take her out with the tide, I do."
Dorothy was distressed. How much or how little this old captain of an
oyster boat knew about this matter, he was evidently in earnest and
angry with somebody--herself, apparently.
"If we had any papers, and we haven't--who'd we show them to, anyway?"
Captain Hurry looked at her as if her ignorance were beyond belief.
Then his good nature made him explain:
"What's a wharf-master for, d'ye s'pose? When you hand 'em over I'll
see him an' up anchor."
But, at that moment, Mr. Carruthers himself appeared on the roof of
the cabin, demanding:
"What's up, Cap'n Jack? Why don't you start--if it's you who's to
manage this craft, as you claim? If you don't cut loose pretty quick,
my Elsa will get homesick and desert."
The skipper rose to his feet, or his crutches, and retorted:
"Can't clear port without my dockyments, an' you know it! Where they
at?"
"Safe in the locker meant for them, course. Young Barlow has all that
are necessary and a safe keeper of them, too. Better give up this
nonsense and let him go ahead. Easier for you, too, Cap'n, and
everything's all right. Good-bye, Miss Dorothy. I'll slip off again
without seeing Elsa, and you understand? If she gets too homesick for
me, or is ill, or--anything happens, telegraph me from wherever you
are and I'll come fetch her. Good-bye."
He was off the boat in an instant and very soon the Water Lily had
begun her trip. The engineer, Mr. Stinson, was a busy man and made
short work of Captain Hurry's fussiness. He managed the start
admirably, Jim and the other lads watching him closely, and each
feeling perfectly capable of doing as much--or as little--as he. For
it seemed so very simple; the turning of a crank here, another there,
and the thing was done.
However, they didn't reach Annapolis that night, as Mrs. Calvert had
hoped. Only a short distance down the coast they saw signs of a storm
and the lady grew anxious at once.
"O Dolly! It's going to blow, and this is no kind of a boat to face a
gale. Tell somebody, anybody, who is real captain of this Lily, to get
to shore and anchor her fast. She must be tied to something strong. I
never sailed on such a craft before nor taken the risk of caring for
so many lives. Make haste."
This was a new spirit for fearless Aunt Betty to show and, although
she herself saw no suggestions of a gale in the clouding sky,
Dorothy's one desire was to make that dear lady happy. So, to the
surprise of the engineers, she gave her message, that was practically
a command, and a convenient beach being near it was promptly obeyed.
"O, Mr. Captain, stop the ship--I want to get out and walk!" chanted
Gerald Blank, in irony; "Is anybody seasick? Has the wild raging of
the Patapsco scared the lady passengers? I brought a lemon in my
pocket----"
But Dorothy frowned at him and he stopped.
"It is Mrs. Calvert's wish," said the girl, with emphasis.
"But Pop would laugh at minding a few black clouds. He built the Water
Lily to stand all sorts of weather. Why, he had her out in one of the
worst hurricanes ever blew on the Chesapeake and she rode it out as
quiet as a lamb. Fact. I wasn't with him, course, but I heard him
tell. I say, Miss Dolly, Stinson's got to leave us, to-night, anyway,
or early to-morrow morning. I wish you'd put me in command. I do
so, don't you know. I understand everything about a boat. Pop has
belonged to the best clubs all his life and I'm an 'Ariel' myself--on
probation; that is, I've been proposed, only not voted on yet, and
I could sail this Lily to beat the band. Aw, come! Won't you?" he
finished coaxingly.
John Stinson was laughing, yet at the same time, deftly swinging both
boats toward the shore; while Jim Barlow's face was dark with anger,
Cap'n Jack was nervously thumping his crutches up and down, and even
gentle Melvin had retreated as far from the spot as the little tender
allowed. His shoulders were hunched in the fashion which showed him,
also, to be provoked and, for an instant Dorothy was distressed. Then
the absurdity of the whole matter made her laugh.
"Seems if everybody wants to be captain, on this bit of a ship that
isn't big enough for one real one! Captain Hurry, Captain Barlow,
Captain Blank, Captain Cook----"
"What do Barlow and Cook know about the water? One said he was a
'farmer,' and the other a 'lawyer's clerk'----"
"But a lawyer's clerk that's sailed the ocean, mind you, Gerald.
Melvin's a sailor-lad in reality, and the son of a sailor. You needn't
gibe at Melvin. As for Jim, he's the smartest boy in the world. He
understands everything about engines and machinery, and--Why, he can
take a sewing-machine to pieces, all to pieces, and put it together as
good as new. He did that for mother Martha and Mrs. Smith back home on
the mountain, and at San Leon, last summer, he helped Mr. Ford decide
on the way the new mine should be worked, just by the books he'd
studied. Think of that! And Mr. Ford's a railroad man himself and is
as clever as he can be. He knows mighty well what's what and he trusts
our Jim----"
"Dorothy, shut up!"
This from Jim, that paragon she had so praised! The effect was a
sudden silence and a flush of anger on her own face. If the lad had
struck her she couldn't have been more surprised, nor when Melvin
faced about and remarked:
"Better stow this row. If Captain Murray, that I sailed under on the
'Prince,' heard it he'd say there'd be serious trouble before we saw
land again. If we weren't too far out he'd put back to port and set
every wrangler ashore and ship new hands. It's awful bad luck to fight
at sea, don't you know?"
Sailors are said to be superstitious and Melvin had caught some of
their notions and recalled them now. He had made a longer speech than
common and colored a little as he now checked himself. Fortunately he
just then caught Mrs. Bruce's eye and understood from her gestures
that dinner was ready to serve. Then from the little locker he had
appropriated to his personal use, he produced his bugle and hastily
blew "assembly."
The unexpected sound restored peace on the instant. Dorothy clapped
her hands and ran to inform Aunt Betty:
"First call for dinner; and seats not chosen yet!"
All unknown to her two tables had been pulled out from somewhere in
the boat's walls and one end of the long saloon had been made a
dining-room. The tables were as neatly spread as if in a stationary
house and chairs had been placed beside them on one side, while the
cushioned benches which ran along the wall would seat part of the
diners.
With his musical signals, Melvin walked the length of the Water
Lily and climbed the stairs to cross the "promenade deck," as the
awning-covered roof was always called. As he descended, Aunt Betty
called him to the little room off one end the cabin, which was her
own private apartment, and questioned him about his bugle.
"Yes, Madam, it's the one you gave me at Deerhurst, at the end of
Dorothy's house-party. My old one I gave Miss Molly, don't you know?
Because she happened to fancy--on account of her hearing it in the
Nova Scotia woods, that time she was lost. It wasn't worth anything,
but she liked it. Yours, Madam, is fine. I often go off for a walk and
have a try at it, just to keep my hand in and to remind me of old
Yarmouth. Miss Molly begged me to fetch it. She said Miss Dolly would
be pleased and I fancy she is."
Then again conquering his shyness, he offered his arm to the lady and
conducted her to dinner. There was no difficulty in seeing what place
was meant for her, because of the fine chair that was set before it
and the big bunch of late roses at her plate. These were from the
Bellvieu garden, and were another of Dolly's "surprises."
As Melvin led her to her chair and bowed in leaving her, old Ephraim
placed himself behind it and stood ready to serve her as he had
always done, wherever she might happen to be.
Then followed a strange thing. Though Mrs. Bruce and Chloe had
prepared a fine meal, and the faces of all in the place showed
eagerness to enjoy it, not one person moved; but each stood as rigid
as possible and as if he or she would so remain for the rest of the
day.
Only Dorothy. She had paused between the two tables and was
half-crying, half-laughing over the absurd dilemma which had presented
itself.
"Why, good people, what's the matter?" asked Mrs. Calvert, glancing
from one to another. But nobody answered; and at this mark of
disrespect she colored and stiffened herself majestically in her
chair.