“MOTHER,” said Roger, swinging in at the door and catching up the baby
for a toss, “I am going to begin Physical Geography! And teacher says
I must have a book, please, as soon as I can get it. It costs two
dollars, and it’s just _full_ of pictures, oh, _so_ interesting! And
may I get it to-day, please, mother?”
“Mother” looked up with a sad little loving smile. “Dear heart,” she
said, “I have not two dollars in the world just now, unless I take them
from the money I am saving for your new suit, and I hardly ought to do
that, my poor Roger!”
Roger looked down with a rueful whistle at his clothes, which, though
clean, were patched and darned to the utmost limit.
“I’m afraid the Patent Mosaic Suit _is_ rather past the bloom of
youth,” he said, cheerily. “Never mind, mammy! Perhaps Will Almy will
lend me his book, sometimes, or I can study in recess out of Miss
Black’s. Don’t worry, anyhow, but catch Miss Dumpling here, while I go
and bring in some water.”
Mrs. Rayne sighed deeply, as Roger set the baby on her lap and darted
out of the house. She knew it was to hide his face of disappointment
that the boy had gone off so hurriedly.
Poor Roger! so bright, so eager to learn, he ought to have a first-rate
education! But how could she, a widow with four children on a tiny
farm, give it to him? Bread and butter and decent clothing must come
first, and these were hard enough to win, even though she worked all
day and half the night for them. Education must be picked up as it
could.
The little woman shook her head and sighed again, as she put Miss
Dumpling on the floor with a button-string to play with, and took up
the pile of mending.
But Roger, though he was disappointed, had no idea of giving up the
Physical Geography. Not a bit of it!
“Mother cannot get it for me,” he said, as he turned away at the
windlass of the old well. “Very well, then, I must get it myself. The
only question is, how?”
Up came the brimming bucket, and, as he stooped to lift it, he saw
in the clear water the reflection of a bright, anxious face, with
inquiring eyes and a resolute mouth. “Don’t be afraid, old fellow!” he
said, with a reassuring nod. “‘How?’ is a short question, and I am sure
to find the answer before the day is out,” and, whistling merrily, he
went off to water the garden.
That evening, just as the sun was sinking, all golden and glorious
beneath the horizon, a boat pushed out from among the reeds that
fringed Pleasant Pond. It was a rough little dory of no particular
model, painted a dingy green, but its crew was apparently well
satisfied with it. One boy sat in the stern and paddled sturdily:
another crouched in the bow, scanning the reeds with a critical air,
while between them sat a little fair-haired maiden, leaning over the
side and singing, as she dipped her hands in the clear, dark water.
“Here’s a fine bunch of cat-tails!” cried Roger. “Shove her in here,
Joe!”
Joe obeyed, and Roger’s knife was soon at work cutting the stately
reeds, with their sceptre-tips of firm, brown velvet.
“Oh, and here are the lilies!” cried little Annet. “See, Roger! see!
all white and gold, the lovely things! Oh, let me pull them!”
In another moment, the boat seemed to be resting on a living carpet of
snow and gold. The lilies grew so thick that one could hardly see the
water between them. Roger and Annet drew them in by handfuls, laying
them in glistening piles in the bottom of the boat, and soon Joe laid
down his paddle, and joined in the picking.
“Some pooty, be n’t they?” he said. “What d’ye cal’late ter sell ’em
for, Roger?”
“For whatever I can get,” replied Roger, cheerfully. “I’ve never tried
it before, but I know that plenty of boys do take them to the city from
other ponds and streams. We are a little farther off, but I never saw
any lilies so large as ours.”
“Nor so sweet!” cried Annet, burying her rosy face in the golden heart
of a snowy cup. “Oh, how I love them!”
How the lilies must have wondered at the adventures that befell them
after this! All night they lay in a great tub of water, which was well
enough, though there was no mud in it. Then, at daybreak next morning
they were taken out and laid on a bed of wet moss and covered with wet
burdock leaves. Then came a long period of jolting, when the world went
bumping up and down with a noise of creaking and rumbling, broken by
the sound of human voices.
Finally, and suddenly, they emerged into the full glare of the sun,
and found themselves in a new world altogether,—a street corner in a
great city; tall buildings, glittering windows, crowds of men and women
hurrying to and fro like ants about an ant-hill. Only the cool, wet
moss beneath them, and the sight of their old friends, the cat-tails,
standing like sentinels beside them, kept the lilies from fainting away
altogether.
Roger looked eagerly about him, scanning the faces of the passers-by.
Would this one buy? or that one? that pretty lady, who looked like a
lily herself? He held out a bunch timidly, and the lady smiled and
stopped.
“How lovely and fresh! Thank you!” and the first piece of silver
dropped into Roger’s pocket, and chinked merrily against his
jackknife. Then another young lady carried off a huge bunch of
cat-tails, and a second piece of silver jingled against the first.
Soon another followed it, and another, and another, and Roger’s eyes
danced, and his hopes rose higher and higher.
At this rate, the Physical Geography would be his, beyond a doubt. He
saw it already,—the smooth green covers, the delightful maps within,
the pictures of tropical countries, of monkeys and cocoanuts, elephants
and—THUMP! His dream was rudely broken in upon by a gentleman running
against him and nearly knocking him over,—an old gentleman, with
fierce, twinkling eyes and a bushy gray beard.
“What! what!” sputtered the old gentleman, pettishly. “Get out of my
way, boy! My fault! beg your pardon!” Roger moved aside, bewildered by
the sudden shock.
“Will you buy some Physical Geographies, sir?” he asked. “See how fresh
they are? They are the loveliest—”
“This boy is a lunatic!” said the old gentleman, fiercely, “and ought
to be shut up. How dare you talk to me about Physical Geography, sir?”
Roger stared at him blankly, and then grew crimson with shame and
confusion. “I—I beg your pardon, sir!” he faltered, “I _meant_ to say
‘lilies.’ I was thinking so hard about the geography that it slipped
out without my knowing it. I suppose. I—”
“What! what!” cried the old gentleman, catching him by his arm.
“Thinking about Physical Geography, hey? What d’ye mean? This is a
remarkable boy. Come here, sir! come here!”
He dragged Roger to one side, and made him sit down beside him on
a convenient doorstep. “What d’ye mean?” he repeated, fixing his
piercing gray eyes upon the boy in a manner which made him feel very
uncomfortable. “What do you know about Physical Geography?”
“Nothing yet, sir,” replied Roger, modestly. “But I am very anxious to
study it, and I am selling these lilies and cat-tails to try and get
money enough to buy the book.”
“This is a _most_ remarkable boy!” cried the old gentleman. “What
geography is it you want, hey? Merton’s, I’ll warrant. Trash, sir!
unspeakable trash!”
“No, sir; Willison’s,” replied the boy, thinking that the old gentleman
was certainly crazy.
But on hearing this, his strange companion seized him by the hand, and
shook it warmly. “I am Willison!” he exclaimed. “It is my Geography!
You are a singularly intelligent boy. I am glad to meet you.”
Roger stared in blank wonderment. “Did—did you write the Physical
Geography, sir?” he stammered, finally.
“To be sure I did!” said the old gentleman, “and a good job it was!
While that ass Merton,—here! here!” he cried, fumbling in his pockets,
“give me the lilies, and take that!” and he thrust a shining silver
dollar into Roger’s hand. “And here!” he scribbled something on a card,
“take that, and go to Cooper, the publisher, and see what he says to
you. You are an astonishing boy! Good-by! God bless you! You have done
me good. I was suffering from dyspepsia when I met you,—atrocious
tortures! All gone now! Bless you!”
He was gone, and Roger Rayne was sitting alone on the steps, with the
dollar in one hand, and the card in the other, as bewildered a boy as
any in Boston town.
When he recovered his senses a little, he looked at the card and read,
in breezy, straggling letters, “Give to the astonishing boy who brings
this, a copy of my Physical Geography. Best binding. William Willison.”