THE RAFT.
The children prevailed upon Mr. Seth to make the raft, with much less
difficulty than they had anticipated, and likewise obtained the aid of
Harry, Alex, and Enoch.
Mr. Seth stipulated, however, that but one of them should go
pigeon-shooting at a time, thus leaving two to guard him. The boys also
took their guns, and thus he was protected by ten or twelve rifles.
"Well, Uncle Seth," said Harry, "I'll take my broad-axe along; for, if
I am to stay by you, I might as well help."
They found many cedars that had been killed by forest fires, and dry on
the stump. Some of them had large hollow butts. They plugged up these
ends, thus making air-chambers that rendered the logs very buoyant:
therefore there was not the least need of bladders, though the boys
insisted on having a number enclosed in the logs. These logs were hewed
on the top and flattened on two sides, brought close together, and then
confined by cross-ties at each end and in the middle. These cross-ties
were treenailed to each log, thus making it impossible for any log to
work out, or the raft to get apart; and the water could not slop up
between the logs, they were so closely jointed and bound together. Long
pins were driven at the four corners, by which to fasten the raft. To
crown the whole, they made proper setting-poles and an oar to steer
with, and drove two stout pins in the centre of each end, between which
the oar was dropped to confine it.
Mr. Seth, who now entered into the matter with as much interest as the
children themselves, told Sam and Ike to go and tell his brother Israel
to send him a bark rope that he had made several months before, and put
in the corn-crib. He said he would give them the rope to fasten their
raft to the shore with, and made them a fisherman's wooden anchor to
hold the raft when they went a fishing.
When they came back with the rope, they were accompanied by Mr.
Honeywood, whom they had persuaded to come and see what Mr. Seth and
Harry were doing for them.
When Mr. Seth had finished making the anchor, he put it on the raft
with the rope, and said, "There, boys, there you are: that raft won't
drown you if you only keep on it."
With joyous shouts, the boys leaped on it, jumping, capering, and
yelling like wild creatures, and, seizing the poles, pushed off into
the stream. After looking at them a few minutes, Mr. Seth picked up his
tools, and went home; but Mr. Honeywood and the others sought game in
the woods.
When they came back, the boys had been some distance down the stream,
and returned, and were in the middle of the river.
"Shove the raft in here, boys," said Honeywood, "and I'll show you
something."
They did so, and Honeywood took the steering-oar, put it between the
pins, and began to scull the raft against the current at a great rate.
This was something new to the boys: they were mightily pleased, and
wanted to try their hands at it. Honeywood instructed them in a short
time. Sam, Ike, and the older boys, learned the motion, were able to
keep the oar under water, and move the raft, and kept at it till it was
time to go home.
If Mr. Seth before he made the raft (to quote an expression of the
lamented Tony) "was the goodest man that ever was," his goodness now
must have been beyond the power of language to express. The boys lay
awake half the night, telling each other of all his goodness, and
planning as to what they should do, now they had got the raft.
The next forenoon was all taken up in learning to scull, there were so
many of them to practise; then they had to talk, and fool, and fuss so
long about it. Every few minutes the oar would slip or come out of the
water while some boy was doing his "level best;" and he would fall flat
on his back, receiving a poult on the nose from the end of the oar,
that would make him see stars.
Archie Crawford was trying his hand, when Ike, who was looking at him,
exclaimed,--
"Oh, pshaw! what sculling that is! let me show you how it's done."
Seizing the oar, he made several mighty strokes; the raft was moving
lively, when one of the pins broke, and away went Ike into the river.
They now anchored the raft at a little distance from the shore, as far
as they thought they could swim, and then, diving, made for the shore.
The diving, being in a slanting direction, carried them a good part of
the distance to the bank. After practising in this manner a while, they
moved the raft a little farther from the bank; and, thus doing, they
learned to swim faster than by any other method.
Those who could not swim a stroke were not afraid to dive in the
direction of the shore, when, as they came up, they could feel the
bottom with their feet; and in this way they became sensible of the
power of the water to support them, and that it was not easy to reach
the bottom while holding their breath. It was a great deal better
method than wading in. The next move was to fish from the raft; and
while thus engaged they amused themselves in a manner by no means to
be commended. It must be considered, however, that they were frontier
boys, and their training had not been of a character to cultivate the
finer feelings and sympathies of humanity.
We remember that they had resolved never to take a scalp, though most
of their parents believed and taught them that scalping an Indian was
no more harm than scalping a wolf.
Bobby Holt proposed fastening two of the largest fish together by their
tails, and then tying a bladder to them, which was no sooner proposed
than done. The fish would make for the bottom, and for a while succeed
in keeping there; but, becoming tired, up would come the bladder, and
the fish after it. Again, the fish would swim with great velocity along
the surface of the water till exhausted, then turn belly up, and die.
Others would swim in different directions till they wore one another
out.
Probably the words of Holdness, McClure, and Israel Blanchard did not
produce much impression upon the minds of the children; but those of
Honeywood did, who told them they were as bad as the Indians, who took
pleasure in torturing their captives, and that it was wrong in the
sight of God, who did not give mankind authority over the animals that
they might abuse them. He went on to say, that cruelty and cowardice
were near of kin; and that many a man would run at the sound of the
war-whoop, and turn pale at the sight of an Indian alive, tomahawk
in hand, who would be mean enough to scalp the unresisting dead, or
torture a helpless fish. The reproof of Uncle Seth, however, cut the
deepest, who said that if he had once thought they would do as they had
done (as he had heard they had done, for he could hardly credit the
story), he certainly would not have made the raft. He made it for them
because he loved them, that they might amuse themselves; but how could
he love boys that were so cruel?
Upon this Sam Sumerford got up in his lap, and said he was sorry,
and would never torment a fish or any other creature again; so they
all said, and would not be satisfied till he told them that he truly
forgave and loved them as aforetime.
I never knew a boy who didn't like to play in water, and paddle about
on a raft, even if it consisted of only two or three boards or parts of
boards, whose floating capacity was not sufficient to prevent the water
from washing into his shoes, with a mud-hole for a pond, or an old
cellar partly filled with rain-water.
Therefore it may well be doubted whether Mr. Seth could have
constructed any thing out of which those boys would have obtained more
fun and innocent amusement than they contrived in various ways to get
from that raft. From it they could dive; on its smooth floor, could
leave their clothes while bathing, bask in the sun to dry off, and run
about barefoot without getting splinters in their feet; and they could
move it to any spot where the depth of water and quality of the bottom
suited them.
Borrowing an auger and gouge from Mr. Seth, they made a three-inch hole
in the cross-tie at one end of the raft, and another in the middle tie.
Into these holes they put two large hemlock bushes as large as they
could possibly handle, and sailed under them before the wind at a great
rate.
The return was not quite so romantic, but they contrived to extract
amusement even from that.
They took down the bushes, kept near the shore, and the trip afforded
an excellent opportunity for learning to scull.
After making their trial-trip, they invited the girls to sail with
them, and fish from the raft. Satisfied with sailing, they began to
fish; and rocks, sheep's heads, catfish, sunfish, and at times a trout,
were flapping on the raft.
In order that what follows may be intelligible to transient readers, it
is necessary to inform them, that, some months before the period under
consideration, Sam Sumerford and Tony Stewart captured three bear-cubs,
and brought them home. One of them, that had a white stripe on his
face, was instantly appropriated by Mrs. Sumerford's baby, and went
by the name of baby's bear. The other two were the boys' pets. One of
them proving vicious, they were both killed. Baby's bear, however, was
as mild as a rabbit, and when small used to lie in the foot of baby's
cradle. As the bear grew larger, the child would lie down on him and go
to sleep.
There were seven or eight large wolf-dogs belonging to different
neighbors, savage enough, and prompt at any moment to grapple with bear
or wolf; but when pups, and while the settlers lived in the fort, they
had been reared with the cubs, and always ate and slept with them. No
one of the dogs ever had any difference with baby's bear, though they
often quarrelled with each other. The boys were very fond of these
dogs, and always at play with them.
It chanced on this particular day, that Tony's dog (who, since the
loss of his young master, had been very lonely) started off on a visit
to Archie Crawford's Lion, and the twain went over to make a friendly
call on Sam Sumerford's Watch.
They snuffed round a while, poked their noses into every place where
they imagined their friend and his master might be; and, not finding
him, began to feel lonesome and disappointed. After a while, Lion
lighted upon Sammy's track, and of some of the other boys who had come
to Mrs. Sumerford's to start with Sammy, told his companion what he had
discovered, and proposed that they should follow the trail.
Off went the two dogs with noses to the ground, and tails in the air,
and soon came to the river; and, sitting down upon the bank, they began
to bark and whine. They were soon joined by Sam's Watch, who, missing
his master, had been looking for him in another direction, and, hearing
the others bark, came to the stream.
"Look," said Archie, "there's Sammy's Watch, my Lion, and Tony's Rover,
all sitting on the bank."
When the dogs started, baby's bear was half asleep in the sun on the
door-stone, and hardly noticed them when they came and smelled of him.
After they had gone, he roused up, stared round, and shook himself,
and, feeling lonesome too, moved along after them.
Instead of sitting down as the dogs had done, when he reached the bank,
he entered the water, and swam towards the raft.
"Oh!" shouted Sammy, "only look at baby's bear coming to see us fish:
isn't he good? we'll have him on the raft with us."
"Yes, and the dogs are coming too: won't it be nice to have 'em all?"
said Maud.
It proved, however, not to be so very nice, after all. The raft was
already loaded nearly to its capacity; and when the bear (which weighed
three hundred pounds when dry, much more wet) put his fore-paws on the
raft in order to mount, he pressed it to the water's edge. The girls
began to scream, and the boys to kick the bear, and pound him on the
head, to make him let go. And now came the dogs: the bear was resolved
to get on the raft, and the dogs too. In this exigency the boys all
jumped into the water, holding by their hands to the raft, in order
to lighten it, upon which the dogs relinquished their purpose, and
kept swimming round the boys; but not so the bear, who, scrabbling on
the raft, shook himself, drenching the girls with spray; and, seating
himself in the middle, cast approving glances round him from his wicked
little eyes.
It was found that the raft would bear part of the boys; and Sam and Ike
Proctor, getting upon it, pulled up the anchors, and sculled to the
shore; the bear meanwhile regaling himself with fish, thus making it
evident why he was so anxious to get on the raft.
There was no harm done: the girls, to be sure, were pretty well
sprinkled, but it was no great matter, as they were all barefoot.
After reaching the shore, the girls concluded to go on the mountain,
and pick berries in the hot sun till their clothes were dried.
Mrs. Armstrong had sent word for the boys to catch some blood-suckers
(leeches) to apply to her husband's wound that was inflamed. The boys,
therefore, thought best to get them while the girls were berrying, and
while they were wet. They all went to a frog-pond near by, stripped
up their trousers, waded into the water, and, when the blood-suckers
came to fasten on their legs, caught them in their hands, and put them
into a pail of water. Some of the boys, who wanted a new sensation,
would permit them to fasten on their legs, and suck their fill till
they became gorged, and dropped off of their own accord. Sam Sumerford
had no less than three on his right leg, and was sitting on a log
with his legs in the water, patiently waiting for the leeches to fill
themselves, with his head on his hands, half asleep.
Suddenly he leaped from the log, with a fearful yell, and ran out of
the water, dragging a snapping turtle after him, as big over as a
half-bushel, that had fastened to his right foot. They all ran to his
aid.
"He won't let go till it thunders," said Dan Mugford: "they never do."
"Cut his head off, then: cut him all to pieces," cried the sufferer.
"If you can bear it a little while, Sammy," said Jim Grant, "till we
pry his mouth open easy, we can keep him, and have him to play with,
and set the dogs on him."
"I guess, if he had your foot in his mouth, you wouldn't want to bear
it, Jim Grant: kill him, I tell you, quicker!"
Archie held the turtle, and Ike pulled his head out of his shell, and
cut it off. Even then the jaws were set so hard that it required some
force to open them.
The injury was above the roots of the great and second toes, and severe
enough to wound the flesh and cause blood to run freely; but the
resolute boy plastered some clay on it, and went berrying with the rest.
Before starting for home with the leeches, they consulted in respect to
the manner in which they should amuse themselves the next day.
This, of course, implied that they should do something with the raft.
"We've sailed, fished, and learned to scull; and now we want to do
something we never did do," said Ike.
"Then let's sail up to the leaning hemlock," said Mugford, "where
there's plenty of fish; and get clay and flat stones, and build a
fire-place on the raft, borrow Mrs. Honeywood's Dutch oven, get
potatoes, pork, and fixin's, and have a cook on the raft."