TOMMY TOLLIVER: SEAMAN
Tommy shook hands with Anne, then sat down disconsolately on the bottom
step.
"Yes," he said, "it's me."
After a moment's uncomfortable silence, Anne asked, "Didn't you like
it, Tommy?"
Tommy looked gloomy.
"Aw," he burst out, "they thought I was too young--"
"Did you go as far as China?" questioned Amelia, eagerly.
"Of course he didn't, Amelia," said Nannie with a superior air; "he has
only been away three weeks."
"Then you didn't get me any preserved ginger," pouted Amelia.
"How could I?" But Tommy looked sheepish, as the memory of certain
boastful promises came to him.
"Anyhow," he announced suddenly, "I'm not going to give up. I am going
to be a sailor some day--if I have to run away again."
At that Judy sat up and fixed him with burning eyes.
"Did you go to sea?" she asked, intensely.
"I tried to."
"How far did you get?"
"To Baltimore."
"And they wouldn't have you?"
"No. And I had used up all my money, so I had to come back."
"Have you ever been on the ocean?"
"No. Have you?"
"Yes. My father was in the navy."
"Gee--" Tommy drew near to this fascinating stranger.
"The next time you want to run away, you tell me," said Judy, and sank
back on the hay, "and I'll help you."
"But, Judy," said horrified little Anne, "he isn't going to run away
any more--he is going to stay here, and please his father and go to
school--aren't you, Tommy?"
Tommy looked from the fair little girl to the dark thin one. Hitherto
Anne had been his ideal of gentle girlhood, but in Judy he now found a
kindred spirit, a girl with a daring that more than matched his own--a
girl who loved the sea--who knew about the sea--who could tell him
things.
"Aw--I don't know," he said, uncertainly. "I guess I can run away if I
want to, Anne."
"No, you can't," cried Anne. "You ought not to encourage him, Judy."
"I'm not encouraging him," said Judy, but there was a wicked sparkle in
her eyes.
Tommy saw it and swaggered a little. He had returned home in the
spirit of the prodigal son. He was ready to be forgiven. To eat of
the fatted calf--if he should be so lucky. If not, to eat humble pie.
The sight of the familiar fields and roads had even brought tears to
his eyes. But now--!
"A fellow can't be tied to a little old place like this all his life,"
he said, toploftically, "you can't expect it, Anne."
"I don't expect it," said little Anne, quietly, "but if you had seen
your mother after you ran away, Tommy--"
At that Tommy lowered his head.
"I know--" he stammered, huskily, "poor little mother."
"Tell me about her," he said. And now he turned his back on the dark
young lady on the hay.
But Launcelot's voice broke in on Anne's story. He came in all wet and
dripping.
"How's Judy?" he began, then stopped and whistled.
"Hello," he exclaimed, "hello, Bobby Shafto."
"Oh, I say," said Tommy, very red.
"I thought you were on the high seas by now," said Launcelot.
"Well, I wanted to be," said Tommy, resentfully.
"I am glad you're back. We have missed you awfully, old chap," and
Launcelot slapped him on the shoulder in hearty greeting.
"How is Judy?" he asked.
"Better, thank you," said the young lady in the corner. "Tommy was a
tonic and came just in time."
"Well, I am glad you found some kind of tonic. Perkins didn't have a
thing but some mustard and red pepper, and I was feeling for you if we
had to dose you with either of those."
Judy started to laugh, but stopped suddenly.
"I forgot," she said, "I am mad at you--"
"Oh, no, you're not."
"But I am--"
"Because I carried you across the field when you didn't want me to?"
"Yes."
"My child," advised Launcelot, "don't be silly."
"Oh," raged Judy, and turned her back to him.
Launcelot looked down at her for a moment.
"You know that tree where you fainted?" he asked.
A little shrug of Judy's shoulder was the only answer.
"Well, it was struck by lightning before I got back--"
"Really--?" Judy was facing him now, breathless with interest.
"Really, Judy." His face was very grave.
"Oh, oh," she wailed, softly, "oh, and I might have been there--"
"Yes."
She shivered and sat up. Her wet hair, half braided, trailed its dark
length over her shoulder. Her eyes were big, and her face was white.
"What a baby I was," she said, nervously, "what a baby, Launcelot--not
to see the danger--"
"You trust to your Uncle Launcelot, next time, little girl, and don't
get fussy," was the big boy's way of stopping her thanks.
"I will," she promised, and the smile she gave him meant more than the
words.
"It has stopped raining," said Anne from the door.
The cool spring air blew across the fields softly, bringing with it the
fresh smell of the sodden earth and the scent of the wet pines.
"The Judge will be here in a minute," said Launcelot; "he stayed in the
carriage, and Perkins put up the curtains, so that they managed to keep
pretty dry.
"I wonder if there will be room for me to ride home?" Tommy asked. "I
am dead tired."
"I guess so. The Judge has the big wagon with the three seats. Pretty
long tramp you had, didn't you?" and Launcelot looked at the boy's
dusty shoes.
"Awful," said Tommy, with a quiver in his voice at the remembrance.
"Hungry?" questioned Launcelot, briefly.
"Awful," said Tommy again. "I haven't had a square meal for a week,"
and now the quiver was intensified.
Amelia clasped her hands tragically. "Oh, Tommy," she asked in a
stricken tone, "didn't you almost die?"
But just then Tommy caught Judy's eye on him, and was forced to
continue his character of bold adventurer.
"Oh, a man must expect things like that," he asserted. "Suppose it had
been a desert island--"
"Or a shipwreck," said Amelia, "with bread and water for a week."
"Or pirates," ventured Nannie.
"Oh, pirates," sniffed the dark young lady on the hay; "there aren't
any pirates now."
"Well, there are shipwrecks," defended Tommy.
"Yes, but they are not half as interesting as they used to be."
"And desert islands."
"A few maybe. But it is such an old story to hear about Robinson
Crusoes."
Tommy looked blank. He had always implicitly believed the marvelous
tales of yarn spinners, and his soul had been fired by the thought of a
life of adventure on the deep. He had talked to the little girls until
they had accounted him somewhat of a hero and looked to him to perform
great feats of bravery.
"I don't see any fun in going to sea, then," he said, dolefully, "if
there ain't any pirates and shipwrecks and things like that--"
"It isn't those things that make you love the sea, Tommy," cried Judy.
"It is the smell of it, and the wind, and the wide blue water and the
wide blue sky. It is something in your blood. I don't believe you
really love it at all, Tommy Tolliver."
She got up from the couch and began to gather up her wet hair, and only
Launcelot saw that she did it to hide her tears.
But Tommy was blind to her emotion. "Yes, I do," he asserted, stoutly.
"I do love it, and I bet I could find a treasure island if I tried."
Judy stamped her foot impatiently. "Oh, you couldn't," she blazed,
"you couldn't, Tommy Tolliver; you could just go to work like a common
seaman and get your tobacco and your grog, and be frozen and stiff in
the winter storms and hot and weary in the summer ones. But if you
really loved the sea you wouldn't care--you wouldn't care, just so you
could be rocked to sleep by it at night, and wake to hear it ripple
against the sides of the boat--"
"Gee--" said Tommy, open-mouthed at this outburst.
"Tommy," said Launcelot, with a glance at Judy's excited face and at
the trembling hands that could scarcely fasten her hair, "you don't
know a sailboat from a scow."
"I do," cried the indignant Tommy, switching his attention from Judy to
Launcelot, with whom he was deep in the argument when the carriage came.
The Judge read Tommy a little lecture as he welcomed him back, and then
he ordered Perkins to give the runaway something to eat, and thereby
tempered justice with mercy. And as Tommy had expected the scolding
and had not expected the good things, it is to be feared that the
latter made the greater impression.
"And how is my girl?" asked the Judge, beaming on Judy.
"All right," said Judy, and tucked her hand into his, "only I am a
little tired, grandfather."
"Of course you are. Of course you are," said the Judge. "We must go
right home. Perkins and I will sit on the front seat, and you can all
crowd in behind--I guess there will be room enough."
"Oh, I say," said Launcelot, as Tommy and Anne sat down on the floor at
the back, with their feet on the step, "that won't do. You sit with
Judy, Anne."
But Anne shook her head.
"Tommy and I are going to sit here," she said. "He wants me to tell
him all the news."
But that was not all that Tommy wanted, for when they were alone and
unseen by those in the front of the wagon, he opened a handkerchief
which he had carried knotted into a bundle.
"I brought you some things. They ain't much, but I thought you would
like to have them."
There were a half-dozen pink and white shells, a starfish, and a few
pretty pebbles.
"I picked them up on the beach," said Tommy, "and I thought you might
like them."
"It was awfully good of you to think of me," said little Anne,
gratefully.
"I wanted to buy you something," apologized Tommy. "There was some
lovely jewelry made out of fish-scales, but I didn't have a cent to
spare."
"I would rather have these, really, Tommy," said Anne, with
appreciation, "because you found them yourself."
She tied them up carefully in her little clean white handkerchief, and
then she folded her hands in her lap and told Tommy everything that had
happened since he left home.
The sky was red with the blaze of the setting sun when the carriage
started. Overhead the crows were flying in a straight black line to
the woods to roost. As Anne talked on, the fireflies began to shine
against the blue-gray of the twilight; then came darkness and the stars.
"It seems awfully good to be at home," confessed Tommy, as the lights
began to twinkle in the nearest farmhouse, "if only father won't scold."
"I think he will scold, Tommy--he was awfully angry--but your mother
will be so pleased."
"It was horrid sleeping out at night and tramping days." Tommy was
unburdening his soul. It was so easy to tell things to gentle,
sympathetic Anne. "And the men around the wharf were so rough--"
"I am sure you won't want to go again," said little Anne, "not for a
long time, Tommy."
Tommy looked around cautiously. He didn't want Judy to hear, somehow.
He was afraid of her teasing laugh. Then he leaned down close to
Anne's ear:
"I'll stay here for awhile, Anne."
"I'm so glad, Tommy," said Anne, with a sigh of relief.
But as they drove into the great gateway, and the lights from the big
house shone out in welcome, Tommy sighed:
"But I would like to find a treasure island, Anne," he said.