JOE'S PLAN.
Sam's illness continued day after day, and the boys were greatly
troubled. Little Judie remained by her "big brother's" side almost
constantly, while Tom and Joe provided food, cooked it, and attended to
the wants of the little community to the very best of their ability.
They were in the habit too, of retiring now and then, to a secluded spot
in the drift-pile, to consult and discuss plans of procedure. One day
Tom went to the rendezvous and found Joe there leaning against a log,
with his feet on another, and his eyes closed.
"Are you asleep, Joe?" he asked.
"No, Mas' Tom, I'se not asleep," said Joe, "I'se just thinkin'."
"Well, what were you thinking, Joe?"
"I'se been layin' plans, Mas' Tom, an' I's laid one good un anyhow."
"What is it, Joe?"
"Well, you see Mas' Sam ought to have a doctor, an' he's gwine to die if
he don't, dat's sartain. But dey ain't no doctor here."
Joe said this as if it were a new truth just discovered, that there was
no doctor there.
"Well, go on, Joe," said Tom, "and tell me your plan, maybe it's a good
one."
"Course it's a good un. I dun tell you dat fust."
"Well, what is it?"
"Mas' Tom, don't you know Mas' Sam always begins 'way back whar' he's
been thinkin' an' tells all dat fust so you kin see all de why's and
wharfores?"
"Yes; but what has that to do with your plan, Joe?"
"Nothin', only dat's de way I'se gwine to 'splain my plan, I'se dun
begun way back whar I'se dun been thinkin', an' I'se gwine to tell all
'bout dat fust. Den you'll understan' de whys and wharfores. You mus'n't
hurry me, Mas' Tom, dat's all."
"All right, tell it your own way, Joe," said Tom, laughing.
"No, I'se gwine to tell it Mas' Sam's way. Well, you see dey ain't no
doctor here an' we can't git one to come here neither. So we must take
Mas' Sam to whar' dey is doctors, do you see?"
"That's all very well," said Tom, "but how are we to do that?"
"Now you'se hurryin' me again, Mas' Tom. Dat's just what I'se a-comin'
to. Mas' Sam said de other mornin' dat if we was up de river about eight
miles furder, de fort would be only six miles away, an' de country would
be easy 'nuff to cross. He dun say we couldn't git up de river, but we
_kin_. You see Mas' Sam was sick, an' dat's de reason he say dat. Now I
dun bin thinkin' of a way to git up de river. Dey's lots of cane here,
an' you an' me kin twis' canes one over de other like de splits in a
cha'r bottom, an' dat way, when we gits a dozen big squars of it made,
as big both ways as the canes is long, we kin lay 'em on top o' one an'
other, an' fasten 'em togedder wid bamboos, an' it'll be a fust-rate
raft. Den you an' me kin pole it up stream, keepin' close to de shore,
wid Mas' Sam an' little Miss Judie on it. When we git up dar, I kin go
over to de fort, leavin' you wid Mas' Sam till de folks comes after you
all."
This was Joe's plan of operations, and upon thinking it over Tom was
disposed to think it the best plan possible under the circumstances.
Accordingly he and Joe went to work at once. They could not make the
raft inside the drift-pile, for want of room, but they found a place in
the bushes near the mouth of the creek, where they could work
unobserved. They cut down a large number of the flexible green canes,
and wove them together into a square net work. Repeating this operation
several times they finally had enough of the squares to make, they
thought, a secure raft, when laid one on top of the other. It would not
do to join them in the bushes however, as that would make their weight
so great that the boys could not lift them to the water. They
determined, therefore, to get their pushing poles first, and then to
carry the squares one by one to the river, and, arranging them there, to
embark soon after nightfall. The work of construction had occupied many
days, and it was now the 12th of November. The boys hoped to complete
their undertaking the next day and embark the next night. After their
return to the drift-pile, however, it occurred to Tom to inquire whether
or not Joe knew the way from the river to the fort, after they should
reach the end of their voyage.
"I 'clar', Mas' Tom, I never thought o' dat at all!" said Joe in
consternation. "I dunno a foot of de way, an' I dunno whar' de fort is
either."
Tom being equally ignorant, their long consultation held on the spot,
ended in an enforced abandonment of the enterprise which had occupied
their heads and hands for so long a time.
"Now dar' it is, Mas' Tom," said Joe. "Dat's always the way. Mas' Sam
never makes no blunder, 'cause he thinks it all out careful fust. Poor
Joe's head gets things all mixed up. I ain't no count anyhow, an' I jest
wish I was dead or somethin'."
Poor Joe! The disappointment was a sore one to him. He had been thinking
all along of the glory he should reap as the saviour of the little
party, and now his whole plan was found to be worthless. He slept little
that night, and once Tom heard him quietly sobbing in his corner.
Creeping over to him Tom said:
"Don't cry, Joe. You did your best anyhow, and it isn't your fault that
you don't know the way to the fort," and passing his arm around the poor
black boy's neck he gently drew his head to his shoulder, where it
rested while the two slept.
The next morning Judie was the first to wake, and she quietly waked Tom
and Joe.
"Boys, boys," she cried in a whisper, "the Indians are all around us,
there is a fight going on. Get up quick, but don't make any noise."
The little girl was right. Rifles were cracking and Indians yelling all
around their little habitation. It at once occurred to Tom that here was
hope as well as danger. If the Indians should be driven back by the
whites, he could communicate with the latter and the little garrison of
the root fortress would be rescued. At present, however, it was the
savages and not the whites who surrounded the trees and the drift pile.
Tom determined lose no chance, however, and cautioning the others to
keep still, he went to the look-out to watch for an opportunity to
communicate with the white men whom these Indians were evidently
fighting.