WHAT DOES SAM MEAN?
When the halt was called, Sam said, very much to the astonishment of
the boys:--
"We must build a house here, boys."
"A house!" exclaimed Tom, "What for, pray?"
"To live in, of course. What else are houses for?"
"Yes, of course, but aren't we going on?"
"Not at present, and it rains. We must dry our clothes to-night if we
can, and keep as dry as we can while we stay here, which may be for a
day or two. To do that we must have a house, but it need not be a very
good one. Joe!"
"Yes, sah."
"Build a fire right here."
"Agin de big log dah, Mas' Sam?" pointing to the trunk of a great
tree which had fallen in some earlier storm.
"No, build it right here. Sid, you and Bob Sharp go down into the
canebrake there and get two or three dozen of the longest canes you
can find."
"Green ones?" asked Bob.
"Green or dry, it doesn't matter in the least," answered Sam. "The
rest of you boys go down into the swamp off there and cut a lot of the
palmetes you find there,--this sort of thing," pointing to one of the
plants which grew at his feet. "Get as many of them as you can, the
more the better. The fire will be burning presently and will throw a
light all around."
The boys were puzzled, but they hurried away to the work assigned
them. Sam busied himself digging a trench on the side of the fallen
tree opposite the fire. The great branches of the tree held it up many
feet from the ground at the point selected, and it was Sam's purpose
to make the trunk the front of his house, building behind it, and
having the fire in front. The lower part of the trunk was high enough
from the ground to let all the boys, except Sid Russell, pass under
without stooping; Sid had to stoop a little.
The fire blazed presently, and by the time that Sam had his ditch done
the boys began to come in with loads of cane and palmetes. The
palmetes are plants out of which what we call "palm-leaf fans" are
made. They grow in bunches right out of the ground in many southern
swamps. Each leaf is simply a palm leaf fan that needs ironing out
flat, except that the edge consists of long points which are cut off
in making the fans.
Sam cut two forked sticks and drove them in the ground about ten feet
from the fallen tree trunk, and about ten feet apart. When driven in
they were about five feet high, while the top of the trunk was perhaps
eight feet from the ground. Cutting a long, straight pole, Sam laid it
in the forks of his two stakes, parallel with the tree trunk. Then
taking the canes he laid them from this pole to the top of the tree
trunk, for rafters, placing them as close to each other as possible.
On top of them he laid the palmete leaves, taking care to lap them
over each other like shingles. When the roof was well covered with
them, he made the boys bring some armfuls of the long gray moss which
abounds in southern forests, and lay it on top of the roof, to hold
the palmete leaves in place, and to prevent them from blowing away.
For sides to the house bushes answered very well, and in less than an
hour after the company halted, they were safely housed in a shed open
only on the side toward the fire, and the ground within was rapidly
drying, while supper was in course of preparation.
"Sam," said Tom presently.
"Well," answered Sam.
"What did you dig that big ditch for? a little one would have carried
off all the water that'll drip from the roof."
"Yes, but I dug this one to carry off other water than that."
"What water?"
"That which was already in the ground that the house is built on. You
see this soil is largely composed of sand, and water runs out of it
very rapidly if it has anywhere to run to. I made the ditch for it to
run into, and if you'll examine the ground here you'll find that my
trench is doing its work very well indeed."
"That's a fac'," said Sid Russell, feeling of the sand.
"I say Sam," said Billy Bowlegs, squaring himself before Sam, with
arms akimbo.
"Well, say it then," replied Sam, laughing, and assuming a similar
attitude.
"If there is any little thing, about any sort o' thing, that you don't
happen to know, I wish you'd just oblige me by telling me what it is."
"I haven't time, Billy," laughed Sam, "the list of things I don't know
is too long to begin this late in the evening."
"Well, you've made me feel like an idiot every day since we started on
this tramp, by knowing all about things, and doing little things that
any fool ought to have thought of, and not one of us fools did."
"Come, supper is ready," replied Sam.
After supper the boys busied themselves drying their clothes by the
roaring fire of pitch pine which blazed and crackled in front of the
tent, making the air within like that of an oven. While they were
at it they fell to talking, of course, and it is equally a matter of
course that they talked about the subject which was uppermost in
their minds. They knew very well that until the house was built, and
supper over, they could get nothing out of Sam. "He never will explain
anything till every body is ready to listen," said Sid Russell, who
had become one of Sam's heartiest admirers. Recognizing the truth of
Sid's observation, the boys had tacitly consented to postpone all
questions respecting Sam's plans and queer manoeuvres until after
supper, when there was time for him to talk and for them to listen.
Now that the time had come, the long repressed curiosity broke forth
in questions.