FINDING SNOW-BIRDS AND LOSING THE CAPTAIN.
Jim knew he must keep quiet, so he stood like a statue, trying to
forget his stinging ears, until the flock had recovered from its
surprise, when he knocked over a second bird.
It was slow and very cold work, but the boy stuck to it bravely until
his fingers became so stiff that he could not manage his little
weapon, and then he crept down to the stove, to dance about and wring
his hands with pain as the heat of the room set them aching.
As soon as possible he went out again--missed twice and hit once. Just
as he was taking aim a fourth time his foot slipped, and he tumbled
backwards, followed by a small avalanche, which half buried him at the
foot of the rock. When he picked himself up, every feather had
disappeared.
Running round to the front, he found two dead birds and three wounded
ones, whose necks were speedily wrung. Never was a boy prouder than
this young sportsman, as he laid his trophies in a row and admired
them.
"What a delicious broth they will make!" cried Katy, who longed to
taste something really good.
"I'm hungry enough to eat 'em raw, like an Indian. Oh, Tug, look what
I've shot!" Jim added, as his friend opened the door and stood shaking
off the snow.
"Good for you! I've got nothin' 'cept a mighty good appetite. Why,
they're cross-bills and red-polls!"
"What are _they_?"
"Birds that come down in winter from away up north. This little
streaked sparrow-like fellow, with the rosy breast and the red cap, is
the red-poll; they say he never breeds south of Greenland. Now look at
these larger ones--see how strong the bills are, and how their points
cross! That's so they can twist the hard scales off the cones and get
at the seeds."
"Yes," said Jim; "they were hanging upside down and every way on the
cones, and I could hardly see them to take aim."
"That's 'cause their plumage is such a vague sort of red and green, so
near the color of the leaves and scales on those evergreen trees. The
hawks and owls can't see 'em, either, half as well as if they were
bright, and that's where the little fellows have the advantage of
their big enemies. Did you notice any other kinds?"
"There was one different one, a little larger than any of these, that
I caught a glimpse of--it was green, just like the hemlock leaves, and
kept inside out of the storm--"
"Like a sensible bird, eh? Correct! I guess he was a pine grosbeak."
"That means 'pine _big_beak' doesn't it? It ought to, for this fellow
had a beak twice as thick as any bird I ever saw, except a cardinal
from South Carolina that a man had in a cage last summer. Do you think
they'll come back?"
"I reckon so. None of these winter birds are shy--lucky for us! and I
think the shelter of these trees and the warmth of our smoke will
fetch 'em, especially if we scatter some crumbs out on the roof."
"But we have none to scatter," Katy protested.
All three then went to work picking the birds, whose bodies looked
surprisingly small after their puffy coats had been taken off. "See
what a warm undershirt of down this one wears at the roots of his
feathers!" Tug pointed out, holding up a red-poll.
"Wish I were a bird," said Jimmy; "I'd get out o' this in no time."
"Perhaps if you were, this would be the very place you would most want
to come to and stay in," Katy remarked, "just as these poor little
things did. The 'if' makes a lot of difference, Master Jim."
By this time it began to grow dusk, and though the snow was falling as
fast as ever, the air had grown much warmer, as though the storm would
end in rain. Aleck had not come yet, and the three, in their snug
house, looking out upon the deep drifts and the clouded air, and
listening to the melancholy sound of the wind in the trees, became
more and more anxious for his appearance.
When it had grown quite dark, and the broth Katy had made was ready,
together with cakes of corn-meal, and tea, or, rather, hot water
flavored with tea and sugar--the best meal they had seen for many a
day--Tug said that if the Captain did not come before they got through
eating he would go and look for him. So they tried to keep up each
other's spirits; but when the meal was done, and still no brother
appeared, all their merriment faded.
"Jim and Rex ought both to go with you, Tug; and you must take along
the lantern, and these extra corn cakes I have baked, and some
bacon--"
"The bacon's raw," Jim protested.
"Well, stupid, you could fry it over some coals on the end of a stick,
couldn't you?" exclaimed Tug, impatiently. He was getting very tired
of Jim's constant objections.
"And you must take this little bit of brandy, because you know, he
might--might be--"
"Now, Katy, dear Katy," said Tug, his own eyes moist, as he threw his
arm around the shoulders of the girl, who had broken down at last, and
was crying bitterly. "Don't cry, Katy. If _you_ give in, what are
we goin' to do? You are the life of the party, and there ain't nothin'
we wouldn't any of us--and specially me--do for you. Really now,
Katy--Here, you young cub, what are _you_ bellerin' about? If I catch
you crying round here again, discouragin' your sister in this style,
I'll thrash you well!"
[Illustration: "DON'T CRY, KATY!"]
Tug was thoroughly excited and distressed by this last and heaviest
trouble, and most anxious of all to make the rest believe he wasn't
anxious. As usual, when excited, he dropped into the slang he had been
striving to forget. But this added force to his speeches, for when it
occurred everybody understood that he was very much in earnest.
"I knew a young fellow," Tug himself used to say, when laughed at for
this peculiarity, "whose father was a Dutchman, but who could never be
persuaded to learn that language. 'Why not?' we used to ask him.
'Well, fellows,' he would say, 'my daddy talks English till he catches
me up to some mischief; then he begins to talk Dutch, and goes for his
whip; so I've got a terrible distaste for Dutch.' It's with me as it
was with that man. When I am mad, or mean business, I'm pretty likely
to talk in the 'Dutch' I learned when I was a boy."
The two boys and the dog--for Rex had nursed his foot until it was of
use to him again, protected by bandages--bundled themselves up, took
the lantern, the hatchet, and luncheon, and started out. Katy said
she should not be a bit afraid, and would keep up a good fire. As they
disappeared, letting in a flurry of snow before they could shut the
door, she dropped into a seat (if truth must be told) to finish her
crying. Let her do it, poor girl!--few of her associates, or yours, my
pretty maiden, ever had better cause. We will flounder along with Tug
and Jim, who are bowing their faces to the storm, and toiling up the
dark and treacherous hillside.
When the top of the ridge had been gained they paused to get breath
and to shout Aleck's name. No reply came, and they pushed on down to
the isthmus, where the snow, which was becoming more and more sleety,
swept about their faces with double force. In a few moments, however,
they reached the shelter of the woods, which covered pretty much the
whole of that part of the island; and then came the question whether
it would be better to work along the beach or plunge into the woods.
There seemed very small chance of success, in the midst of this
darkness and storm, either way, but they felt sure that some accident
had happened to the Captain, and they were eager to help him. After
talking it over, they decided upon the right-hand or southern shore of
the island, because that was to leeward, and better sheltered, and
marched on as rapidly as they could. They had no strength to talk,
but hand-in-hand pushed ahead, stopping now and then to shout, but
never getting an answer.
"There's one good thing about this storm," Tug remarked, after a
while, as they halted to rest in a sort of cleft in the rock. "Those
confounded dogs will be likely to stay indoors and not bother us."
"I wonder where they keep themselves at night?"
"If our island is like the rest, this limestone rock is full of caves.
There's no telling, for instance, how deep this here opening we're
sitting in goes back; and in some of the Puddin' Bay [Put-in-Bay]
islands big caves have been explored that people go away into to see
the stalactites. There are plenty of rocky holes, therefore, where
they could find good shelter and beds of leaves that the wind had
blown in. But we must get out of this, Youngster."