THE JIMMYJOHNS’ SAILOR-SUITS.
THIS chapter will tell why Mrs. Plummer had to sew very odd-looking
patches on the Jimmyjohns’ sailor-suits. It will also tell what boy
cut holes in those sailor-suits, and why he cut them, and when; and
will show, that, at the time it was done, the three boys were in
great danger.
It was on a Monday morning that people first took notice that the
Jimmies’ trousers were patched in a curious manner. Johnny was
carrying the new dog, and Jimmy was taking hold of Johnny’s hand.
After Rover was lost, the twins had a new dog given them, named Snip.
He was the smallest dog they ever saw: but he was a dog; he was not a
puppy. Mr. Plummer brought him home in his pocket one day, two weeks
after Rover went away. It was Rover, you know, that ran off with poor
little Polly Cologne. People talked so much to him about this piece
of mischief, that at last he began to feel ashamed of himself; and,
as soon as Polly Cologne’s name was mentioned, he would slink into a
corner, and hide his head. One day Annetta showed him an apron that
poor little Polly used to wear,—it was a bib-apron,—and said to him,
“St’boy! Go find her! Don’t come back till you find her!”
The bib-apron was about three inches long. Rover caught it in his
mouth, and away he went, and—did not come back. They looked for him
far and near; they put his name in the newspapers; but all in vain.
The apron was found sticking to a bramble-bush, about a mile from
home; but nothing could be seen or heard of Rover. There was a circus
in town that day, and he might have gone off with that. Perhaps he
was ashamed to come back. Little Mr. Tompkins, the lobster-seller,
thinks the dog understood what Annetta said, and that he may be, even
now, scouring the woods, or else sniffing along the streets, peeping
into back-yards, down cellar-ways, up staircases, in search of poor
Polly Cologne.
Mr. Tompkins was among the very first to notice the sailor-suits. He
met the twins that morning as he was wheeling along his lobsters,
and quickly dropped his wheelbarrow, and sat down on one of the
side-boards. Being a small, slim man, he could sit there as well as
not without tipping the wheelbarrow over.
Mr. Tompkins wore short-legged pantaloons and a long-waisted coat.
The reason of this was, that he had short legs and (for his size) a
long waist. His coat was buttoned up to his chin. His cap had a stiff
visor, which stood out like the awning of a shop. He had a thin face,
a small nose, small eyes, and a wide mouth; and he wore a blue apron
with shoulder-straps.
“What’s happened to your trousers, eh?” asked little Mr. Tompkins.
His way of speaking was as sharp and quick as Snip’s way of barking.
“Say, what’s happened to your trousers?”
The trousers were patched in this way: Jimmy’s had a long strip on
the left leg: Johnny’s had a round patch above each knee, one being
much farther up than the other.
“Oh, yes! I see,—I see how it is,” said Mr. Tompkins. “Your mother
did that so as to tell you apart. Oh, yes! Yes, yes! Very good!
Johnny Shortpatch, Jimmy Longpatch; or Jimmy Shortpatch, Johnny
Longpatch,—which is it?”
“She didn’t do so for that,” said Johnny, and then Jimmy after him.
Johnny was commonly the first to speak.
“She didn’t?” cried Mr. Tompkins: “then what did she do so for?”
“Perhaps to tell which is good, and which is naughty,” said a lady
who had stopped to look on.
Then the butcher’s boy stepped up, and _he_ wanted to know about the
trousers. Then a woman looked out of the window, and _she_ wanted to
know about the trousers. Then a great black dog came up, and he smelt
of the trousers, which made Snip snap his teeth. Then came a flock
of school-children, and they had something to say. “Halloo!” “What’s
up?” “What’s the matter with all your trousers?” “Hoo, hoo!” “How
d’ye do, Mr. Patcherboys?”
Now, the truth was, that Amos Dyke cut holes in those trousers with
his jack-knife. It happened in this way: The Jimmies, the Saturday
before that Monday, started from home to spend a cent at Mr.
Juniper’s store. They had, in the first place, two cents; but one
was lost. They got those two cents by having a show in the barn. The
price for going in to see the show was four pins. The Jimmies sold
the pins to the funny man. He gave a cent for sixteen straight ones,
but would take no crooked ones at any price. Sometimes the Jimmies
tried to pound the crooked ones straight on a stone. Their pins, that
Saturday, came to nearly a cent and three-quarters; and the funny man
made it up to two. Jimmy let his fall on the barn-floor; and Johnny,
in helping him find it, hit it accidentally with his toe, and knocked
it through a crack. Then Mrs. Plummer said they would have to divide
between them what was bought with the other cent.
The little boys left home to go to Mr. Juniper’s store at half-past
two o’clock in the afternoon, taking Snip with them. Probably, if
they had not taken him with them, all would have been well.
In passing a garden, they looked through the pickets, and saw a
kitten racing along the paths. Snip was after her in a moment.
“Now, you stay and take care of Snip,” said Johnny to Jimmy, “and
I’ll go spend the cent, and bring your half here.” And just so they
did. Jimmy found Snip, and then went along to a shady place under a
tree; and there he climbed to the top rail of a fence, and sat down
to wait.
Johnny went round to Mr. Juniper’s store, and asked for a cent roll
of checkerberry lozenges. Mr. Juniper had no cent rolls of lozenges;
but he had striped candy, and some quite large peaches, which he was
willing, for reasons known to himself, to sell for a cent apiece.
Johnny felt so thirsty, that he longed to bite of a peach: so he
bought one, and turned back towards the garden. Having no knife to
cut it with, he ate off his half going along; and this tasted so
good, that he could hardly help eating Jimmy’s half. But he only
nibbled the edges to make them even.
Turning a corner, he spied Jimmy, and jumped over into a field, so
as to run across by a short cut. In the field he met Amos Dyke. Amos
Dyke is a large boy, and a cruel boy. He likes to hurt small children
who cannot hurt him.
Amos Dyke knocked Johnny’s elbow with a basket he was carrying, and
made him drop the half-peach in the grass. Then Johnny began to cry.
“Now, if you don’t stop crying, I’ll eat it,” said Amos, taking up
the half-peach, and setting his teeth in it.
“Oh! don’t you! don’t! give it to me! it’s Jimmy’s half!” cried
Johnny. Amos took two bites, and then threw away the stone. The
stone was all there was left after the two bites were taken. Johnny
cried louder than before.
“Here! stop that! stop that!” some one called out from the road. It
was Mr. Tompkins the lobster-seller. “Stop!” cried Mr. Tompkins. “Let
that little chap alone! Why don’t you take one of your own size?”
The fact is, that Amos Dyke never does take one of his own size. He
always takes some little fellow who can’t defend himself.
Just about this time the funny man came along with his umbrellas
under his arm. The funny man is an umbrella-mender. Then Amos Dyke,
seeing that two men were looking at him, whispered to Johnny, “Hush
up! Quick! Don’t tell! Come down to the shore, and I’ll let you go
graping with me in a boat. I’ll run ahead and get the oars, and you
go get Jimmy.”
The boat was a row-boat. Johnny sat at one end, and Jimmy at the
other. Amos Dyke sat in the middle, and rowed. Before starting,
he fastened a tall stick at the stern of the boat, and tied his
handkerchief to it, and called that the flag.
They rowed along-shore, then off beyond the rocks, then in-shore
again, and farther along, for nearly a mile, to a place called “High
Pines,” and there landed. The grapes grew in the woods, on the top
of a steep, sandy cliff as high as a high house. Twice, in climbing
this cliff, did the little Jimmies slide down, down, down; twice was
poor Snip buried alive; and many times were all three pelted by the
rolling, rattling stones.
They reached the top at last, and found Amos already picking grapes.
He told them, that, if they would pick for him, he would give them
two great bunches. The grapes were of a kind called sugar-grapes,
light-colored, fragrant, and as sweet as honey. Amos told the little
boys not to eat while they were picking. When he had filled his
basket, he borrowed the Jimmies’ pocket-handkerchiefs, and tied some
up in those. They were their “lion” pocket-handkerchiefs: each had
in its centre a lion, with _a b c_’s all around the lion. Amos gave
the Jimmies two great bunches apiece. He then hid the basket and two
small bundles behind a bush, and they all three went to find a thick
spot. When they found the thick spot, Amos, not having any thing else
to pick in, took off his jacket, and filled both sleeves. Then he
borrowed the Jimmyjohns’ jackets, and filled the four sleeves. Then
he filled his own hat and the Jimmyjohns’ hats.
As it grew later, the wind breezed up, and the Jimmies began to feel
cold. Amos had long pantaloons and a vest; but the Jimmies’ little
fat legs were bare, and they had no vests: they only had thin waists,
and their trousers were rolled up.
It began to sprinkle, and Amos said it was time to go. They went back
for the basket and two small bundles, but were a long time in finding
the bush, on account of the bushes there looking so much alike. They
did find it, though; or rather Snip found it. The Jimmies took one
apiece of the bundles, and wanted to take more; but Amos was afraid
they might lose some of the grapes. Perhaps he knew pretty well how
they would reach the foot of the cliff; perhaps he knew pretty well
that they would begin slowly, and that the sliding sands would take
them along so fast they couldn’t stop themselves, and would land them
at the bottom in two small heaps.
Now about the row home. Such a time as they had! There was no rain
to speak of; but the wind blew hard, and this made the sea very
rough,—so rough that the boat pitched up and down, and sometimes took
in water. Amos told the Jimmies to hold on by the sides. They were
seated at the ends, as before, and, by stretching their arms apart,
could take hold of each side, and did so. Amos put on his own hat,
and let them have theirs, but said it wouldn’t do to stop to empty
the jacket-sleeves. The grapes from the hats were emptied into the
bottom of the boat. Snip was in the bottom of the boat too. As there
was no one to hold him, he lay down on the Jimmyjohns’ jackets.
And there he did mischief. The boat, it seems, was an old, leaky
boat, and the leaks were not well stopped. Snip pulled out with his
teeth, and chewed up, what had been stuffed into the cracks; and,
before they knew what he was about, the water had begun to come in,
and was wetting their feet and all the things in the bottom. The wind
took their hats off, and blew the flag away. They caught their hats,
and held them between their knees. Amos began to look sober. The
little boys, half crying, held fast by the sides of the boat, saying
over and over, “Oh, I want to go home!” “I want to see mother!”
This was the time when the trousers were cut. “I must cut pieces out
of your trousers,” said Amos, “and stop the leaks, or we shall be
drowned. Mine are too thick cloth.”
[Illustration: “THE LITTLE BOYS, HALF CRYING, HELD FAST BY THE SIDES
OF THE BOAT.”]
He took out his jack-knife as quick as ever he could, and cut pieces
from their trousers, and stuffed the pieces into the cracks. Even
this did not wholly keep the water from coming in: so, just as soon
as they got past the rocks, Amos steered the boat to the land; and
there he pulled her up, the Jimmyjohns pushing behind.
By this time it was after sunset. Amos emptied all the grapes, except
those in his basket, out upon the ground behind a log, and covered
them with dry seaweed. He let the Jimmies have a part of what were in
their handkerchiefs. They all started then to walk along the sands.
As the jackets were too wet to be worn, each boy carried his own on
his arm. The Jimmies took turns in carrying Snip. In this manner
they walked for nearly a quarter of a mile to the place they started
from. There were two men coming down toward the water. As soon as
Amos saw those two men, he ran away; for one was Mr. Plummer, and the
other was the umbrella-man. The umbrella-man, it seems, had told Mr.
Plummer that he saw his little boys in the field with Amos Dyke, and
had come to help him find them.
Mrs. Plummer sat up very late that Saturday night.