IN WHICH I ACQUIRE A FRIEND
We proceeded, therefore, through the wood, sweet in the dew of
morning, among many twittering birds, and so came, presently, to the
end of my path, where the little gate shuts it off from my mowing
meadow; at the upper end of which, it may be remembered, the good ship
_Sea Rover_ lay anchored. The grass stood waist-high and wet in the
dew as we turned along the meadow side, and L'Olonnois flinched a bit,
although Lafitte waded along carelessly.
I observed that each boy had now thrust into his hat band a turkey
feather, picked up, en route, along my field's edge. Jimmy was not
sure of the correctness of this; and admitted that, sometimes, he had
read literature having to do with Indian fighting, as well as
piratical enterprises. I suggested that, to my mind, nothing quite
took the place of the regulation red kerchief bound about the head;
whereat, gravely, both L'Olonnois and Lafitte discarded their hats and
feathers, for the bandannas which I proffered them. Having bound these
about their foreheads, a great courage and confidence came to them.
L'Olonnois drew his sword, and with some care placed the blade
between his teeth. "Hist!" exclaimed Lafitte, himself swept by his
friend's imagination, and preparing to place his cutlass in his mouth
also. "Let us approach the vessel with care, lest the enemy be about."
So saying, each pirate with a mouthful of cold steel, and a hand
shading his red-kerchiefed brow, stole through my clump of birches
toward the bend, where the boat had first surprised me; myself
following, somewhat put to it to refrain from laughter, although one
rarely laughs in the young hours of the day, and myself rarely, at
all.
We were greeted by no hostile shot, and found our vessel quite as we
had left her, as I could see at a glance when we neared the bank; but,
none the less, something stirred in the bushes. A growl and a sudden
barking, greeted Hiroshimi as he approached the boat in advance.
"You, Tige!" called out Lafitte. The dog--a dog none too beautiful,
and now just a bit forlorn--approached us, alternately wagging in
friendship and retreating in alarm.
"Well, what do you think of that!" said Jimmy. "We left him back at
the lake--sent him home half a dozen times. How'd he get here, and
how'd he know where we was?"
"He couldn't a-swum the lake," assented John. "And it was more'n ten
miles around; and how could he smell where we went, on the water? Come
here, Tige, you blame fool!"
"Nay," said I, "he is no fool, this dog, but a creature of great
reason, else he never could have found you. And I'll be bound he is as
keen for adventure as any of us."
"He is coming here last night two ow-wore after dinner," said the
omniscient Hiroshimi. "Also he bite me on leg. He, also, is
malefactor."
"He has allotted to himself the duty of caring for the property of his
masters, Hiro," I said, "and hence is not really a malefactor.
Besides, since he would not leave the boat and follow our trail, he is
by this time hungry. Feed him, Hiro."
But Hiroshimi was not eager to approach the piratical canine again; so
I, myself, fished something from a hamper and called the dog to me. He
ate gladly and most gratefully.
Now, it is a strange thing to say, but it is the truth, I had never
before in my life fed a dog! I had won many knotty suits at law, had
solved many hard problems dealing with human nature--and had found
human nature for the most part rarely glad or grateful--but I have
never owned or even fed a dog. A strange new feeling came in my throat
now. Suddenly I swallowed some invisible intangible thing.
"John," said I, "what breed of dog is this?" Indeed, it was hard to
tell offhand, although he had the keen head of a collie.
"I guess he's just one o' them partial dogs," answered John, "mostly
shepherd, maybe; I dunno."
"Very well, Partial shall be his name. And is he yours?"
"He runs round on the farm. He goes with Jimmy an' me."
"John, will you sell me Partial?" I asked this suddenly, realizing
that my voice might sound odd.
"What'd ye want him fer?" he replied. "He'd be a nuisance."
"I think not. See how faithful he has been, see how grateful he is;
and how wise. He reasoned where you were as well as I reasoned who you
were. He knows now that we are talking about him, and knows that I am
his friend--see him look at me; see him come over and stand by me.
John, do you think--do you believe a dog, this dog, would learn to
like me, ever? Would he understand me?"
"Well," said John judicially, standing sword in hand, "I dunno.
Someways, maybe dogs and boys understands quicker. But you understand
us. Maybe he'd understand you."
"Well reasoned, Jean Lafitte," said I, "perhaps your logic is better
than you know, at least, I hope so. And now I offer you yonder
magazine pistol as your own in fee, if you will sign over to me all
your right, title and interest, in Partial, here. Evidently he belongs
with us. He seems to care for us. And I experience some odd sort of
feeling, which I can not quite describe. Perhaps it is only that I
feel like a boy, and one that is going to own a dog. Is it a bargain?"
"Sure! You c'n have him for nuthin'," said Lafitte. "He ain't worth
nothin'. Besides, I can't charge a brother of the flag anything;
anyhow, not you." I inferred that Jean Lafitte, also, was going to
grow up into one of those men like myself, cursed with a reticence and
shyness in some matters, and so winning a reputation of oddness or
coldness, against all the real and passionate protest of his own soul.
"No, brother," I said to him: "I'll not offer you trade, but gift. Let
it be that if I can win the dog, and if he will take me as his master
and friend, he shall be mine. And you take the pistol, and have a care
of it."
"That's all right!" said Lafitte shyly, yet delightedly, as I could
see.
"Here, Partial!" I called to the dog; and being young and friendly,
and attached to neither in particular, and only in general worshiping
the creature Boy, he came to me! I fed him, stroked him, looked into
his eyes. And in a few moments he put his feet on my shoulders, and
licked at my ear, and began to talk to me in low eager whines, and
rubbed his muzzle against my cheek, and said all that a dog could say
in oath of feudal service, pledging loyalty of life and limb. At which
I felt very odd indeed; and began to see the world had many things in
it of which I had never known; but which, now, I was resolved to know.
"Honorable is embarking those malefactor canine thing with so much
impediments in this small-going boat?" inquired Hiroshimi.
"Yes," I answered. "At once. All four of us. Put the stuff aboard,
Hiro."
So, somewhat crowded as the _Sea Rover_ was, with three boys and a
dog, not to mention our supplies and our armament, at last we were
afloat with crew and cargo aboard. Hiro was not surprised, and asked
no questions. With the salaam with which he announced dinner, he now
announced his own departure for his duties at my deserted house; and
as he walked he never turned around for curious gaze. Often, often
have I, in my readings in the Eastern philosophy, endeavored to
analyze and to emulate this Oriental calm, this dismissal from the
soul of things small, things unessential and things unavoidable. An
enviable character, my boy Hiroshimi.
Now all was bustle and confusion aboard the good ship _Sea Rover_.
"Stand by the main braces!" roared Lafitte.
"Aye, aye, Sir!" replied the crew, that is to say, Jimmy L'Olonnois.
"Hard a lee!"
"Hard a lee it is, Sir!"
"Hoist the top-gallant mainsail an' clew all alow an' aloft!"
"Aye, aye, Sir!"
"Man the capstan! All hands to the starboard mizzen chains! Heave
away!"
"Heave away!" rejoined our gallant crew, never for a moment in doubt
as to the captain's meaning. And, indeed, he gave a push with an oar
at the bank, which thrust us into the smart current of my little
river.
We were afloat! We were off to seek our fortune!
[Illustration: I, too, stood, shading my eyes with my hand]
Ah, what a fine new world was this which lay before us! But for one
thing, this had no doubt been the happiest moment in my life. For,
always, the attaining of knowledge, the growth of a man's mind and
soul, had to me seemed the one ambition worth a man's while; and now,
as I might well be assured, I had learned more and grown more,
these last twelve hours or so, than I had in any twelve years of my
life before. Before me, indeed, had opened a vast and wonderful world.
That morning, as we swept around curve after curve of the swift
trout-stream that I loved so well, among my alders, through my bits of
wood, along my hills--with Lafitte and L'Olonnois standing, each
alert, silent, peering ahead under his flat hand to see what might lie
ahead (I astern with Partial's head on my knee), I felt rise in my
soul the same sweet grateful feeling that I had when the new world of
music opened to me, what time I first caught the real meaning of the
_Fruehlingslied_. My heart leaped anew in my bosom, for the time
forgetting its sadness. I saw that the world after all does hold faith
and loyalty and friendship and perpetual, self-renewing Youth.... I
also rose, cast my hat aside, and with one hand reaching down to touch
my friend's head, I, too, stood, shading my eyes with my edged hand,
peering ahead into this strange new world that lay ahead of me.