COMMENCING BUSINESS.
When they reached home, Harry and Kate put together what little money
they had, and found that they could buy food enough to last Aunt Matilda
for several days. This Harry procured and carried down to the old woman
that day. He also gathered and piled up inside of her cabin a good
supply of wood. Fortunately, there was a spring very near her door, so
that she could get water without much trouble.
Harry and Kate determined that they would commence business in earnest
the next morning, and, as this was not the season for game, they
determined to go to work to gather sumac-leaves.
Most of us are familiar with the sumac-bush, which grows nearly all over
the United States. Of course we do not mean the poisonous swamp-sumac,
but that which grows along the fences and on the edges of the woods. Of
late years the leaves of this bush have been greatly in demand for
tanning purposes, and, in some States, especially in Virginia, sumac
gathering has become a very important branch of industry, particularly
with the negroes; many of whom, during the sumac season, prefer
gathering these leaves to doing any other kind of work. The sumac-bush
is quite low, and the leaves are easily stripped off. They are then
carefully dried, and packed in bags, and carried to the nearest place of
sale, generally a country store.
The next morning, Harry and Kate made preparations for a regular
expedition. They were to take their dinner, and stay all day. Kate was
enraptured--even more so, perhaps, than Harry. Each of them had a large
bag, and Harry carried his gun, for who could tell what they might meet
with? A mink, perhaps, or a fox, or even a beaver! They had a long walk,
but it was through the woods, and there was always something to see in
the woods. In a couple of hours, for they stopped very often, they
reached a little valley, through which ran Crooked Creek. And on the
banks of Crooked Creek were plenty of sumac-bushes. This place was at
some distance from any settlement, and apparently had not been visited
by sumac gatherers.
"Hurra!" cried Kate, "here is enough to fill a thousand bags!"
Harry leaned his gun against a tree, and hung up his shot and powder
flasks, and they both went to work gathering sumac. There was plenty of
it, but Kate soon found that what they saw would not fill a thousand
bags. There were a good many bushes, but they were small; and, when all
the leaves were stripped off one, and squeezed into a bag, they did not
make a very great show. However, they did very well, and, for an hour or
so, they worked on merrily. Then they had dinner. Harry built a fire. He
easily found dry branches, and he had brought matches and paper with
him. At a little distance under a great pine-tree, Kate selected a level
place, and cleared away the dead leaves and the twigs, leaving a smooth
table of dry and fragrant pine-needles. On this she spread the cloth,
which was a napkin. Then she took from the little basket she had brought
with her a cake of corn-meal, several thick and well-buttered slices of
wheat bread, some hard-boiled eggs, a little paper of pepper and salt, a
piece of cheese, and some fried chicken. When this was spread out (and
it would not all go on the cloth), Harry came, and looked at the repast.
"What is there to cook?" said he.
Kate glanced over her table, with a perplexed look upon her countenance,
and said, "I don't believe there is anything to cook."
"But we ought to cook something," said Harry. "Here is a splendid fire.
What's the good of camping out if you don't cook things?"
"But everything is cooked," said Kate.
"So it seems," said Harry, in a somewhat discouraged tone. Had he built
that beautiful fire for nothing? "We ought to have brought along
something raw," said he. "It is ridiculous eating a cold dinner, with a
splendid fire like that."
"We might catch some fish," said Kate; "we should have to cook _them_."
"Yes," said Harry, "but I brought no lines."
So, as there was nothing else to be done, they ate their dinner cold,
and when they had finished, Kate cleared off the table by giving the
napkin a flirt, and they were ready for work again. But first they went
to look for a spring, where they could get a drink. In about half an
hour they found a spring, and some wild plums, and some blackberries,
and a grape-vine (which would surely be full of grapes in the fall, and
was therefore a vine to be remembered), and a stone, which Kate was
quite certain was an Indian arrow-head, and some tracks in the white
sand, which must have been made by some animal or other, although
neither of them was able to determine exactly what animal.
When they returned to the pine-tree, Kate took up her bag. Harry
followed her example, but somewhat slowly, as if he were thinking of
something else.
"I tell you, Harry," said Kate, "suppose you take your gun and go along
the creek and see what that was that made the tracks. If it was anything
with fur on it, it would come to more than the sumac. I will stay here,
and go on filling my bag."
"Well," said Harry, after a moment's hesitation, "I might go a little
way up the creek. I needn't be gone long. I would certainly like to find
that creature, if I can."
"All right," said Kate; "I think you'll find it."
So Harry loaded his gun, and hurried off to find the tracks of the
mysterious, and probably fur-covered animal.
Kate worked away cheerfully, singing a little song, and filling her bag
with the sumac-leaves. It was now much warmer, and she began to find
that sumac picking, all alone, was not very interesting, and she hoped
that Harry would soon find his animal, whatever it was. Then, after
picking a little longer, she thought she would sit down, and rest
awhile. So she dragged her bag to the pine-tree, and sat down, leaning
her back against the tall trunk. She took her bag of sumac in her arms,
and lifted it up, trying to estimate its weight.
"There must be ten pounds here!" she said, "No--it don't feel very
heavy, but then there are so many of the leaves. It ought to weigh
fifteen pounds. And they will be a cent a pound if we take pay in trade,
and three-quarters of a cent if we want cash. But, of course, we will
take things in trade."
And then she put down the bag, and began to calculate.
"Fifteen pounds, fifteen cents, and at seventy-seven and three-quarter
cents per week, that would support Aunt Matilda nearly a day and a half;
and then, if Harry has as much more, that will keep her almost three
days; and if we pick for two hours longer, when Harry comes back, we may
get ten pounds more apiece, which will make it pretty heavy; but then we
won't have to come again for nearly five days; and if Harry shoots an
otter, I reckon he can get a dollar for the skin--or a pair of gloves
of it--kid gloves, and my pink dress--and we'll go in the
carriage--two horses--four horses--a prince with a feather--some
butterflies--" and Kate was asleep.
When Kate awoke, she saw by the sun that she had been asleep for several
hours. She sprang to her feet. "Where is Harry?" she cried. But nobody
answered. Then she was frightened, for he might be lost. But soon she
reflected that that was very ridiculous, for neither of them could be
lost in that neighborhood which they knew so well. Then she sat down and
waited, quite anxiously, it must be admitted. But Harry did not come,
and the sun sank lower. Presently she rose with an air of determination.
"I can't wait any longer," she said, "or it will be dark before I get
home. Harry has followed that thing up the creek ever so far, and there
is no knowing when he will get back, and it won't do for me to stay
here. I'll go home, and leave a note for him."
She put her hand in her pocket, and there was Harry's pencil, which she
had borrowed in the morning and forgot to return, and also the piece of
paper on which she had made her calculation of the cost of Aunt
Matilda's board. The back of this would do very well for a note. So she
wrote on it:
I am going home, for it is getting late. I shall go back by the same
road we came. Your sumac-bag is in the bushes between the tree and
the creek. Bring this piece of paper with you, as it has Aunt
Matilda's expenses on the outside.
Kate.
This note she pinned up against the pine tree, where Harry could not
fail to see it. Then she hid her brother's sumac-bag in the bushes and,
shouldering her own bag, which, by-the-way, did not weigh so many pounds
as she thought it did, set out for home.