Produced by Al Haines
[Frontispiece: "I do believe there's Miss Edith at the window!" (p. 25)]
THE ISLAND HOUSE
A Tale for the Young Folks.
BY
F. M. HOLMES,
AUTHOR OF "THE BELL BUOY;" "JACK MARSTON'S ANCHOR;" "THE WHITE SLEDGE,"
ETC.
Publishers
S. W. Partridge & Co., Ltd.
London
1898
_BOOKS IN THE SAME SERIES_
"ROAST POTATOES!"
ONLY A GIRL!
DICK AND HIS DONKEY
RED DAVE
THE LITTLE WOODMAN
A LITTLE TOWN MOUSE
THE ISLAND HOUSE
THE CHILDREN OF THE MARSHES
A DOUBLE VICTORY
LEFT IN CHARGE
A SUNDAY TRIP
"IN A MINUTE!"
FARTHING DIPS
TIMFY SYKES
LONDON
S. W. PARTRIDGE & CO, LTD.
MADE IN GREAT BRITAIN.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
I. OLD MANSY HEARS SOMETHING
II. TO THE LABURNUM TREE
III. THE YOUNG NAVIGATOR
IV. "WHAT HAVE YOU HEARD?"
V. WITH TIED WRISTS
VI. AN UNWELCOME VISITOR
ILLUSTRATIONS
"I do believe there's Miss Edith at the window!" . . . _Frontispiece_
"Alfy and Mansy made quite an enjoyable meal."
"On floated the tub, leaving him alone in the tree!"
"'I wonder if I could undo these knots with my teeth? I will try.'"
THE ISLAND HOUSE.
CHAPTER I.
OLD MANSY HEARS SOMETHING.
"I think I'll get out here, young man."
"All right, missus."
The old carrier stopped his jolting cart--an easy thing to do, for the
wearied horse was glad of the chance of halting--and the passenger
leisurely descended. With her descended also a bulging umbrella and
numerous packages.
"Good night, young man!" she exclaimed. She thought this a very polite
way of addressing men whom she regarded as somewhat beneath her in
social station.
But he did not answer. He was urging on his sleepy horse, and though
it was an easy matter to stop that interesting quadruped, yet it was a
very different thing to make him go on again.
So she started off down a road leading out of the turnpike thoroughfare
on which the carrier was travelling.
She was a tall, somewhat angular woman, with determination written on
her face. In one hand she carried a number of parcels mysteriously
tied together, and in the other hand her very bulgy umbrella, which she
used as a walking stick, and staffed her way with it solemnly along the
dim country road.
It was a summer evening, and there had been a heavy storm during the
day. "Dear! dear! how dirty it be, sure_ly_," she said, as she
proceeded. "Bad enough to be dirty in winter, but in summer it's
disgraceful! Ha! how sweet that woodbine do smell! Now, if I could
get a piece for the children!"
She stopped and began to poke about in the hedge with her bulging
umbrella. At last, after much reaching and pulling, she obtained a
small piece of the sweet-smelling honeysuckle, stuck it in her large,
old-fashioned bonnet, where it nodded like a plume, and pursued her way
in triumph.
"Soon be home now," she said, to encourage herself. "Won't Master Alfy
be pleased with the woodbine!"
Suddenly she paused again. What was that noise?
She was at the corner of a lane branching off from the road she had
been pursuing. Dimly in her ears sounded a low, sullen roar--a roar
something like the murmuring noise of a mighty city heard in a quiet
and distant suburb.
But here was no mighty city. She was deep in the heart of the quiet
country. What was that noise?
"I never heerd the like afore at this place," she muttered to herself.
"Anyhow, I'll get on home. I shan't be long now!"
A few turns in the road brought her in sight of the house. But she
stood suddenly quite still, and stared in amazement and alarm. Was
that indeed the house she had left quite safely in the smiling sunlight
of yesterday morning?
Now, she saw a turbid sheet of water surrounding it; and here and there
the tops of shrubs and trees and hedges, looking strange and melancholy
as they rose out of the flood. The dull roar she had heard previously
now sounded louder than before, but she did not think of that. The
children were her anxiety. "Where are the children?" she cried.
The excitement and alarm wrought upon her feelings, and she screamed
aloud--
"Children! children! Where are the children?"
Perhaps it was the best thing she could have done. Anyhow, it had a
good effect. Lights quickly appeared at the windows, and she heard
shrill, childish voices sounding over the water.
"Mansy! Mansy! is that you? Oh! we are glad you have come! Where
does all the water come from?"
"Are you all safe?" she screamed.
"Yes, yes; but we have scarcely anything to eat."
"I have something in these parcels!" she shouted. "Oh, thank God the
children are all safe!"
"How are you to get here, Mansy?"
That was the difficulty; and Mansy, as she looked at the dull, sullen
water, felt she could not answer the question. First she thought of
boldly plunging in and wading up to the house door. But, strong-nerved
as she was, she shrank from this, and after carefully plumbing the
depth a little way with the bulging umbrella, she shrank from it still
more. It might be too dangerous.
In the dim twilight of that cloudy summer evening she stood on the
water's brink and watched the flood go swaying past. She felt
stupefied and bewildered. Whence came the flood, and how? A more
unexpected thing had never happened to her. And now she knew that the
children were safe, the unexpectedness of it, the amazement of the
whole thing, seemed almost to benumb her senses.
But she soon roused herself, when across the water sounded a shrill
boyish voice, which shouted--"I'll bring you over, Mansy. I'm coming
for you. Look out!"
"Bless the boy! that's my Master Alfy. Whatever is he up to now?"
And the good woman strained her eyes in the direction of the house to
see what her favourite boy was doing.
She heard numerous childish exclamations, shouts, and laughter, and
noises as of something knocking against the walls of the house. Then a
splash!
"Whatever is that boy doing?" cried Mansy. "Don't you get drownded!"
she screamed. "Do take care, Master Alfy! I'd rather stay here all
night than you should come to harm!"
"All right, Mansy dear," shouted the shrill voice of the boy. "I'm
coming, safe and sound, Mansy."
"Now, what is he a-comin' in?" cried the good woman, gazing into the
dusk. She saw the dim outline of something which soon she recognised.
"Why, bless the boy! he's in the big washing tub! My! and how clever
he do manage it!"
Mansy was quite right. The plucky little lad had hit on this expedient
of ferrying the old nurse and housekeeper over the flood to the house!
He had obtained two large kitchen ladles, and with these he was
propelling and guiding the unwieldy round tub, which bobbed about
provokingly on the turbid water, and made but little progress. It
would have been still less, perhaps, but for the fact that the water
flowed from the direction of the house past the old nurse.
But the difficulty the boy had soon to encounter was to guide the tub
to her, for it was in great danger of being carried past. The house
stood in a small valley or depression of ground, which rose to the lane
up which Mansy had been walking. She was now standing on the verge of
the water, which appeared to surround the house entirely, and
completely obliterated the lawn and garden, except for the trees and
shrubs, and the boundary hedge which stood above the turbid flood.
"Now, Mansy, look out!" cried Alfy. And whirling through the air came
a thin rope, which, before she was aware, struck her shoulder.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, "what's that? What are you doing, Alfy?"
"Catch tight hold of it--quick, Mansy!"
Mansy's energy and common-sense were returning, and she was on the
alert in a moment. She caught the rope, and held it firmly. "The new
clothes line!" she exclaimed, "Bless the boy! what next?"
"Pull, Mansy dear, pull!" he shouted. She pulled hard, and the tub
slowly floated towards her.
"That's right; jolly!" exclaimed Alfy, as the tub, with its bright,
brave little burden, came close to Mansy and touched the ground before
her.
"My dear boy," exclaimed the good old woman, "how did this water
happen? And I am so glad to find you all well."
"Yes, all right, Mansy. Now get in the tub, quick! Is it not fun?"
"What! me get in the washing-tub?" she exclaimed. "Oh! I couldn't!"
"Why, yes, Mansy dear; that's what I came for. You'll be all right."
"Why, it wouldn't bear me! We should go to the bottom."
"Oh! nonsense, Mansy! Why, don't you remember at the seaside regatta,
last year men had a race in tubs?"
"Ah! but I'm--I'm--heavier than them men," said Mansy thoughtfully,
looking down on her ample proportions.
"The tub is big," exclaimed Alfy. "It is the biggest we have. We had
a work to get it out of the window; and it made such a splash! Come
on, dear Mansy!"
"I wouldn't do it for nobody but you, Master Alfy!"
"Well, do it for me then, Mansy. I'll take care of you; see if I
don't."
"Anyhow, the parcels might go in. There's something there nice,
Alfy,--a tongue--a nice Paysandoo; and some jam--blackberry and apple
mixed, and some biscuits."
"Oh! jolly! treat! Come on, dear Mansy, let's be quick back."
"Has not the butcher come?" asked the old nurse.
"No; no tradesmen could cross over from the village, nor yet the
postman, and we expected a letter from mother and father. We are all
surrounded by water in the house, just like an island. 'The Island
House' Madge called it!"
"And Miss Madge, and Miss Edie, and Jane are quite well?"
"Yes, quite, dear Mansy. Only do be quick, please."
The old nurse bent over and put the packages into the tub.
"There!" she said, as it dipped, "see how that weighs it down."
"Only a bob down when the parcels fell in," Alfy cried merrily. "See,
it is all right now. You can't get across any other way," he added
decidedly.
"Well, I'll try it," she said slowly; "but I very much doubt----"
She did not finish the sentence, but carefully planting the bulging
umbrella in the water, she leaned on it, and then advanced one foot to
place in the tub. "Oh, I can't!" she cried, just as the foot was over
the side of the tub, and she hastily drew back.
"You _could_, Mansy dear," exclaimed Alfy. "You were just doing it
beautifully!"
"But didn't you see how the tub was going down, Master Alfy?"
"Oh, no, it wasn't; try again, there's a dear!"
So Mansy, persuaded by Alfy, whom she loved like her own son, and
spurred on also by the desire to reach the house, tried again. She
leaned on the umbrella, and slowly advanced her right foot as before,
but this time she plumped it down into the tub.
Down it bobbed, of course, under her weight. "Oh-h-h!" she cried. "I
shall drown you, Alfy!" and hastily she drew back again. "Me in a
tub!" she cried. "I can't!"
"It really is all right," said Alfy again. "It will take us both.
Why, these flat-bottomed things float in ever such a little water. Try
once more, Mansy dear, and then I can give you a kiss."
"I dessay you could, my bonnie baby, and I know you'd do anything to
help your old nurse. You're a real good boy; but go in that rockety
thing I couldn't!"
"Tisn't rickety, Mansy, when once you are inside. Look here," and he
jumped in it, and shook it from side to side. Of course his light
weight was nothing to speak of, and it sat like a cork on the water.
"You take over the parcels to your sisters, Alfy dear, and then they'll
have something to eat."
"No, I'm not going without you, Mansy!" he exclaimed decidedly, pulling
the tub in again by the rope quite close.
"Bless the boy! To think of my little Master Alfy taking his old nurse
in a tub! What would your parients say, on the Continong?"
"Well, it must be, you see, Mansy dear, so please come on!"
"Well, if we do turn over, I'll save you, Master Alfy. So now I'll try
again."
And once more leaning on the umbrella, she put one foot into the tub,
and not caring for its plumping down into the water, this time she
quickly brought the other foot after the first.
"Capital! capital!" cried Alfy. "There, you see, we have not gone
over!"
No, they had not gone over; but he soon found they were not going at
all! The tub was just aground, and would not move without being pushed
off.
So Alfy endeavoured to edge off the clumsy craft with the ladles, and
called on Mansy to help with the indispensable bulgy umbrella. The
moon was now shining, and albeit it was with a wan and watery gleam,
yet it enabled them to see their course a little more clearly.
After strenuous efforts, the large, round tub was gradually got off the
ground, and actually floated. "Hurrah!" shouted the brave little Alfy.
"Now for Island House!"
But try as he would he could not make the heavily laden craft float
towards the house. His paddles were too small, or he had not power
enough to make the best use of them, and slowly the current bore him
away.
Then he called on Mansy to help, but, good woman, she no more knew how
to paddle a tub properly than to fly to the moon! Their efforts
perhaps slightly retarded the progress of the strange craft, but could
not alter its course.
"I'll try the rope," cried Alfy in desperation. "Madge! Jane!" he
shouted, "look out!"
He threw the rope, but, of course, it fell far short of the house. A
moment's reflection would have shown him that it could not possibly
reach the window where stood his sisters and the servant maid.
They saw the difficulty now, and screamed aloud, while Mansy
endeavoured to shout back reassuring answers.
"It's no use," said Alfy, crouching down in the tub, "we are floating
away. We cannot get to the house. What shall we do now?"