LITTLE CAL AND HIS MERMAID.
Two days after that on which the gloom of the Rangers was so
miraculously changed to extravagant joy, the keel sloop _Millgirl_
hoisted her well-patched sails, and began to drop down with the current
of the river. From her tall top-masthead fluttered the red-axe flag of
the Ready Rangers, while on her deck was gathered the most
remarkable-looking crew ever seen off the stage of a theatre. Without a
doubt as to its being the correct thing, every boy who had borne a part
in _Blue Billows_ now appeared in the costume he had worn in that
realistic sea-drama; while those who had not been thus fortunate had
made such alterations in their every-day garments as seemed to them most
nautical and appropriate. Thus Cracker Bob Jones's tall figure was
arrayed in the white duck trousers, short blue flannel jacket,
patent-leather pumps, and straw hat with long ribbon ends of Jack
Jackstraw. The effect of little Cal Moody's midshipmite costume of blue
jacket and trousers, ornamented with gilt buttons, was somewhat marred
by the big rubber boots that his mother had insisted on his wearing for
this trip. Abe Cruger, still sustaining his character as Bill Bullseye,
also wore rubber boots, a rubber coat, and an old sou'wester hat that
was several sizes too large for him. Will Rogers wore his bicycle
uniform, except that the knee-breeches were replaced by white duck
trousers, similar to those worn by the others. The remaining members
were coatless; but all were arrayed in gaudy flannel shirts with leather
belts and sheath-knife attachments. The gorgeous uniform of Sir Birch
Beer, which part had been taken by Reddy Cuddeback, did not figure on
this occasion, as the newest active member was prevented by his duties
at the mills from taking part in the present expedition.
"Waal, I'll be blowed!" exclaimed Captain Jabez Crotty, as the Sea
Rangers tumbled out of Squire Bacon's big wagon that had brought them
down to where the _Millgirl_ was moored, and boarded the sloop with a
rush.
"Good-morning, noble skipper. I trust that you are all ready for
skipping!" cried Will Rogers, at the same time making a profound bow,
and scraping his foot in front of the master of the sloop.
"For he is the skipper, and we are the ship
Our ship is the bold _Skipparee_.
And we ship with no skipper
Who'll not skip with his shippers,
Whenever the wind blows free,"
sang the Sea Rangers in chorus, at the same time joining hands and
dancing in a circle about the bewildered sailor-man.
"Waal, I _will_ be blowed!" he gasped for the second time. "They're as
crazy as flounders, every last one of 'em. An' I've got' em on my hands
for two hull weeks."
"We're ready for duty, sir," announced Will at the conclusion of the
song and dance, with another scrape and a pull at his forelock. "You'll
find us brave and able seamen, and if you'll only issue your orders
we'll gladly obey them."
"Oh, ye will, will ye? Waal, then you can break out the chain-cable and
polish it till it shines, clean the barnacles off'n the ship's bottom,
keep a lookout aloft for the _Flying Dutchman_, and another over the
bows for mermaids, practise all hands at boxing the compass backwards,
get eight bells from the sun, and keep out of my sight till we're away
for fear I'll murder some of ye."
"Ay, ay, most gallant skipper," answered Will, with a grin; and then,
hitching their trousers as they went, the whole boisterous crowd tumbled
down below to examine the interior of the strange home they expected to
occupy for the next two weeks.
As soon as they had disappeared, Captain Crotty and Jabez his son,
commonly called "young Jabe," a lad of seventeen, who represented the
sloop's crew, cast off the mooring-lines, and got their clumsy craft
under way.
The Rangers were delighted with the accommodations prepared for them in
the hold, which was fitted up with temporary bunks for their use. Each
boy made a rush for the bunk that seemed to him most desirable, and
scrambled into it to test its comfort as well as to make good his claim
by possession.
"But I thought sailors always slept in hammocks," remarked Mif Bowers,
in a disappointed tone.
"Oh, pshaw!" replied Abe Cruger. "They're no good, for I tried it at
home and nearly broke my neck tumbling out the minute I got to sleep. I
expect hammock is only a sailor's name for bed, for no one could really
sleep in one; and then, you know, they always call things different at
sea. But I say, Will, isn't old Crotty a daisy? And didn't he seem
surprised to find us looking so much like regular sailors! What did he
mean, though, by the things he told us to do?"
"I don't exactly understand myself," replied the Ranger Captain. "I
suppose, though, we've got to try and do them, because it'll be mutiny
if we don't."
"And in a mutiny everybody gets hung, don't they?" asked Cracker Bob
Jones.
"He said he'd murder us, anyhow, if we didn't keep out of his sight
until he got away, though I don't see how we're going to do it," chimed
in little Cal Moody, upon whom this threat had made a deep impression.
"That's all right, Cal," laughed Hal Bacon "He won't murder you if he
don't see you, so just lie low and you'll be safe. I say, though, I saw
a compass in the cabin as we came through. And we might begin work right
off by boxing it. I suppose he wants to send it off somewheres. I don't
know what he meant by 'backwards,' but I guess upside down will do."
So the boys got the compass and began to make a box for it from some
bits of board left over when the bunks were built and what few nails
they could pick up. They got an axe out of the "kitchen," as Sam Ray
called the galley, and made such a racket pounding with it that young
Jabe hurried below to see what was up. The moment he appeared they
pounced on him and demanded the bells.
"What ever do you fellers mean?" he queried, at the same time trying to
shake himself loose.
"The eight bells that Skipper Crotty said we were to get from his son,"
they shouted; "and if you don't give 'em to us we'll report you, and
you'll be cat-o-nine-tailed for neglect of duty."
"Cat-o-nothing," retorted young Jabe, in a disgusted tone. "You can
report all you want to. Same time I'll do some reporting myself; and
when the old man hears what you're a-doing to his best compass I rather
guess there'll be somebody besides me in danger of the cat."
"He told us to box it."
"We're only obeying orders."
"Guess we know what we're doing."
So shouted the Rangers; and when young Jabe started to report to his
father the state of affairs in the hold, they all sprang after him,
determined to present their side of the question, and utterly forgetting
that they had just decided to keep out of the skipper's sight for a time
at least.
The sloop was running dead before a light breeze, with its big mainsail
away out on the starboard side, and Captain Crotty was just then doing
some very fine steering in trying to clear a sharp bend in the river
without gybing. The sudden rush of young Jabe and the excited boys, all
shouting at the top of their voices, and bearing down on him with
frantic gestures, so startled the skipper that for a single moment his
attention was drawn away from the big sail.
"They're stealing the compass!"
"He won't give us the bells!"
As the opposing factions uttered these cries there came a mighty sweep
of something over their heads. The next moment young Jabe and Cracker
Bob Jones were overboard and struggling in the river, the skipper, Will
Rogers, and several more of the Rangers were flung to the deck, and the
sloop, left to her own devices, was rounding into the wind with such a
slatting of sails, sheets, and blocks, as caused those boys who were
still below to imagine that she had been struck by a cyclone. The
mainsail had gybed over, and though the boom was, fortunately, so
lifted, that it cleared the heads of those who stood on deck, the sheet
had tripped them, and flung two of the number overboard.
Mercifully no one was injured by the mishap; and as the vessel lost her
headway, the two who were overboard managed to clamber into the small
boat towing astern. They had hardly gained this place of safety when
Cracker Bob again sprang into the water after his beribboned straw hat
which was jauntily floating away. Glad as he was to recover this bit of
property, he was heavy-hearted at the loss of his highly prized
patent-leather pumps, which had been kicked off and lost in his first
plunge.
By the time these two had clambered aboard, with river water running
from them in streams, the others had regained their feet, and were
examining their bruises, while the skipper, after assuring himself that
no serious damage was done, was jamming the helm hard down, and getting
the sloop once more on her course. He did not utter a word until this
was accomplished, when, with a mournful shake of his head, he exclaimed,
"And this is only the beginning of the cruise!"
Then, as though remembering that authority must be maintained at all
hazards, he sung out:
"You Jabe, go for'ard and wring yourself. As for you other young
pirates, you stay on deck and don't get out of my sight for a single
minute, or I'll murder ye all."
At this awful threat little Cal Moody sincerely wished himself once more
safely at home, though the others minded it so little, that it in no
wise lessened the interest with which they watched the sleeves of
Cracker Bob's flannel jacket shrink as they slowly dried in the hot sun.
[Illustration: CAL MOODY'S MERMAID.]
Finally, bethinking himself of a duty that he might perform, and perhaps
thereby win his way into the skipper's good graces, Cal slipped away
forward, and hung over the bluff bows of the sloop to watch for the
mermaids, in whose existence he believed as firmly as in his own. As he
gazed down at the parted waters swiftly streaming backward, the little
chap became so oblivious of his surroundings, that when a great fish
rushing up from the green depths leaped into the air directly beneath
him, he uttered a startled cry, made a sudden move, and took a header
into the very waters that were closing above the fish.
[TO BE CONTINUED.]
OAKLEIGH.
BY ELLEN DOUGLAS DELAND.