here I was a-working in Jacksonville and he did me a good turn. Now I’m
a workin’ with the boat folks and when we see by the agent’s telegram
that it’s you that’s late, seys I to them, ‘Now’s when I do _them_ a
good turn’--see? So here you are and the boat’ll be comin’ along in a
minute.”
“I hope it does,” said Alice.
“And I hope it’s got a pantry on it cause I’m about starved,” said Mary
Jane fervently.
“Sure faith!” exclaimed the man; “of course you are and it’s most four
o’clock! Well, let’s see what we can do for you!” He turned to go up
the hill in the hope that he might find some fruit in an orchard near
at hand, but he hadn’t gone a dozen steps before a long, low whistle in
the distance sent him hurrying back.
“There she comes!” he shouted, “I hear her! Look!”
Mrs. Merrill and the girls looked up the river and sure enough,
swinging around the bend of the river was the boat they were waiting
for. The driver and his companion hurried down to the dock and put up
a great red flag they found in the dock house, then fearing that that
might not be enough, they brought the dust robe from the car and waved
it too. In a couple of minutes a reassuring “toot-toot!” from the boat
gave back the answer they were waiting for and they knew the captain
had seen their signal and would stop at the dock.
There was just time to thank the men for the ride, which, now that it
was safely over, the Merrills realized had been a very interesting one,
and to get bags and camera from the car before the boat sidled up to
the dock.
“Can’t stop to tie up!” shouted the Captain, as the boat brushed the
weather worn dock; “jump aboard!” There was just barely time for the
Merrills to jump from the dock to the broad open lower deck; then a
bell rang, the engines again began working and the space between boat
and dock widened--they were off. Mary Jane and Alice waved good-by
to the men on the dock and Mrs. Merrill turned to greet the waiting
captain.
“I am afraid you have had a hurried ride,” he said, politely, “but
the gentleman yonder,” he waved his hand toward the dock, “who is now
our advertising man, was sure he could meet us at the other dock and
he wanted you to take the trip. It seems he feels indebted to your
husband.”
“We certainly are indebted to him,” said Mrs. Merrill, “for the nice
ride--though it did seem a bit hurried at the time” (she smiled at
the girls as they all thought of the wild jolting!)--“and for getting
us to the boat in time. We go back north soon and we would have been
sorry to miss the trip. But I wonder if my little girls could have some
lunch--they haven’t had a bite since breakfast.”
For answer the captain rang a bell for the steward and the order he
gave made the girls hungrier than ever. “Ham,” he said, “browned to a
turn, all the fresh eggs they can eat and some of your good biscuits.
Can you have that in twenty minutes?”
“Yis sir, yis sir, bery good, sir!” said the darky steward, smiling
broadly at the hungry folks, “and if you like, sir, they’s jest a few
more strawberries than I’ll be a needin’ fo’ suppa to-night. If the
little ladies would like to eat them a-while they’re a-waitin’?”
Would they? Mary Jane’s face shone and Alice smiled so sweetly that
the steward nearly tumbled over his feet in his eagerness to get them
comfortably settled at once. Upon the broad second deck a table was
set--“we won’t ask you to sit in doors this time of day,” said the
captain, “because you’ll want to see the scenery as we just now turn
from the St. Johns into the Ocklawaha.” And on the table were three big
dishes of great, red, luscious strawberries.
“Yumy yum!” exclaimed Alice; “Mother, do you know what Dadah did to get
us all this?”
“I haven’t an idea,” replied Mrs. Merrill; “he’s always doing things
for folks, I know, but I never heard him speak of anything special down
this way. Whatever he did though, I’m glad he did it--it certainly is
lucky for us that these folks have good memories.”
Mary Jane and Alice felt like queens as they sat there eating their
berries and real cream and smelling the odors of broiling ham that came
invitingly up the companionway.
“I’m glad we hurried up and got the boat!” exclaimed Mary Jane
appreciatively as she scraped up the last bit of cream and the last
half berry she had saved for a final tit-bit, “and I’m _very_ glad
we’re on a boat that has a pantry, _I_ am!”
“Wouldn’t you like to look over the boat and find your rooms?” asked
the captain some half an hour later; “in a few minutes we’ll be turning
into the narrow Ocklawaha and then all my attention will be taken up
with the steering. I like to have all my passengers comfortably settled
so they will feel at home aboard.”
Mrs. Merrill, Alice and Mary Jane followed him around the boat which
they thought the most curious they had even seen. It looked like a
great two story house with porches front and back and a pilot house set
on the upstairs front porch. Of course it was flat bottomed, for the
small river they would travel was too shallow in places for any other
sort of boat. The captain told them that even though it drew but two
feet of water it often went aground and had to be pushed off shore by
means of great poles--“that’s the reason we have to carry such a big
crew,” he added.
Inside were two floors with bedrooms--staterooms Mary Jane found they
were called--all around the sides of each. Mrs. Merrill’s rooms, two of
them, were side by side on the upper floor; that was nice for it was
easy to speak through the thin wooden wall that was the only partition.
“But I see the wooden shutter is nailed shut,” said Mrs. Merrill as she
stepped into the larger room and attempted to raise the old fashioned
sliding shutter. “We’re fresh air fiends, Captain,” she explained
laughingly, “and I guess I’ll have to trouble you to raise that blind.”
“Well, er--well,” said the captain hesitatingly.
“Of course if it’s too much trouble,” said Mrs. Merrill, in a puzzled
voice.
“Not a bit,” answered the captain, “not a bit. But you see, in the
night we go through pretty wild country and the trees over-hang the
boat. It doesn’t often happen,” he added half apologizing, “but
occasionally a snake drops off a tree and gets in if the window is
open.”
“Ugh!” shivered Mrs. Merrill, “between snakes and no air, I think I’ll
take the poor air _one_ night! I had no idea we were going through such
wild regions!” she added a bit skeptically.
When they returned to the deck after they had arranged their bags and
seen to covers for the night, they were amazed at the difference in the
scenery. The boat had left the big St. Johns River and was twisting
and turning up the winding little Ocklawaha which was wild enough to
satisfy any one. The girls found two other children on the deck, Ned
and Katherine Ritter of New York, and the four of them sat at the very
front of the boat and kept count of the creatures, snakes, turtles,
squirrels and wild hogs that they saw on the bank. Ned counted the
snakes because they were the worst. Alice had the turtles because they
were the hardest to see; Katherine did the squirrels and Mary Jane the
hogs--she liked those the best because they made such fearful grunting
noises--noises that made a person glad they were on a boat counting
instead of walking in those deep woods.
After supper the passengers all came out on the deck again and the deep
night of the forest was weirdly lit up by a great searchlight that
flashed from the top of the boat; it made the trees and mosses look
like a great fairyland of dreams.
“Couldn’t I just go to sleep in my chair here?” asked Mary Jane when
her mother suggested bed time; “I’m so comfy here.”
“Indeed no!” laughed Mrs. Merrill; “you’d be stiff as a poker in the
morning. I’ll go in with you and Alice and stay till you get in bed,
then in about an hour I’m coming to bed too. You know we want to be up
early in the morning.”
“What do we do in the morning?” asked Mary Jane, slipping out of the
chair and taking her mother’s hand.
“Oh, we ride on the boat till ten o’clock and then we stop at an orange
grove and then we ride some more. And I shouldn’t wonder but what we’d
see some of those alligators you’ve been wanting to see. To-morrow’s
the time for them.”
“Then I’ll go to bed quick,” said Mary Jane willingly, “’cause I want
to be up and see ’em before Ned does. ’Cause the first one who see ’em
gets to count ’em.”
“Good night, Mr. Captain,” she called as they passed the pilot house,
“I’m going to see alligators in the morning.” And in barely ten
minutes, Mary Jane was sound asleep.
“HELP YOURSELVES, CHILDREN! HELP YOURSELVES!”
“Those girls won’t be awake for an hour yet!” said a voice just
outside Mary Jane’s window the next morning; “I’ll bet I see the first
alligator all right!” But Ned Ritter shouldn’t have been so sure! He
little guessed that as he was taking his early morning walk around the
boat with his father, he made that rash remark just outside the Merrill
girls’ window. And still less did he guess that Alice, just waking up,
heard him.
“Mary Jane! Mary Jane!” she whispered; “let’s get up!”
No answer.
“I’ll have to wake her,” said Alice to herself. She bent over the edge
of the upper berth where she was sleeping and gave Mary Jane’s elbow a
vigorous pull. Mary Jane was that surprised she sat straight up in bed
even before she opened her eyes.
“Where is it?” she asked, evidently thinking of alligators.
“Goodness knows!” laughed Alice in a more natural voice now, for Ned
and his father had walked out of hearing. “But if we want to see
anything first, we’d better be getting up, Mary Jane, because Ned’s out
on deck and maybe Katherine is too.”
“Let’s ask mother if we can’t get up now,” suggested Mary Jane and she
tapped on the partition. They had made up a code before they went to
bed the night before so Mrs. Merrill knew exactly what they meant to
say. One tap meant “Mother, are you there?” two taps meant “Please I
want a drink,” and three taps meant “Is it time to get up?”
“I was just listening for those taps,” said Mrs. Merrill, at the door
of the stateroom; “open the door, girls, and I’ll help you dress. I’m
all ready and you want to get out doors as soon as you can--it’s a
beautiful morning!”
With her help at buttons and with their hair the dressing business went
very quickly and in a very few minutes all three were out on the deck.
“No alligators yet,” Ned’s disappointed voice greeted them.
“I should say not!” laughed the captain who went by just in time to
hear what was said. “Wait till the sun gets up high and the air is
hotter--then you’ll see them! Had breakfast yet?”
After breakfast he took the four children up by his pilot house and let
them sit on a bench there that gave them a fine view of the river and
woods. But though they looked and watched till their eyes ached, not a
’gator did they see!
“I don’t believe there are any,” exclaimed Alice in disgust, “and I’m
going to walk around the back of the boat. When we go around that bend
we’re coming to I’m sure I can pull some leaves off that great tree.
And I’d love to have them in my collection--‘leaves pulled from the
boat on the Ocklawaha’--wouldn’t that look well in my book?”
“I think I’ll go too,” said Katherine, who, when she saw how interested
Alice was in her collection, immediately wanted to make one for herself.
“I think I’ll fish,” said Ned; “Father said once he caught a turtle
from the boat.” And he too disappeared from the captain’s deck.
Mary Jane, left alone, couldn’t quite make up her mind what to do. It
wasn’t any fun staying up there all alone, for the captain was so busy
with his steering that he wasn’t a bit of company; she had a notion to
go to the back of the boat with the other girls.
Just as she was slipping down from the bench she heard a splash at the
bank on the south side of the river, and looking quickly, she spied a
great log floating slowly down the stream.
“What made that log fall in?” she asked curiously; “I didn’t see
anybody push it!”
Splash! There went another one!
“Funny!” exclaimed Mary Jane to herself now much interested; “now what
made _that_ one go, I wonder.” Just then Mrs. Merrill came to the foot
of the ladder leading to the captain’s deck.
“All right, Mary Jane?” she asked; “want some company?”
“’Deed yes, Mother,” cried the little girl; “do come up here and see
these funny logs! What makes them fall into the river when nobody
pushes them? There!” she exclaimed, excitedly, “there goes another
one!”
Mrs. Merrill looked quickly to where Mary Jane pointed and was just in
time to see--a great alligator go sliding into the water!
“Those aren’t logs,” she said, “those are alligators, child! Quick!
Let’s call to the others so they can see them too!” But just as she
spoke the captain’s voice rang out, “Alligators on the left!” and all
the passengers rushed over to see the great creatures as they floated,
log-like, down the river.
“That was a good sight,” said the captain; “you must be a mascot, Mary
Jane; because we haven’t seen three together yet this season.”
The Merrills found the trip all that it had been promised them. They
saw great virgin forests where the trees locked arms over the river;
they saw Indian battlefields and Indian burying grounds and then later
in the morning, the forests cleared away and about eleven o’clock
the boat stopped by an orange grove and everybody piled off for
refreshments.
“Eat all you can,” said the owner cordially, “but all you want to
carry away, you have to pay for. Just help yourselves, children, help
yourselves!” he added as the children hesitated.
“Goody!” said Alice; “this is the first time I ever had the chance to
save money by eating! Come on, Mary Jane, let’s begin!”
The pretty little orchard lay on the side of a hill and the orange and
lemon and tangerine and kumquot trees were set in neat rows on either
side of the walk that led up to the house at the top. The trees were
young and the children could easily reach the branches and pick their
own fruit.
“I like oranges best,” said Katherine, running to a pretty orange tree.
“I’m after tangerines,” called Alice as she spied a tree of her
favorites not far away.
“Well, I don’t want lemons--sour old things!” exclaimed Mary Jane
when she saw that she had picked the wrong tree; “I want those little
things.”
“Kumquots,” said Mrs. Merrill; “I do too, dear. Here’s a tree.”
It was fun to pick the fruit directly from the long hanging branches;
and still more fun to suck the sweet juice with which the golden fruit
was filled.
“Who’d have guessed,” exclaimed Alice, “that tangerines could be so
juicy--not I!”
But after a little while, appetites were satisfied and the children
wanted to play.
“I’ll tell you what let’s do,” suggested Mary Jane after she had eaten
about a dozen kumquots and had decided that she simply couldn’t eat
another suck; “let’s play house and each tree’ll be a house and that
great big old tree’ll be a hotel.”
“And we’ll dress up and be queens and go to visit,” added Alice.
“How you going to dress up in an orange orchard where there aren’t any
clothes?” asked Katherine.
“Oh, you don’t have to have real clothes to dress up in--not every
time, you don’t,” said Mary Jane scornfully; “Alice can fix it--you
see!” and she turned to hear her sister’s plan.
“We’ll make crowns out of orange leaves,” said Alice, quickly picking
a few and weaving them together; “see how pretty and glossy they are.
Just put them on your head this way, Katherine. There! That’s becoming!
Now you make a bigger one and I’ll do one for Mary Jane and for me. You
girls pick the leaves for me so I can make them quickly.”
“Then if we’re queens we shouldn’t live in a house, should we?” asked
Katherine.
“I should say _not_!” exclaimed Mary Jane. “These aren’t houses,” she
added, waving her hand grandly toward the trees nearest at hand; “these
are palaces--your palace and Alice’s palace and mine. And that big one
over there we were going to have be a hotel, it’s a banquet hall now.”
Just as the royal play was getting well under way a man came around
with paper bags. “Put all the fruit you want to buy in these,” he
announced, “and pay for it at the dock when you get aboard the boat.”
“Let’s not bother,” said Katherine; “we don’t want to stop playing.”
“We don’t have to,” replied Alice laughingly, and she picked up the bag
the man had laid under her tree; “these are cloth of gold sacks and
we’ll fill them with gold nuggets to take to the good queen mother.”
“Why, so we can!” cried Katherine happily; “come on, let’s hurry and
get a lot!”
It was a good thing they did hurry for even so the boat’s great whistle
sounded before the bags were full and the captain’s call through a
megaphone urged them to hurry aboard.
“Well, seems to me you don’t intend to be hungry for a few days,” said
Mrs. Merrill laughingly as she saw what full bags the children were
carrying. “I thought you were too busy playing to pick any and so I got
enough for us all. But never mind,” she added, as she saw the girls
were looking disappointed; “it’s all so good and it’s wholesome eating
too, so we’ll keep it if you don’t mind carrying it.”
The rest of that day’s wonderful ride seemed to Mary Jane like living
in a picture show. Not long after they left the orange orchard the
great boat turned into the tiny Clear River that runs into the
Ocklawaha and it almost seemed as if the broad decks were spreading
over the whole of the little stream! Here the water was clear as
crystal and the girls could see every fish and turtle and water snake
that scurried out of their way as they steamed up stream. In the
bright noon sunshine they came into the little lake at the head of the
stream and there they got out of the big boat and were rowed around in
a small glass bottomed boat. It seemed awfully queer to look through
the glass at their feet and see the bubbling of the hidden springs and
to watch the bright colored pebbles and stones that tumbled about deep
down among the rocks like gay pieces of confetti tossed about in the
sunshine.
Then there was the scramble into the big touring car, the drive across
country to Ocala, luncheon at the queer station dining room where Mary
Jane, for the first time in her life, had the fun of sitting up to a
counter to eat, and the rush for the train that was to take them up to
Jacksonville and Dadah.
“Well,” said Mary Jane with a sigh of relief as she sank into the
comfortable Pullman seat, “I just a-going to sit here all afternoon
and think and think and think--I am!” But she didn’t count on the many
queer things that may happen in Florida.
PIGS BY THE WAY
For more than an hour Mary Jane sat and thought as she had planned
to; she thought of all the interesting sights she had seen since she
left home; she thought of the new friends she had made and of the fun
she had had playing in the many places she had been. Then suddenly it
occurred to her that their train was standing still.
“Doesn’t this train go like regular trains, Mother?” she asked.
“Evidently not,” replied Mrs. Merrill, who also had been noticing how
much time was being lost; “we stop at every corner store, I do believe,
and wait to chat about the weather.”
Mary Jane laughed at the idea of a train stopping to talk about the
weather. “What’s it saying now?” she asked and she sat up straight
and looked out of the window. Such a sight! “Yumy yum, yum!” she cried
eagerly. “Mother, may we have some too?”
Mrs. Merrill and Alice had been watching out the window while Mary
Jane had been thinking and resting so they knew just what she meant.
On either side of the train, stretching as far as a person could see,
were rows and rows and rows of--strawberries. Strawberries so big and
red and ripe and luscious that they could be seen--those on the nearest
vines of course--from the train window. And all the strawberry plants
near and far showed signs of being loaded with fruit. Over the rows
bent the pickers, busily working, and here and there were groups of
workers sorting and packing the berries into boxes and crates ready for
shipping.
“Oh, Mother!” exclaimed Mary Jane, “I’ll bet they’re taking them onto
our train! I just know they are.”
“To be sure!” agreed Mrs. Merrill, “that’s the reason we stop so often.
This is the strawberry and lettuce country and every time we stop we
take on piles of express that will go to hungry folks up north. Now you
know how we get our early lettuce and berries and what sort of a place
it comes from.”
“Yes, I know it,” said Mary Jane, “but couldn’t we eat some now.”
“Yes, Mother, couldn’t we?” urged Alice, “just look at those berries!”
she added as a team of horses pulled a great wagon by their window--a
wagon piled high with crates of strawberries, as they could tell by the
glimpses of red fruit inside.
Just then a little negro boy came by their window peddling berries and
Mrs. Merrill was able to buy a box of berries for the girls--berries
so clean and sweet and ripe that they could be eaten at once without a
thought of washing or of sugar.
As the train pulled up for another stop some fifteen minutes later, the
Pullman conductor came into their car and spoke to Mrs. Merrill.
“There’s something at this stop that your girls may enjoy seeing,” he
said, “and if you will allow me to escort you--”
“Something my girls should see?” questioned Mrs. Merrill in surprise.
“You see, madam,” explained the man, “the cook on the diner we carry
has made friends with the pigs on the way and he always likes the
children aboard the train to see the fun.”
“Sounds like Greek to me,” said Mrs. Merrill still more puzzled, “but
if there is something my girls should see, let’s see it--we don’t want
to miss anything!” And taking Mary Jane’s hand and motioning Alice to
come too, she followed the conductor through the train.
They went through two cars, then, as the train was just jerking to a
stop, the man quickly pulled open the vestibule door and hurried them
down the steps to the ground. Ahead of them--just the next car--was
the diner. At the high door of the kitchen end of the diner stood a
grinning negro. He was dressed all in spotless white and his face
fairly shone with joy. In his hands he held a great bucket which was
poised as though he was about to empty it out of the door.
“Here you be, missies!” he shouted, grinning and nodding to the
children; “now you jes’ watch--here she comes! Here she comes! Betta
watch out her way!”
Just at that instant Mrs. Merrill heard a great grunting behind them
and dodged out of the way of a great hog who, grunting and sniffing and
puffing, was rooting her way along the side of the train.
“She knows me!” shouted the cook from his doorway; “now you jes’ watch!”
No need to tell folks to watch! With that great creature grunting near
(though the girls did notice that she seemed tame enough) nobody wanted
to look at anything else! The hog sniffed along till she found the
dining car door; then, with a snort of satisfaction, she raised up on
her hind legs, forelegs braced against the train and--yes, the girls
could hardly believe it!--ate out of the bucket the cook held for her.
For a few minutes no one said a word, but as the hog’s hunger was
partly satisfied the cook jumped down from the car door, the hog
dropping down just at the same time and following him, and set the
bucket on the ground. In an instant pigs came running from here and
there and there was a wild scramble around that bucket!
“He’s trained them--that cook has,” explained the conductor as a
whistle from the engine sent them all hurrying back into the train.
“We pass here every other day at just this same time and that old
cook--he’s just as regular with his bucket of scraps as the road is
running the train! And I’ll declare it does seem to me those pigs are
the smartest about knowing which is the dining car! They don’t miss
it. And that one old hog, he’s got her trained to climb up to the door
every time! Who’s ever heard of a cook like that? And he always wants
the children on the train to see it--that cook does!”
“Don’t they do the queerest things in Florida!” exclaimed Mary Jane as
she settled back into her seat and picked up her box of strawberries
again. “First there were orstriches and alligators--’member how they
slid down that shoot, Alice?”
“Do I?” cried Alice, laughing at the recollection; “and remember the
jelly fish and the crawdads, Mary Jane?” Mary Jane giggled.
“But who would ever have thought of pigs eating from the dining car?”
continued Alice.
The ride that afternoon seemed long and the girls had almost tired of
drawing pictures and counting stops and talking of the sights they had
seen when the twilight brought the porter to light the lamps and the
dining car man shouting, “First call for dinner! Dinner in the dining
car!”