DAB AND HIS FRIENDS TURN THEMSELVES INTO COOKS AND WAITERS.
As for the Kinzers, that was by no means their first experience in such
matters; but none of their friends had ever before been so near an
out-and-out shipwreck.
It is quite possible, moreover, that they had never before been so
nearly starved as they were that day. At least, something to that effect
was remarked by Joe Hart and Fuz, more than a dozen times apiece, while
"The Swallow" was threading the crooked inlet, and making her way to the
landing.
"Ham," said Dab, "are you going right back again?"
"Course I am,--soon as I can get a load of eatables together, from the
house and the village. You'll have to stay here."
"Why can't I go with you?"
"Plenty for you to do at the house and around while I'm gone. No, you
can't go."
Dab seemed to have expected as much; for he turned to Ford with,--
"Then, Ford, I'll tell you what we must do."
"What's that?"
"We must see about the famine. Can you cook?"
"No."
"I can, then. Ham'll have one half of our house at work getting his
cargo ready, and that baby'll fill up the other half."
"Mother won't be expecting us so soon, and our cook's gone out for the
day. Annie knows something."
"She can help me, then. Those Hart boys'll die if they're not fed pretty
soon. Look at Fuz. Why, he can't keep his mouth shut."
Joe and his brother seemed to know as if by instinct that the dinner
question was under discussion, and they were soon taking at least their
share of the talk. Oh, how they did wish it had been a share of
something to eat, instead!
"The Swallow" was carefully moored, after discharging her passengers;
but Dab did not start for the house with his mother and the rest. He
even managed to detain some of the empty lunch-baskets, large ones too.
"Come on, Mr. Kinzer," shouted Joe Hart. "Let's put for the village.
We'll starve here."
"A fellow that'll starve here, just deserves to, that's all," said
Dabney. "Ford, there's Bill Lee's boat and three others coming in. We're
all right. One of 'em's a dredger."
Ford and Frank could only guess what their friend was up to, but Dab was
not doing any sort of guessing.
"Bill," he shouted, as Dick Lee's father came within hearing,--"Bill!
put a lot of your best panfish in this basket, and then go and fetch us
some lobsters. There's half a dozen in your pot. Did those others have
any luck?"
"More clams'n 'ysters," responded Bill.
"Then we'll take both lots."
The respect of the city boys for the resources of the Long-Island shore
in a time of famine began to rise rapidly a few moments later; for, not
only was one of Dab's baskets promptly laden with "panfish," such as
porgies, blackfish, and perch, but two others received all the clams and
oysters they were at all anxious to carry to the house. At the same time
Bill Lee offered, as an amendment on the lobster question,--
"Yer wrong 'bout de pot, Dab."
"Wrong? Why"--
"Yes, you's wrong. Glorianny's been an' biled ebery one on 'em, an'
dey're all nice an' cold by dis time."
"All right. I never did eat my lobsters raw. Just you go and get them,
Dick. Bring 'em right over to Ford's house."
Bill Lee would have sent his house and all, on a suggestion that the
Kinzers or the Fosters were in need of it; and Dick would have carried
it over for him.
As for "Glorianna," when her son came running in with his errand, she
exclaimed,--
"Dem lobsters? Sho! Dem ain't good nuff. Dey sha'n't have 'em. I'll jes'
send de ole man all roun' de bay to git some good ones. On'y dey isn't
no kine ob lobsters good nuff for some folks, dey isn't."
Dick insisted, however; and by the time he reached the back door of the
old Kinzer homestead with his load, the kitchen beyond that door had
become almost as busy a place as was that of Mrs. Miranda Morris, a few
rods away.
"Ford," suddenly exclaimed Dab, as he finished scaling a large porgy,
"what if mother should make a mistake!"
"Make a mistake! How?"
"Cook that baby. It's awful!"
"Why, its mother's there."
"Yes, but they've put her to bed, and its father too. Hey, here come the
lobsters. Now, Ford"--
The rest of what he had to say was given in a whisper, and was not even
heard by Annie Foster, who was just then looking prettier than ever, as
she busied herself around the kitchen-fire. The bloom that was coming up
into her face was a sight worth seeing. As for the Hart boys, Mrs.
Foster had invited them to come into the parlor and talk with her until
dinner should be ready. She added, with her usual smile, that there were
cooks enough in the kitchen.
Such a frying and broiling!
Before Ham Morris was ready with his cargo for his trip back to the
wreck, and right in the midst of his greatest hurry, word came over from
Mrs. Foster that "the table was waiting for them all."
Even Mrs. Kinzer drew a long breath of relief and satisfaction. There
was nothing more in the wide world that she could do, just then, for
either "that baby" or its unfortunate parents; and she was beginning to
worry about her son-in-law, and how she should manage to get him to eat
something. For Ham Morris had worked himself into a high state of
excitement, in his benevolent haste, and did not seem to know that he
was hungry. Miranda had entirely sympathized with her husband until the
arrival of that message from Mrs. Foster.
"O Hamilton! And good Mrs. Foster must have cooked it all herself!"
"No, Miranda," said Ham thoughtfully. "Our Dabney went home with Ford
and Annie. I can't stay more than a minute, but I think we'd better go
right over. There's a good many things to come yet, from the village."
Go they did; while the charitable neighbors whom Ham had stirred up
concerning the wreck, attended to the completion of the cargo of "The
Swallow." More than that was true; for at least one other good and
kind-hearted boat would be ready to accompany her on her return trip
across the bay, laden with creature comforts of all sorts.
Even old Jock, the village tavern-keeper, not by any means the best man
in the world, had come waddling down to the landing with a demijohn of
old "apple-brandy;" and his gift had been kindly accepted, by the
special advice of the village physician.
"That sort of thing has made plenty of shipwrecks around here," said the
man of medicine; "and the people on the bar have swallowed so much salt
water, the apple-jack can't hurt 'em."
Maybe the doctor was wrong about it; but the demijohn went over to the
wreck in "The Swallow," very much to the gratification of old Jock.
Mrs. Foster's dining-room was not a large one: there were no large rooms
in that house. Nevertheless, the entire party managed to gather around
the table,--all except Dab and Ford.
"Dab is head cook, and I'm head waiter," had been Ford's explanation.
"Frank and the boys are company."
Certainly the cook had no cause to be ashamed of his work. The coffee
was excellent. The fish was done to a turn. The oysters, roasted,
broiled, or stewed, and likewise the clams, were all that could have
been asked of them. Bread there was in abundance; and all things were
going finely, till Mrs. Kinzer asked her son, as his fire-red face
showed itself at the kitchen-door,--
"Dabney, you've not sent in your vegetables. We're waiting for them."
Dab's face grew redder, and he came near dropping a plate he held in his
hand.
"Vegetables? Oh, yes! Well, Ford, we might as well send them in now.
I've got them all ready."
Annie opened her eyes, and looked hard at her brother; for she knew very
well that not so much as a potato had been thought of in their
preparations. Ford himself looked a little queer; but he marched right
out, white apron and all. A minute or so later the two boys came in
again, each bearing aloft a huge platter.
One of these was solemnly deposited at each end of the table.
"Vegetables?"
"Why--they're lobsters!"
"O Ford! how could you?"
The last exclamation came from Annie Foster, as she clapped her hands
over her face. Bright-red were those lobsters, and fine-looking fellows,
every one of them, in spite of Mrs. Lee's poor opinion; but they were a
little too well dressed, even for a dinner-party. Their thick shoulders
were adorned with collars of the daintiest material and finish, while
every ungainly "flipper" wore a "cuff" which had been manufactured for a
different kind of wrist.
There were plenty of cuffs and collars, and queer enough the lobsters
looked in them. All the queerer because every item of lace and linen was
variegated with huge black spots and blotches, as if some one had begun
to wash it in ink.
Joe and Fuz were almost as red as the lobsters; and Mrs. Foster's face
looked as severe as it could, but that is not saying a great deal. The
Kinzer family knew all about those cuffs and collars, and Ham Morris and
the younger ladies were trying hard not to laugh.
"Joe," said Fuz snappishly, "can't you take a joke? Annie's got the
laugh on us this time."
"I?" exclaimed Annie indignantly: "no, indeed! That's some of Ford's
work, and Dabney's.--Mr. Kinzer, I'm ashamed of you."
Poor Dab!
He muttered something about those being all the vegetables he had, and
retreated to the kitchen.
Joe and Fuz, however, were not of the sort that take offence easily; and
they were shortly helping themselves quite liberally to lobster, cuffs
or no cuffs. That was all that was necessary to restore harmony at the
table, but Dab's plan for "punishing the Hart boys" was a complete
failure.
As Ford told him afterwards:
"Feel it? Not they. You might as well try to hurt a clam with a pin."
"And I hurt your sister's feelings instead of theirs," said Dab. "Well,
I'll never try any thing like it again. Anyhow, Joe and Fuz ain't
comfortable they ate too many roasted clams and a good deal too much
lobster."
There was a certain degree of consolation to be had from such a fact as
that.