To build a really good jumper you must first find a couple of young
iron-wood trees, say three inches in thickness and with a clean length
of about twelve feet, clear of knots or limbs. If you chance to stumble
upon a couple with a natural bend, so that each curls up properly like a
sled runner, so much the better. But it isn't likely you'll find a pair
of just that sort. Young iron-wood trees do not ordinarily grow that
way, and the chances are you'll have to bend them artificially, cutting
notches with an ax on the upper side of each to allow the curvature.
With strong cross-pieces, stout oak reams, and the general construction
of a rude sled rudely imitated, you will have made what will carry a
ponderous load. The bottom of the iron-woods must, of course, be shaved
off evenly with a draw-shave and some people would nail on each a shoe
of strap-iron, but that is really needless. Iron-wood wears smooth
against the snow and ice and makes a noble runner anyhow. Only an auger
and sense and hickory pegs and an eye for business need be utilized in
the making, and in fact this economical construction is the best. That
"the dearest is the cheapest" is a tolerably good maxim, but does not
apply forever in regions where nature's heart and man's heart and the
man's hands are all tangled up together. The hickory creaks and yields,
but it is tough and does not break. Such means of conveyance as that
outlined, in angles chiefly, is equal to a sled for many things, and
better for many others.
There may be people of the ignorant sort who have always lived in towns,
who do not know what a jumper is. A jumper is a sort of sled, a part of
the twist and wrench of a new world and new devices of living, and is
used in newly-settled regions. It doesn't cost much, and you can drive
with it over anything that fails to offer a stern check to horses or a
yoke of oxen. It is great for "coasting," as they call it in some part
of the country; "sliding down hill" in others. It was a big jumper of
the sort described which was the pride of the boys in the Leavitt
district school. They had nailed boards across it to make a floor, and
the load that jumper carried on occasions was something wonderful. It
would sustain as many boys and girls as could be packed upon it.
Sometimes there came a need for strange devices as to getting on, and
then the mass of boys would make the journey with its perils, laid
criss-cross in layers, like cord-wood, four deep and very much alive and
apprehensive.
The Leavitt school was situated in the country, ten miles from the
nearest town, and those who attended it were the farmers' sons and
daughters. In winter the well-grown ones, those who had work to do in
summer, would appear among the pupils, and this winter Jack Burrows,
aged eighteen, was among the older boys. He was there, strong, hard
working at his books, a fine young animal, and it may be added of him
that he was there, in love, deeply and almost hopelessly. Among the
girls in attendance was one who was different from the rest, just as an
Alderney is different from a group of Devon heifers. She was no better,
but she was different, that was all. She had come from a town, Miss
Jennie Orton, aged seventeen, and she was spending the winter with the
family of her uncle. Her own people were neither better off nor counted
superior in any way to those she was now among, but she had a town way
with her, a certain something, and was to the boys a most attractive
creature. There was nothing wonderful about her--that is, there
wouldn't be to you or me--but she was a bright girl and a good one, and
she awed Jack Burrows. A girl of seventeen is ten years older than a boy
of eighteen, and in this case the added fact that the girl had lived in
town and the boy had not, but added to the natural disparity. Jack had
made some sturdy but shy advances which had been well enough
received--in her heart Jennie thought him an excessively fine
fellow--but being a male, and young, and lacking the sight which sees,
he failed to take this graciousness at its full value. He had ventured
to become her escort on the occasion of this sleigh ride or of that, but
when all were crowded together by twos in the big straw-carpeted box, on
the red bob-sleds, and the bells were jangling and the woods were
slipping by and the bright stars overhead seemed laughing at something
going on beneath them, his arm--to its shame be it said--had failed to
steal about her waist, nor had he dared to touch his lips to hers,
beneath the hooded shelter of the great buffalo robe which curled
protectingly around them. He would as soon have dared such familiarity
with the minister's maiden sister, aged forty-two and prim as a Bible
book-mark. Yet Jennie was just the sort of girl whom a cold-blooded
expert must have declared as really meriting a kiss, when prudent and
fairly practicable for the kisser and kissee, and as possessing just the
sort of waist to be fitted handsomely by a good, strong arm. Jack, full
of fun and ordinarily plucky enough--he had kissed other girls and had
licked Jim Bigelow for saying Jennie Orton put on town airs--was simply
in a funk. He could not bring himself to a manly wooing point. He was
not without a resolve in the matter, for he was a determined youth, but
in this callow strait of his, he was weakling enough to resort to
devious methods. He wore no willow; he lost no weight. But the spell of
love which warps us was upon him, and he swerved from the straight line,
though bent upon his conquest. He was resolved to have that arm of his
about sweet Jennie's waist somehow, if he died for it, but with
discretion. He would not offend her for the world. So he fell to
plotting.
There had come a deep snow, and then the heavens had opened and there
had followed a great rain. The schoolhouse stood on the crest of a hill
and by it the highway ran down a steep slope and right across the flats,
and the road, raised three feet higher than the low lands which it
crossed, showed darkly just above the water. Then came snow again, and
the road showed next a straight white band across the water. And now had
come some colder weather, and ice had formed above the waiting waters
which spread out so in all directions. What skating there would be! The
boys had tried the ice, but it was coy and threatening, not yet quite
safe to venture forth upon. It was what the boys called "India-rubber
ice"; ice which would bend beneath their tread, but would not quite
support them when they stopped. It would be all right, they said, in
just a day or two. To venture recklessly upon its surface now was but to
drop through two feet deep of water. And water beneath the ice in early
March is cold upon the flats. In the interval there would be, at recess
and at noontime, great sport in sliding down the hill.
The jumper, which, as already said, was a marvel of stoutness and
dimensions, was the work chiefly of Jack, but he had been assisted in
the labor by Billy Coburg, his chosen friend and ally in all
emergencies. Billy was as good as gold, a fat fellow with yellow hair
and a red face, full of ingenious devices, stanch in his friendship, and
as fond of fun as of eating, in which last field he was eminently great.
In the possession of some one of the boys was a thick, old-fashioned
novel of the yellow-covered type, entitled, "Rinard, the Red Revenger,"
and Billy had followed the record of the murderous pirate chieftain with
the greatest gusto, and had insisted upon bestowing his title upon the
jumper. So it came that the Red Revenger was the pride and comfort of
the school, and Jack Burrows, as he looked up from his algebra and out
the window at it in the frost-fringed morning hour, rather congratulated
himself upon its general style. They'd had a lot of fun with it. His
eyes wandered to the ice-covered flats and the narrow roadway stretching
white across them. What a time they had yesterday keeping the jumper on
the track, and what a shrewd device they had for steering! A hole had
been bored down through the heel of each thick runner, and on each aft
corner of the jumper had a boy been stationed armed with a sharpened
hickory stick. To swerve the jumper to the left, the boy on the right
but pressed his stick down through the hole beneath him, and the sharp
point scraping along the ice-covered ground, must slow the jumper as
desired. And so, on the other side, when the jumper threatened to go
off the roadway to the left, the boy on that side acted. It was a great
invention and a necessary one. What would happen if that jumper, loaded
with boys and girls, should leave the track just now? Jack chuckled as
he thought of it. With its broad, sustaining runners, and with impetus
once gained by its sheer descent, for what a distance must it speed upon
that India-rubber ice before it finally broke through! What a happening
then! The moderately bad boy's countenance was radiant as the
contemplation of this catastrophe came upon him with its rounded force.
He turned his face, and his gaze fell upon the trim figure of Jennie
Orton on the other side of the room. How things go. There was an instant
association of ideas between girl and jumper. The young fellow's face
became first bright, and then most shrewdly thoughtful. School was
dismissed for the noon hour. And then, after the lunches had been eaten,
Jack Burrows went outside with Billy Coburg.
"Hi-yah! Jack and Billy are just going to start down hill on the jumper!
Look at 'em show off their steering!" yelled a small boy, and the pupils
rushed to the windows and out at the door. The jumper had just started.
One at each rear corner of the big sled sat Jack and Billy, each with a
sharpened stick in hand, and thrust down strongly through the bored hole
in the runner. The jumper started slowly, then, gaining speed, rushed
down the hill like a thunderbolt, the hardened snow screaming beneath in
its grating passage. The road below was entered fairly, and deftly
steered, the Red Revenger skimmed away and away into the far distance.
It was an exhilarating sight. Then, a little later, pulling the jumper
easily behind them and up the hill again, came Jack and Billy, and
shouted out loudly and enthusiastically the proposition that everybody
should come out and go down the hill with the biggest load the jumper
had ever carried.
The pupils, big and little, swarmed out in a crowd, all inclined, if not
to ride, at least to see the sweeping descent under circumstances so
favorable. Some of the larger girls hesitated, but Billy especially was
earnest in his pleading that the trip should be the big one of the
winter, and that they must see how many the Red Revenger could carry at
one swoop. And finally all consented. A look of relief and satisfaction
flashed across the face of Jack as Jennie got on with the rest, though
there was nothing strange in that, joining as she always did with the
other pupils in their various sports. The laden jumper was a sight for a
mountain packer or a steerage passenger agent or a street car magnate to
see and enjoy most mightily. It was loaded and overloaded. The larger
girls, as became their dignity, were seated in the middle, and close
behind them were the smaller children. In front was a mass of boys of
varying ages. "On account of there isn't much room," said Billy,
"you'll have to cord up," and so three boys lay down on the huge sled
crosswise, three lay in the other direction across them, and three again
across these latter. It was a little hard on those underneath, but they
didn't mind it. Behind were Jack and Billy as steerers, and three or
four more stood up on the sides and hung on to the others. There were
twenty-three in all, every pupil attending the school that day.
All was ready. "On account of the road's so smooth, she'll be a hummer,"
said Billy.
"Let her go," ordered Jack. A kick and the jumper was off.
Slowly, almost imperceptibly at first, moved the big sled, borne hard to
the ground by such a burden. No one was alarmed. But as it slid
downward, the jumper gathered way, and faster and faster it went, and
the sound from beneath changed from a shrill grating to a menacing roar,
and the thing seemed like a big something launched downward from a huge
catapult at the narrow strip of road across the ice. With set teeth sat
Jack and Billy at their stakes, each steering carefully and well. There
was no swerve. The road was entered upon deftly with a rush, and out
upon it sped the monster. Then Jack said quietly, "Look out, Billy!"
Billy looked across at him and grinned, but uttered never a word nor
made a move as they tore along. But there was a sudden movement on
Jack's part, and his stake bore down hardly through the hole in the
runner. The flying jumper trembled and swayed, and then like a flash
left the roadway and darted down upon and away across the ice.
There was one shriek from the girls, and then all was quiet. "Whish!"
That was all as the jumper shot out over the glass-like surface. The ice
bent into a valley, but the Red Revenger was away before the break came.
It seemed as if the wild, fierce flight would never cease. But there is
an end to all things, and at last came a diminution of the jumper's
speed. Slower and slower moved the thing, then came a pause and sudden
quivering, and then a crash beneath and all about, and the jumper, with
its living load, dropped to the bottom! There was no tragedy complete.
The water came up just to the side rails and no further.
For fifteen or twenty feet on every side the ice bobbed up and down in
floating fragments, and beyond that, where it still remained intact, it
would support no one stepping out upon it from the water. It was
"India-rubber ice" no longer; it was cracked and brittle to the very
shore. That the jumper had careered out so far into the flats was
because of its velocity alone. There it stood, an island in a sea of ice
water; not a desert island, exactly, either. It was populated--very
densely populated. It was populated several deep, and now from its
inhabitants went up a dreadful howl.
There was no visible means of escape from the surface of the Red
Revenger. The boys who had been "corded" managed to change their
positions somehow, and stood where they had got upon their feet, holding
themselves together, and the girls and younger children sat stupefied in
the positions they had held when coming down the hill, from the throats
of the latter going up the lively wail referred to. Billy looked across
at Jack and grinned again, this time with great solemnity, and Jack
himself looked just a trifle grave.
"Bang! rat-tat-tat! whack!" sounded from the schoolhouse, and the faces
of the younger children paled. The noon hour had reached its end, and
the schoolmaster was sounding his usual call. No bells summoned the
pupils at this rural place of learning, but instead, at recess and at
noon time the pedagogue came to the door and hammered loudly with his
ruler upon the clapboards there beside him. Very grim was this same
schoolmaster, and unfortunate was the pupil who came into the room a
laggard after that harsh summons had rung out across the fields and
flats. There stood the schoolmaster--he could be seen from the Red
Revenger--and it was not difficult even at that distance to imagine the
ominous look upon his face. Again and again came forth the wooden call,
and then the schoolmaster stepped out into the roadway. He looked about
inquiringly. He came to the top of the hill, from whence, off in the
flats, the jumper and its load were plainly seen, and then he paused.
It was clear that he was puzzled and was meditating. He called out
hoarsely:
"What do you mean? What are you doing? Come in, and come now!"
There was no mistaking the quality of that sharp summons. It meant
business, and in all probability it meant trouble, too, for somebody;
trouble of strictly personal, as well as of a physical character. There
was no reply for a moment, and then Billy, the reprobate, grinning again
at Jack, and giving to his voice a tone intended to be a compound of
profound respect and something like unlimited despair, bawled out:
"We can't!"
The teacher descended the hill with all firmness and sedateness; he
looked like a ramrod, or a poker, or anything stiff and straight, and
suggestive of unpleasantness. He followed the roadway until just
opposite the jumper, and then surveying the scene with an angry eye,
commanded all to return to the schoolhouse on the moment. Here the
situation became acute. It was Jack's turn now to make things clear.
That villain rose to the occasion gallantly. He shouted out an
explanation of how the jumper had happened, by the merest accident in
the world, to leave the roadway, and had gone out so far upon the
India-rubber ice; how the final catastrophe had taken place, and how
helpless they all were in their present condition. The road could be
reached only by a wade of a hundred yards through two feet deep of ice
water--more in places--breaking the ice as an advance was made. It
would be an awful undertaking, the death almost of the little children,
and dangerous to all. What should they do? And the rascal's voice grew
full of trouble and apprehension. Fortunately for him, the teacher was
too far off to note the expression on his face.
The czar of winter did not wait long. He started off, and was over the
hill again and out of sight within the next three minutes, and it was
clear that he was going somewhere for assistance. Then some of the other
boys wanted to know what was to be done, and Billy looked at Jack
inquiringly.
"Well, on account of the fix we're in, what's going to happen next!"
Jack, somehow, did not seem undetermined. He answered promptly: "What is
going to happen is this: The teacher has gone over to Mapleson's for
help. He might as well have stayed in the schoolhouse. They can't drive
a wagon in here, and the ice is so thin, and is cracked so, they can't
even put planks out upon it. They can't help us in any way. What shall
we do? Why, we can't stay here all night and freeze. Somebody's got to
break a path to the shore, that's all, and then we've got to wade out,
and the sooner we do it the better."
The smaller children began to cry; the older boys growled; the big
girls shuddered; Billy grinned.
"There's no reason why everybody should get wet," broke out Jack,
suddenly. "Here! I'll break a way to the road myself, and carry one of
the youngsters. We'll see how it goes."
He caught up one of the little children and stepped off into the
ice-packed water. Ugh! but it was cold, and he set his teeth hard. He
floundered over to where the unbroken ice began, and then raising his
feet alternately above its edge, he crushed it downward. It was not
physically a great task for this strong fellow, but it was not a swift
one, and the water was deadly cold. His blood was chilling, but the
roadway was reached at last. He set the child down quickly, told it to
run to the schoolhouse and stand beside the stove, and then himself
began running up and down the road to get his blood in fuller
circulation. Into the water he plunged again and reached the Red
Revenger. "Here," he said, "each one of you big fellows carry some one
ashore. Jump in, quick!"
The boys hesitated, and went into the water in a gingerly way, but did
very well, the plunge once taken, and Jack apportioned to each of them
his burden. The procession waded off boisterously but shudderingly. As
for Jack himself, he got one youngster clinging about his neck and
another perched upon each hip, and then waded off with the rest. There
were left on the jumper but two more of the small children, and Jennie.
That was Jack's shrewdness. He was well spent and shaky when he reached
the shore this time.
He put the children down and turned to Billy. "B-b-illy," he chattered,
"will you go back with me, and will you bring ashore those two kids?"
Billy looked a trifle dismal. He had just set down upon the roadway the
girl he liked best, and he wanted to go to the schoolhouse with her.
Added to this he was awfully cold. But he was faithful.
"On account of you've done more than your share I'll go you," he
decided.
They went out again, out through that dreadful hundred yards of icy
flood, and Billy marched off with the children, and then Jack reached
out his hands, though hesitatingly. He was bashful still, despite the
emergency his villainy had made. As for Jennie, she did not hesitate.
She stepped up close to him, was taken in his arms like a baby, and the
journey began. What a trip it was for Jack! There she was, clinging fast
to him, and he with his arms close about her! Who said that the water
was cold? It was just right--never was more delightful water! And she
didn't seem to dislike the journey, either. She even seemed to cuddle a
little. He wished it were a mile to land. Hooray!
And the road was reached at last, and the blushing and beaming young
lady set down upon her feet. She didn't say anything but reached out
her hand to Jack, and led him on a run to the schoolhouse. The fire had
been kindled into roaring strength by those first to reach the place,
and all the soaked ones gathered about the stove and steamed there into
relative degrees of dryness. Jack steamed with the rest, but he was in a
dream--one of the blissful type.
In time the teacher returned, and with him a farmer and his hired man,
and a team and a wagon-load of plank, too late for aid, even had aid
been practicable. There was no school that afternoon. The teacher could
not accuse any one of fault, nor blame the pupils that they had
hesitated when he called them; while, on the other hand, he was deterred
from saying anything commendatory of the waders. He suspected something,
he couldn't tell exactly what, and he didn't propose to commit himself.
The most he could do was to recognize the fact that the big boys should
get to their homes as soon as possible and dry their boots and
stockings. He dismissed the pupils, and so that eventful day was ended.
Jack's boots were full of dampness still, and his feet were chilly, but
as he walked home he walked on air.
The succeeding night was one of bitter cold, and the morning saw the ice
upon the flats no longer yielding, but so thick and solid that wagons
might be driven upon it anywhere without a risk. Even the lately opened
space about the partly submerged jumper was frozen over, and the top of
the Red Revenger showed where that interesting but ill-fated craft was
fixed for some time to come. "On account of she's frozen in so deep,
we'd better let 'er stay there," commented Billy; and so coasting, save
upon ordinary sleds, was discontinued for the season. It was pretty near
spring, anyhow.
The frost-decorated windows of the schoolhouse blazed in the morning
sun, and was a glory on the heads of the girls. But no head was so
bright, in the opinion of Jack Burrows, as that of Jennie Orton. Her
brown hair gleamed like gold, and as for the rest of her--well he
thought as he looked across the room, there was nothing to improve. It
seemed hardly possible that only the afternoon before he had held that
creature in his arms and carried her so three hundred feet or more. It
was all true, though, and Jennie had smiled across at him just now. He
was more deeply in love than ever, but his timidity had somehow much
abated. She was as beautiful as ever, but she seemed more human. He felt
that he could speak to her, make love to her, as he might to another
girl. Of course he couldn't do it very confidently, but he could
venture, and he resolved to ask leave to bring her to the spelling
school that very evening. He did so, pluckily, at recess, and she
consented.
As they were walking home that night, they fell naturally to talking of
the grewsome adventure of the day before; and Jennie asked Jack,
innocently, to explain to her the method by which he and Billy were
accustomed to steer the Red Revenger. He explained fluently and with
some pride, and she listened with close attention. When he had done she
remained silent for a few moments, and then said quietly:
"You did it on purpose."
The young man was dazed. He could say nothing at first, but managed
finally to blunder out:
"How did you know that?"
"I saw you and Billy look at each other, and saw you push down hard on
the stake. Why did you do it?"
Jack was truthful at least, and, furthermore, he had perception keen
enough to see that in his present strait was afforded opportunity for
speaking to the point on a subject he had feared to venture. He was
reckless now.
"I wanted to carry you ashore in my arms," he said.
There was, as any thoughtful girl would admit, really nothing in all
this for Jennie to get very angry over, and, to do her credit, it must
be added that she showed no anger at all. Of the details of what more
was said, information is unfortunately and absolutely lacking, but
certain it is that before Jennie's home was reached Jack's arm had found
a place not very far from that which it had occupied the afternoon
before.
They marry young in the country, but seventeen and eighteen are ages,
which, even on the farm, are not considered sufficiently advanced for
such grave venture, and so, though Jack's wooing prospered famously,
there was no wedding in the spring. There was the most trustful and
delightful of understandings, though, and three years later Jennie came
from the town to live permanently on the farm, and her name was changed
to Burrows.
"On account of the Red Revenger was a pirate craft, and took to the
water naturally, Jack got braced up to begin his courting, and so got
married," said Billy, in explanation of the event.