WATER PLAY
THE floating wharf, as has been said, lay at the end of a long, narrow
slip that ran out on piers over the water. Down the slip, one by one,
now came the Merryweathers and their guests, in bathing array, the boys
shouting and skylarking,--the girls singing and tossing their long hair
about. Jack and Phil brought out a long spring-board, and set it up at
the end of the wharf; and then the fun began. Mr. Merryweather was the
first to run along the board, and take a sober and dignified dive. He
was followed by Gerald, turning handsprings, and carolling to the effect
that he was a pirate king, he was; hurrah for the pirate king! Next
came Jack, who turned a back somersault, ending with a noble splash;
and so, one by one, like so many ducks, they dove and leaped and tumbled
in, and splashed and swam about in the clear water. Peggy was with the
rest, splashing as merrily as any of them; but Margaret sat on the
wharf, in her pretty blue bathing-dress, her feet tucked under her,
looking on.
[Illustration: "'COME ON! COME IN!'"]
"Come on, Margaret!" cried Peggy. "Come on! come in! It's perfectly
great!"
"In a minute," said Margaret. "I like to watch you a bit first; it takes
me a little while to get my courage up."
"Come, oh, come with me!" sang Gerald, emerging from the water, at her
feet, and clinging to the wharf, while he shook the drops from his hair
and eyes. "Come swim with me and be my swan! Come where the duckweed
twineth! Come!"
"Oh, Gerald, yes; in just a minute. Is it very cold?"
"Cold? No; just right. Liquid crystal, sparkling sapphire, perfection!
Come, you must have your swimming lesson. Forget the cheerful
swain,--behold the stern instructor!"
He held out his hand with an imperative gesture. Margaret laid hers in
it timidly.
"Let me get near the rope!" she said, rather nervously.
"Here is the rope, close by your hand. Now, then, hold fast! There we
go!"
With one hand on the rope, and the other in Gerald's, Margaret slid into
the water, giving a little cry as it bubbled up about her. "Gerald!"
"Right here, my lady. There; both hands on the rope now. Take it easy!
Now you are all right."
"Ye'--yes, Gerald. Oh, isn't it glorious?"
"Rather! It's really the element to live in, you see. A mistake was
made somewhere. If I had but gills, I should ask no more of fate. As it
is--"
He dove, and came up on the other side of the rope. "Don't you think I
would be charming with gills,--pretty little quivering, rosy
gills,--instead of side whiskers?"
"I never saw you in side whiskers," said Margaret, demurely, "so I
cannot tell. You certainly don't seem to need the gills, though. How
_do_ you manage to keep under so long? Yesterday, when you stayed down
picking up these pebbles, I was sure something had happened. Really,
Gerald, I was very much frightened."
"I ought to have been switched," said Gerald. "I never thought of your
noticing. I say, come down with me, and I'll show you the trick of it.
It's just as easy!"
"Not for worlds!" cried Margaret, clutching the rope, as if she expected
to be dragged from it by force. "I never should come up alive. Oh,
look, Gerald! what are they going to do now?"
"Going to dive over the elephants. Do you mind--oh, here is the child,
Toots. Toots, will you stay here by Margaret, while I take my place in
the ring? You are sure you are all right, Margaret?"
"Oh, yes; do go. I want to see it. Gertrude, what _are_ they doing?"
"Look and see," said Gertrude. "Put your arms on the rope, and lift
yourself higher. That's right."
Phil and Jack and Willy had placed themselves side by side, on their
hands and knees, at the edge of the wharf, and were calling loudly for
Gerald. He stepped back to the farther end of the float, then, running
forward, soared into the air, over the backs of the "elephants," and
came down straight as an arrow into the water; then, scrambling out,
took his place in the row, while Phil performed the same manoeuvre.
Over and over and over they went, running, rising, plunging, rising
again. Margaret grew dizzy watching them. Now Mr. Merryweather advanced,
holding a rubber hoop, which was neither more nor less than the
discarded tire of a bicycle. This he and Gerald held out at arm's
length, and the other boys dove through it, amid the applause of the
girls.
"Oh, pretty!" cried Peggy. "Do you do that, girls?"
"Gertrude does; I haven't tried it yet," said Bell, who was floating
placidly, her arms under her head, her face turned to the sky.
"I am going to try," said Peggy. "May I, Mr. Merryweather?"
"By all means!" said the Chief, heartily. "Take a good run--steady,
Jerry. Hold it out well--there! hurrah!"
For Peggy had gone through the hoop like a bird, and after a clean dive,
was coming up again, radiant and panting.
"Oh, Peggy, how splendid!" cried Margaret, her eyes shining with
pleasure and pride in her Peggy's prowess. "Gertrude, didn't she do it
well? Such a pretty, graceful thing to do."
"_C'etait une corquerre!_" said Gerald, heartily. "_Elle est aussi une
corquerre, la Peggy._ You will be doing it soon yourself."
"Oh, never, never! You cannot seem to understand, Gerald, that I am not
_made_ for these things. I love to see them; I admire them intensely,
but I cannot so much as think of trying."
"_Point de stonte pour Marguerite?_" said Gerald. "Alas the day! Because
you really would do them so corkingly, you know, if only you should do
them. Well, see here, I am going to give you a troll. You will like
that, I am sure."
"A troll? I thought they were mountain goblins. I don't want one, thank
you, sir! water nixies and pixies are as much as I can bear in the
goblin line."
"Verb, not substantive!" replied Gerald.
"I troll, thou lettest thyself be trolled, he, she, or it sees you being
trolled and wishes that he, she, or it had such luck. Observe!"
He climbed into one of the Rangeley boats that lay near the float,
loosed her moorings, and, taking up the oars, brought her close to the
rope. "Now, Margaret, catch hold; here, at the stern!"
"What are you going to do with me, Gerald? I fear thee, ancient mariner,
I fear thy skinny hand!"
"I hold you with my glittering eye, you cannot choose but come. I am
going to take you off a-trolling. Hold on tight with your hands, and let
all the rest of you go, as if you had nothing to do with it."
He took a few strokes, slowly and easily. Margaret, clinging to the
stern, was drawn along without effort or motion of her own. Her long
hair floated behind her; her white arms gleamed like ivory through the
clear water; her face was alight with pleasure.
"'Not wholly bad, Lysander Pratt?'" quoted Gerald, interrogatively.
"Oh, Gerald! it is almost too perfect! no, you needn't stop, I only said
_almost_. The water feels like silk flowing by me: no, silk is rough
beside it; it feels like--like--"
"Like water, possibly?" said Gerald; "stranger things have been."
"Well, there isn't anything else like it, is there? Oh! are you sure you
will not take cold or anything, Gerald? I could go on forever, floating
here--trolling, I mean."
"Nothing easier," said Gerald, pulling on with long, steady strokes. "We
will just keep on; I ask nothing better. Years passed. A form was seen,
gray and bent with age, feebly tugging at a pair of oars. Trailing
behind the crazy boat, another figure might be distinguished--I forbear
further description, Margaret: I may grow old, but not you; please stay
as you are always. Anyhow, the people will flock to the shore. Ha! the
Muse! the afflatus descends.
"The people thronged the rocky shore,
And viewed that graybeard old and hoar;
'Oh! why thus dodderest at the oar,
Unhappy soul?'
The answer came: 'Forever more
She wished to troll!'"
"Gerald, I think we'd better go back now."
"Wait! she hasn't finished. Never interrupt a Muse! it isn't the thing
to do.
"And still along that rocky coast,
A gibbering yet a gallant ghost,
He dodders, dodders at his post,
Nor nears the goal;
For she, the spook he cares for most,
Still loves to troll."
"Gerald, take me back, please! see, we are ever so far from shore, and
it is time for me to go in, I am sure."
"Just look down, Margaret! see the bottom, all white sand; isn't that
pleasant? Hi! there's a bream watching his nest. See him fanning about
over it, never leaving the place. He'll keep that up for hours at a
time. Domestic party, the bream! this is an excellent opportunity to
study the habits of--"
"Gerald, I am cold!"
"We'll be there in two minutes!" said Gerald, settling to his oars.
"Hold tight, now, Margaret! troll as the wolves of Apennine were all
upon your track!" and with long, powerful strokes he sent the boat
flying through the water, while Margaret fairly shrieked with delight
and excitement.
Her face had been turned away from the float; but now she was speeding
toward it, and looked eagerly to see what the others of the party were
doing. To her great amazement, no one was in sight. The wharf lay wet
and glistening in the sunshine, but no blue-clad figures leaped and
pranced across it, no merry faces emerged from the blue, sparkling
water. All was silent and solitary.
"Why, Gerald," cried Margaret, "where are they all? have they gone in?
Surely I heard their voices just a moment ago, and a great splash: where
can they be?"
"A stunt!" replied Gerald. "For our benefit, I presume, but I scorn
their levity. I advise you to take no notice of their childish pranks. I
myself was young, once upon a time, but what then?"
They were now at the float, and Margaret looked about her, in utter
amazement. All was silent; not a voice, not a whisper; no soul was in
sight. It was as if she and Gerald were alone in the world. She stepped
out on the float: at the instant, up from under her feet rose a sound as
if the biggest giant that ever swung a club were sneezing. "A--_tchoo_!"
Margaret screamed outright. "Gerald! what is it?"
"Come out from there!" cried Gerald. "They are under the float,
imbeciles that they are. The Pater has gone ashore, and the others
manifest their nature, that is all. Come out, Apes of the Apennines! or
I'll--"
The threat remained unfinished, for the Merryweathers came out. Swarming
up from under the float, where they had been treading water at their
ease, with plenty of breathing-space, they flung themselves with one
accord upon Gerald's boat, capsized it, and dragged him into the water.
A great splashing contest ensued, with much shouting and merriment, and
they were still hard at it when "All in!" sounded from the boat-house.