ARRIVAL AT THE NEW HOME.
Some light-wood splinters were quickly thrown upon the smouldering
remains of the fire, and as it blazed up brightly, the lighter, in
which the whites had been sleeping, was seen to be on its beam ends.
One side rested high up on the bank and the other down in the mud at
the bottom of the river, just on the edge of the channel. Some little
distance down stream a sorry-looking figure, which was hardly
recognizable as that of Jan, was floundering through the mud and water
towards the bank. On the lower side of the lighter the canvas, that had
been spread like a tent over the afterpart, had broken from its
fastenings, and was now tossing and heaving in a most remarkable
manner. From beneath it came the smothered cries of the Elmers, who had
been suddenly wakened to find themselves mixed together in the most
perplexing way, and entangled in their blankets and the loose folds of
the canvas.
Captain Johnson seemed to be the only person who had his wits about
him, and who was in a condition to render any assistance. As soon as he
could pick himself up he made his way to the other end of the boat and
dragged the canvas from off the struggling family. First Mr. Elmer
emerged from the confusion, then Mrs. Elmer and Ruth were helped out,
and last of all poor Mark, who had been buried beneath the entire
family, was dragged forth, nearly smothered and highly indignant.
"It's a mean trick, and I didn't think--" he began, as soon as he got
his breath; but just then his eye fell upon the comical figure of Jan.
He was walking towards the fire, dripping mud and water from every
point, and Mark's wrath was turned into hearty laughter at this sight.
In it he was joined by all the others as soon as they saw the cause of
his mirth.
After the Elmers had been helped up the steep incline of the boat, and
were comfortably fixed near the fire, Captain Johnson and Jan, who said
he didn't mind mud now any more than an alligator, took light-wood
torches and set out to discover what had happened. As Jan climbed down
the bank into the mud, and held his torch beneath the boat, he saw in a
moment the cause of the accident, and knew just how it had occurred.
As the tide ebbed the lighter had been gradually lowered, until it
rested on the upright branches of an old water-logged tree-top that was
sunk in the mud at this place. The water falling lower and lower, the
weight upon these branches became greater and greater, until they could
support it no longer, and one side of the lighter went down with a
crash, while the other rested against the bank. Jan, who had been
sleeping on the upper side of the boat, was thrown out into the water
when it fell, as some of the Elmers doubtless would have been had not
their canvas shelter prevented such a catastrophe.
The rest of the night was spent around the fire, which was kept up to
enable Jan to dry his clothes. By daylight the tide had risen, so that
the lighter again floated on an even keel. By sunrise a simple
breakfast of bread-and-butter and coffee had been eaten, and our
emigrants were once more afloat and moving slowly up the
tropical-looking river.
About ten o'clock Captain Johnson pointed to a huge dead cypress-tree
standing on the bank of the river some distance ahead, and told the
Elmers that it marked one of the boundary-lines of Wakulla. They gazed
at it eagerly, as though expecting it to turn into something different
from an ordinary cypress, and all felt more or less disappointed at not
seeing any clearings or signs of human habitations. It was not until
they were directly opposite the village that they saw its score or so
of houses through the trees and undergrowth that fringed the bank.
As the Bangs place, to which the children gave the name of "Go Bang"--a
name that adhered to it ever afterwards--was across the river from the
village, the lighter was poled over to that side. There was no wharf,
so she was made fast to a little grassy promontory that Captain Johnson
said was once one of the abutments of a bridge. There was no bridge
now, however, and already Mark saw that his canoe was likely to prove
very useful.
The first thing to do after getting ashore and seeing the precious
canoe safely landed was to find the house. As yet they had seen no
trace of it, so heavy was the growth of trees every-where, except at
the abutment, which was built of stone, covered with earth and a thick
sod. From here an old road led away from the river through the woods,
and up it Mr. and Mrs. Elmer and Captain Johnson now walked, Mark and
Ruth having run on ahead. The elders had gone but a few steps when they
heard a loud cry from Ruth, and hurried forward fearing that the
children were in trouble. They met Ruth running back towards them,
screaming, "A snake! a snake! a horrid big snake!"
"I've got him!" shouted Mark from behind some bushes, and sure enough
there lay a black snake almost as long as Mark was tall, which he had
just succeeded in killing with a stick.
Mrs. Elmer shuddered at the sight of the snake, though her husband
assured her that it had been perfectly harmless even when alive.
Not far from where the snake had been killed they found a spring of
water bubbling up, as clear as crystal, from a bed of white sand, but
giving forth such a disagreeable odor that the children declared it was
nasty. Mr. Elmer, however, regarded it with great satisfaction, and
told them it was a sulphur spring, stronger than any he had ever seen,
and that they would find it very valuable. They all drank some of the
water out of magnolia-leaf cups; but the children made faces at the
taste, and Mark said it made him feel like a hard-boiled egg.
A path leading from the spring at right angles to the road from the
river took them into a large clearing that had once been a cultivated
field, and on the farther side of this field stood the house. As they
approached it they saw that it was quite large, two stories in height,
with dormer windows in the roof, but that it bore many signs of age and
long neglect. Some of the windows were broken and others boarded up,
while the front door hung disconsolately on one hinge.
The house stood in a grove of grand live-oaks, cedars, and magnolias,
and had evidently been surrounded by a beautiful garden, enclosed by a
neat picket-fence; but now the fence was broken down in many places,
and almost hidden by a dense growth of vines and creepers. In the
garden, rose-bushes, myrtles, oleanders, and camellias grew with a rank
and untrained luxuriance, and all were matted together with vines of
honeysuckle and clematis.
The front porch of the house was so rotten and broken that, after
forcing their way through the wild growth of the garden, the party had
to cross it very carefully in order to enter the open door. The
interior proved to be in a much better condition than they had dared
hope, judging from the outside appearance of the house. It was filled
with the close, musty odor common to deserted buildings, and they
quickly threw wide open all the windows and doors that were not nailed
up. On the first floor were four large rooms, each containing a
fireplace and several closets, and up-stairs were four more, lighted by
the dormer windows in the roof. A broad hall ran through the house from
front to rear, opening upon a wide back porch which was also much out
of repair. Beneath this porch Mr. Elmer discovered a brick cistern half
full of dirty water, which he knew must be very foul, as the gutters
along the roof were so rotten and broken that they could not have
furnished a fresh supply in a long time.
Behind the main house, and surrounded by large fig-trees, they found
another building, in a fair state of preservation, containing two
rooms, one of which had been the kitchen. In the huge fireplace of this
kitchen they were surprised to see freshly burned sticks and a quantity
of ashes, while about the floor were scattered feathers and bones, and
in one corner was a pile of moss that looked as though it has been used
for a bed. Beyond the kitchen were the ruins of several out-buildings
that had fallen by reason of their age, or been blown down during a
gale.
Having thus made a hasty exploration of their new home, the party
returned to the landing, to which their goods were being unloaded from
the lighter by Jan and the crew. Leaving Mrs. Elmer and Ruth here, Mr.
Elmer and Mark crossed the river to the village to see what they could
procure in the way of teams and help.
Of the twenty houses in the village, many of which were in a most
dilapidated condition, only two were occupied by white families, the
rest of the population being colored. There were no stores nor shops of
any kind, the only building not used as a dwelling-house being a small
church very much out of repair. The white men living in the village
were away from home, but from among the colored people, who were much
excited at the arrival of strangers in their midst, Mr. Elmer engaged
two men and their wives to cross the river and go to work at once. He
also engaged a man who owned a team of mules and a wagon, and who would
go over as soon as the lighter was unloaded and could be used to ferry
him across.
On its return to the other side, the canoe was followed by a skiff
containing the newly engaged colored help, whose amazement at
everything they saw, and especially at the canoe, was unbounded. One of
the men expressed his wonder at the little craft by saying, "Dat ar
trick's so light, I reckon it's gwine leab de water some fine day, an'
fly in de yair, like a duck."
Mrs. Elmer provided the women with brooms, mops, and pails, and took
them up to the house, where they proceeded to put the lower story in
order for immediate occupation. Mr. Elmer armed the men with axes, and
soon had them engaged in a struggle with the tangled growth in the
front yard, through which they cut a broad path to the house. While
they were doing this, Mr. Elmer and Jan cut and placed in position some
temporary supports under the rickety porches, and Mark was set work at
the windows. From these he knocked away all the boards, letting in
floods of blessed sunlight, that drove from their snug retreats numbers
of bats and several comical little owls.
One of the colored women--"Aunt Chloe Cato," as she called herself,
because she was Cato's wife--was sent into the kitchen to clean it and
to make a fire in the great fireplace. She could not explain the traces
of recent occupation, but "'lowed 'twere de ghoses, kase dis yere ole
Bang place done bin hanted."
"Well, it'll be 'hanted' now by the Elmer family," said Mark, who
overheard her, "and they'll make it lively for any other 'ghoses' that
come round."
"Don't ye, now, honey I don't ye go fo' to set up yo'sef agin de
ghoses, kase dey's powerful pernickety when dey's crassed," said the
old woman, whom Mark, with his love for nick-names, had already called
"Ole Clo."
At noon all hands stopped work to eat a hasty lunch, and soon
afterwards the lighter, being unloaded, was poled across the river for
the team. With the help of Captain Johnson and his crew, who had agreed
to remain over that night, most of the household goods were moved up to
the house during the afternoon and placed under shelter.
While this work was going on, one of the white men from the village
came over to see his new neighbors. He brought with him a wild-turkey,
half a dozen ducks, and a string of freshly caught fish, as cards of
introduction. His name was Bevil, and he welcomed the Elmers most
heartily, and said that he considered their coming a sign of better
times for that section of the country. He told Mr. Elmer that the Bangs
place used to be considered one of the finest plantations in the
county, and that its lands were as rich now as ever.
Before night the lower story of the old house looked quite comfortable,
and almost homelike; and when the family sat down to dinner, it was
with the keen appetites resulting from hard work. The dinner was a
bountiful meal, largely composed of Mr. Bevil's game and fish; and
before they ate it Mr. Elmer offered up a heart-felt thanksgiving for
the mercies that had been granted them thus far, and prayed for a
blessing on their new home.
That evening he arranged with Captain Johnson to start at daylight and
go with his lighter to the nearest saw-mill, sixty miles away, for a
load of lumber and shingles. He also commissioned him to buy and bring
back a large skiff, such as were used on the river.
The tired household went early to bed that first night in their new
home, and though their beds were made down on the floor, they all slept
soundly.
All but Mark, who, after sleeping for some hours, woke suddenly to find
himself sitting bolt-upright in bed, and staring at the broken window
in front of him, through which a flood of moonlight was pouring. He was
as certain as he could be of anything that he had seen a face at that
window as he started up--a wild, haggard face, framed by long unkempt
hair. He sprang from his bed and looked out, but could see nobody, and
heard no unusual sound except the distant "who-who-whoo" of an owl.