THE BERRY PICKERS
That was an unusually long afternoon to the “willing workers” in the
pit. From the way in which every little while one or another would stop
digging and, climbing out of the hole, take an anxious look toward the
west, it could be easily seen that the diggers were getting weary.
Dan, of course, noticed it, and chuckled slily. He realized that they
would stand by him to the finish. At the same time he was not above
taking what he called “a rise” out of Fred Bonnicastle, who emerged
from the pit oftener than the others.
So, on one occasion, when about to suggest stopping work for the day,
he casually remarked, as Fred again climbed up out of the hole, now
some four feet in depth:
“I guess you think the old days have come around again, Fred.”
Fred looked at him blankly.
“Oh, the days of the Children of Israel when they took possession of
the Promised Land, you remember,” continued Dan, grinning.
“I’m still groping in the dark. What have we got to do with Moses and
his followers, when they fought with the Philistines?” asked Fred.
“Well,” replied Dan, drily, “from the way you fellows keep staring into
the west I just made up my mind some of you had begun to believe Joshua
had come along with us, and that he was again commanding the sun to
stand still.” At this Fred laughed, as did the others.
“So far as that goes,” acknowledged Peg, “it certainly has seemed
a coon’s age since we started grubbing here. Four hours, with only
little rests in between when some one spelled me, is going some for my
father’s son.”
“Whee! wouldn’t my folks at home stare though, if they could have
watched me actually _work_?” added Phil Harkness, greatly amused. “Why,
it’s always been the hardest thing going to coax me to weed a little
flower bed up to now.”
“I’m sore, all right,” admitted Fred, candidly; “but it may wear away
by morning. Guess Nature didn’t mean me to earn my bread by the sweat
of my brow. I think after all I’d better take to the law, as my dad
wants me to.”
“Perhaps some of the other fellows may want to change places with you
three in the morning,” said Dan, calmly. “My pit is more’n a third
completed now, though the worst is still to come, for every shovel of
dirt has to be lifted out, and carried away, so as not to excite the
suspicions of the beast. Let’s call it off, and meander into camp.”
There was much animated talk around the supper table that night, as Dan
and his assistants entered into arguments with some of the others. It
ended in three new recruits offering to do their turn in the pit on the
following day.
Fred and the two others did not say much, for fear of alarming the
volunteers, and causing them to back out. At the same time they might
have been observed exchanging significant winks, and the expression on
their faces showed satisfaction.
Nothing unusual happened on that night, though some of the boys felt
restless. If the prowling animal came around no one saw or heard him;
nor was anything missing when morning finally arrived, so far as any
one could discover.
“But that means he’ll be with us to-night, never fear,” ventured Dan,
with such confidence in his manner that every one knew he did not mean
to abandon his pit-digging.
The plans for the day had already been laid out. Dick had concluded
to accompany the berry pickers during the morning. He wanted to feel
that he had had a hand in helping Eddie, Ban and Cub accumulate a large
store of the berries, for they were to be shipped to the market in
Cliffwood on the following morning.
Leslie’s father, Mr. Capes, had promised to run up on this day in his
car, to see what the boys were doing. He would spend a night in camp,
and start back on the following morning. He was also to bring with him
receptacles in which such blueberries as had been gathered could be
carried back to town.
That was one reason why Dick planned to go out with the three mill boys
on this morning, so as to feel that he had helped give them a half
holiday. In the afternoon he planned to go fishing with the trio, for
Eddie and the others dearly loved all manner of sports, though not able
to indulge in them as frequently as some of the other boys, unless, as
usually happened, they took Sunday for their outings.
There was certainly no lack of the large berries on Bass Island. Eddie
Grant told Dick he could take him to a place they had hardly touched as
yet, and where their buckets could easily be filled in two hours.
The berry pickers set off, Fred and Peg going with the party.
“We haven’t seen a sign of a snake so far,” Eddie remarked, as they
walked along through the brush and amidst the trees.
“Well, since this is an island, and so far from the mainland,” observed
Dick, “perhaps there isn’t a single snake of any kind on it.”
“I’m glad of that,” ventured Ban Jansen, frankly, “’cause I’m not any
too fond of the crawlers. My folks told me to keep my eyes peeled for
rattlers up in this region. I’d sure hate to run across one of ’em just
when I was in the middle of a thick patch of berry bushes.”
The berry pickers enlivened the time with pleasant chatter as they
pushed along through the brush, heading toward the distant spot where
Eddie had noted the unusually heavily laden blueberry bushes.
Arriving on the ground the boys began to pick. It is slow work at the
best, no matter if the berries can be fairly stripped off by a deft
motion of the hand; and they could count on a couple of hours at the
work if they expected to fill their pails.
By degrees they would, of course, separate as each became absorbed in
his own picking. At the same time, they had agreed not to drift so far
apart but that a loud shout would bring them together again.
Dick busied himself. And as his fingers worked, so his mind also found
employment in going over some of the recent happenings that had served
to enliven their camp life.
Among other things he remembered Asa Gardner. It was nice to know that
the poor chap had brightened up so much of late. The pitiful expression
had left his pinched face.
“He begins to feel now,” Dick was telling himself, “that he has really
mastered that old weakness of his about taking things, whether he
needed them or not. It was a terrible thing to have grip him, and I’m
mighty glad he’s won out. Besides, he needs all the outdoor exercise he
can get, so as to throw off that tendency to tuberculosis that runs in
his family.”
Thus Dick was thinking of others as he deftly stripped the small twigs
of their rich stores. Suddenly he stopped work and stared at the ground.
“Whee! there’s another of those queer footprints again,” he muttered.
“Seems that the monkey likes blueberries as well as any human can, or
the partridges even. He’s been browsing around here all right, for I
can see where something has cleaned off a heap of branches.”
The thought that even then the gorilla, or whatever it was, might not
be far away gave Dick a thrill. He was a brave boy, however, as he had
proved on numerous occasions in the past; and this was made manifest
when he almost unconsciously started to follow the spoor of the animal.
A short distance away he came to a well defined trail. It looked as
though the gorilla must have passed along back and forth scores of
times.
Dick stood still and stared.
“Here’s a find,” he muttered to himself. “Chances are ten to one that
this leads to his den, all right. A nervy hunter might follow it up
and come on the big beast in his own quarters; but I reckon it would be
silly for me to think of doing such a thing as that.”
The temptation to follow just a little way, to see where the trail led,
caused Dick to start hesitatingly forward. A gorilla in his native
Borneo haunt is considered one of the most terrible creatures known to
big game hunters the world over, not even excepting the grizzly bear of
our own country, and Dick’s pulses were bounding, and his nerves were
on edge, for he realized that at any minute he might find himself face
to face with the animal.
And, indeed, that was just what did happen, for Dick suddenly heard a
horrible gurgling sound close by, and turning his head found himself
staring at a squatty, hairy figure that looked like a misshapen man
with amazingly broad shoulders, and long dangling arms.