JELLY CLIMBS A TREE
Evan was the first to awake. For some time he had been dimly conscious
of discomfort. The rocks were very hard and there was a chilliness in
the air that sent his thoughts groping sleepily toward the fire. But
when he sat up stiffly and looked for the fire he saw only a pile of
ashes and cinders from which a few curls of smoke arose. Then he looked
about him in surprise. The world was shut out by a great gray fog.
Even the farther edge of the rock, only some forty feet distant, was
scarcely discernible. He drew his hand along his sleeve and found that
his clothes were saturated with moisture. He awakened the others and it
was agreed that it was time to be going.
“We must be in a cloud,” said Malcolm. But Rob declared that they
weren’t high enough to get into clouds.
“It’s just a plain every-day fog,” he said. “But it’s certainly a
wonder. What time is it? Who’s got a watch?”
“Two twenty-three,” replied Evan. “I’ll have to hurry or I won’t get
down in time for football practice.”
“Me too,” said Jelly. “Let’s get the things packed up and start.”
“Wish that fire hadn’t gone out,” growled Rob, shivering in his wet
clothes as he helped the others collect the tin dinner service. “I feel
like a clam.”
“I say nothing of how you look,” remarked Malcolm pleasantly. “Where’s
that other piece of sacking? And where’s the string got to?”
“Blown away, probably,” said Evan. “Why not put all the things into one
bundle and take turns carrying it? It won’t be very heavy, anyhow.”
So that was done and presently they were scrambling down over the edge
of Table Rock to the boulder-littered slope below. The fog hid objects
forty feet away and presently Rob gave voice to a thought which had
occurred to all of them.
“I guess we’ll have to trust to luck to find the path,” he said. “But
we’re bound to come to it if we keep on going down hill.”
“We’ll find the bottom, all right,” answered Malcolm, “although we may
not arrive just where we want to.”
“I don’t see how we can fail to find the path,” said Evan. “And when we
come to it all we have to do is to follow it down.”
“There’s the edge of the trees,” remarked Rob. “Isn’t that spring right
here somewhere, Mal?”
“Further down and a bit to the left. Want some water?”
“Yes, I’m as dry as the dickens. Let’s have a look for it.”
“All right. I could drink a quart or two myself.”
But when they were in the thin woods and, after descending for what
seemed the proper distance, had turned to the left, it became evident
that finding the spring was not going to be an easy task. After some
ten minutes of prospecting along the slope Evan advised giving over the
search.
“Let’s get home, fellows,” he said. “It’s getting late, and we may have
to hunt here for an hour.”
“I guess that’s so,” Rob agreed. “We’ll suffer the pangs of thirst a
while longer. Let’s make a bee-line down the hill and find the path.”
When one’s legs are stiff from climbing up hill the worst punishment
one can inflict on them is to require them to take one down again.
Theoretically, descending a mountain should be as easy as rolling off
the proverbial log. Actually, it is almost as hard on the muscles as
going up. Jelly was the first to protest.
“I’ve got to sit down a moment, fellows,” he declared, suiting the
action to the word. “My legs are nearly killing me.”
“It’s not a bad scheme,” said Rob, finding a place on a dead log. “Who
wants to carry the luggage a while?”
“I’ll take it,” said Evan. “We ought to be pretty near the path, hadn’t
we?”
“Yes,” replied Malcolm. “I thought we’d have reached it before this.
But it can’t be far away.”
But when they resumed their journey the path remained elusive. They
went down for another ten minutes, dodging between trees, sliding and
slipping down the slope, tripping over roots and snags and forcing
their way through the young growth. At last Rob stopped, clinging to a
sapling, and surveyed the tiny space about them left visible by the
fog.
“There’s one thing certain,” he said, “and that is that we’ve gone by
the path. We’re in the maples now.”
“That’s so,” Malcolm agreed, “but I don’t see how we missed it. I’ve
been watching for it all the way down.”
“It wouldn’t be hard to miss, I guess,” ventured Jelly. “It isn’t much
of a path even when you’re on it.”
“No, and we’ve probably crossed right over without seeing it at all.
Well, the only thing to do is to keep on down and see where we land.”
“How much more is there, do you suppose?” asked Evan rather dubiously.
“Oh, a quarter of a mile, likely. It won’t take long. Give me that
bundle of tin-ware, Evan.”
Evan surrendered the load to Malcolm and they went on again. But it
was slow work, for the trees were thick and the undergrowth often made
detours necessary. Finally they rested again and Jelly set to work
vigorously rubbing his leg muscles.
“You know,” remarked Rob calmly, “the plain fact of the matter is,
fellows, that we’re plumb lost.”
The others nodded.
“Lost as anything,” said Malcolm. “Still, we’re bound to get down
finally.”
“Seems to me we’re about down now,” said Evan. “The ground is pretty
nearly level, isn’t it?”
“That’s so,” Rob replied. “We stopped coming down hill two or three
minutes ago. In that case we’re nowhere near school.”
“Must be over to the north, then,” said Malcolm thoughtfully. “We sort
of got off our bearings, I reckon, when we went to look for that silly
spring.”
“Wish I could see it now, though,” said Rob, running his tongue over
parched lips. “I’m beastly thirsty.”
“So am I,” said Jelly sadly. “I wish I were home.”
“Well!” Evan arose energetically. “Let’s get home. There’s no use
sitting here. I feel as though I’d taken a shower bath. Every thing
I’ve got on is sopping wet.”
“This is the foggiest old fog I ever did see,” grumbled Rob. “Come
along, Jelly. I told you fellows when we started out that something
unpleasant would happen to us if we took such a dishonest person as
Jelly along. He’s our Jonah.”
“I guess I’m not getting any more fun out of it than you are,” grunted
Jelly crossly as he arose painfully and limped after them. Ten minutes
later there was a shout from Evan, who had taken the lead.
“What is it?” asked Rob eagerly.
“Here’s a field,” was the answer. They had at last emerged from the
woods, but Rob and Malcolm viewed each other questioningly.
“Where do you suppose we are?” asked Rob. Malcolm shook his head.
“I don’t know. This isn’t the meadow back of school because there’s no
stone wall here. What I think is that we’ve got around to the north
side of the mountain, toward Hillsgrove, you know. They say that in the
woods you always unconsciously bear to the left.”
“If this old fog would only get out,” said Evan. They moved undecidedly
into the field and in a moment the woods had vanished from sight behind
them.
“What time is it?” asked Rob.
“Almost four,” Malcolm replied.
“_What?_”
“That’s right,” Evan confirmed, glancing at his own watch. “No football
for us to-day, Jelly.”
“Glad of it,” answered Jelly morosely. “I couldn’t play football if my
life depended on it.”
“Pshaw, they wouldn’t hold practice a day like this,” said Rob. “Why,
you couldn’t see the ball twenty feet away. What time did we leave up
there, Mal?”
“About half-past two.”
“Great Scott! We’ve been wandering around this fool mountain for an
hour and a half! No wonder I’m tired! Does anybody know where we are
headed for now?”
Apparently no one did.
“Seems to me,” said Malcolm, “we’d better strike off to the right.”
“Well, the fog on the right looks just as nice as that on the left,”
answered Rob philosophically. “Come on. Perhaps, though, we’d have done
better to have followed the edge of the woods.”
“That’s so,” Evan agreed. “Let’s do that.”
“First find your woods,” said Malcolm.
“They’re right back there,” said Evan, pointing.
“Get out! They’re off there!” And Rob indicated a different point of
the compass. Malcolm shrugged his shoulders.
“I guess we won’t look for them,” he said dryly. “Come on and let’s hit
up the pace. At least we’ve got level ground to walk on, and that’s
something.”
“It may be level,” Jelly muttered from the rear, “but it’s mighty wet.
My feet are sopping.”
“Take ’em off and carry them,” answered Rob flippantly. “And you might
carry the bundle for awhile, too, Mr. Jell. You haven’t had a go at it
yet, have you?”
“Hand it over,” said Jelly.
Presently they came to a little slope and at the bottom of that found a
stone wall.
“Now what?” asked Evan.
“Climb over it and keep going,” answered Malcolm doggedly. “We’ll have
to get somewhere some time.”
“So you say! Bet you we’re walking in a circle.”
“But think of the exercise we’re getting, Evan,” said Rob. “And look
at the lovely view! How beautiful are the distant hills in the sunset
glow!”
“Don’t talk hills to me,” grunted Evan, “or mountains either. I _would_
like to see a sunset glow, though,” he added.
“Hello, what’s that?” Rob stopped and peered into the fog ahead.
“A rock, you idiot,” said Malcolm.
“It isn’t; it’s a cow! And there’s another. We’re probably away out
West in the cattle country. I knew I’d walked a long distance!”
“There are dozens of them,” said Jelly as they went on. “If there are
cows there must be a house somewhere around.”
“We’ll ask one of them,” said Rob. “Good-afternoon, Mrs. Cow, will you
kindly tell me where――”
“I don’t believe,” murmured Malcolm, “that I’d have much to say to that
cow, Rob.” He pulled the other aside. “She happens to be a bull.”
“Gee, that’s so! And I don’t think he likes us. Let us alter our course
and steer around him. Nice bull, nice bull!”
They were in the middle of the herd now. The cows stopped nibbling at
the grass and viewed them with calm curiosity, some moving slowly
away. The bull, however, which was a particularly large and active
looking animal, displayed more interest. As they moved to the left he
pawed the ground and then trotted ahead as though to intercept them.
“I believe he’s going to speak to us,” murmured Rob. “Perhaps we’d
better go back.”
He was and he did. He stopped some twenty feet away, lowered his head
and bellowed. Jelly gave a yell of dismay and took to his legs. The
others didn’t waste time in vocal manifestations of alarm; they fled
silently. As there had been no agreement as to direction they put out
toward four different points of the compass. Just what it was about
Jelly that attracted the bull is difficult to say; perhaps it was the
bundle of tin plates and coffee-pot and things that rattled enticingly
as he ran. At all events, it was on Jelly that the bull centered his
attention and it was in his wake that he galloped. When the others
paused for breath, through the silent mist came the rattle of tins and
the thud of bovine hoofs. They listened in anxious suspense. Then,
farther away, there was a terrorized shriek followed by an awesome
bellow. Then silence, heavy and depressing, broken a moment later by a
great rattling of tinware. Then silence once more.
“Jelly!” cried Rob from one part of the field.
“Jelly!” called Malcolm from another. And,
“Jelly!” called Evan from another.
Faintly from a distance came an answering hail.
“Are you all right?” called Malcolm.
“Did he get you?” called Evan.
“Where are you?” shouted Rob.
“I’m up a tree,” was the answer, “and the blamed bull is waiting for me
to come down!”
Three figures moved cautiously in the direction of the voice, calling
softly to each other as they went.
“Come and drive him away!” appealed Jelly from the misty void. “I can’t
hang on much longer!”
“We’re coming,” shouted Rob. “That you, Mal? Where’s Evan?”
“Here I am. What shall we do, fellows?”
“Blessed if I know,” answered Rob, pushing his cap away from his damp
forehead and scowling. “We haven’t even a stick.”
“Much good a stick would do,” said Malcolm. “Come on, anyhow, and let’s
do something. Shout again, Jelly!”
“Over here, you――you fools!” came Jelly’s voice from nearer at hand.
“He’s trying to eat the coffee-pot!”
“Hope it chokes him,” muttered Rob as they hurried along.
“There he is!” whispered Evan, seizing Malcolm’s arm. But it was only a
peaceable cow which trotted away at sight of them. Then, dimly in the
fog ahead of them, they descried a small misshapen apple tree and a
moving object beneath. They halted.
“Is he still there, Jelly?” asked Rob softly.
“Of course he is! Can’t you see him? Aren’t you going to do anything?”
“Ye-es, certainly; only――what shall we do, Jelly?”
“Drive him away!”
“How?”
“Make a noise; scare him; do something; I can’t hold on here any
longer, I tell you! I’m slipping now!”
“Let’s all yell together,” suggested Evan. “Come on!”
“Wait!” cried Malcolm. “Let’s run toward him and yell like thunder.
That ought to scare him.”
They viewed each other doubtfully.
“Aren’t you ever going to do anything?” wailed Jelly.
“Come on!” said Rob desperately.
They charged three abreast, yelling like Comanche Indians, charged
blindly, heroically. For one instant the result trembled in the
balance. Then the bull gave a short, terrorized bellow and vanished
into the mist. And at the same moment there was a thud and a crash and
Jelly descended into a litter of tin plates and cups.