Evelyn Raymond

“ So many such beautiful things have happened beside all the funny ones. The Stillwells finding out about each other, and Mr. Corny ‘turning over a new leaf’ to take better care of his folks; Gerald and Aurora learning to be gentle to everybody; those Manor House people making up; and darling Elsa growing happy, just like other girls. None of these things would have happened if the dear old Water Lily hadn’t brought them all together. I’d like Elsa and her father to be the real heads of it, with that sweet Lucetta and her babies next. ”

“ Would you like to see the monkeys? Or would you be afraid?”
“Eunice never saw monkeys. What are monkeys? Are they people or just dear, dear animals?”
“They’re not people, darling, though oddly like them. Come and see.” Elsa was herself so shy in the presence of strangers, especially so majestic a person as the mistress of Lady Cecilia’s Manor, that she was glad to escape to the tender where her charges were in their cage; and for once the little animals were docile while on exhibition, so that Eunice’s delight was perfect. ”

“ The deck of the Pad wasn’t as spotless as this of the Lily. Even at that moment small Methuselah was swashing it with a great mop, which dripped more water than it wiped up. His big eyes were fairly bulging from his round black face and, having drawn as near the story-teller as he could, he mopped one spot until Dolly called out:
“That’ll do, Metty, boy! Tackle another board. Mustn’t wear out the deck with your neatness!”
Whereupon old Captain Hurry swung his crutch around and caught the youngster with such suddenness that he pitched head-first into his own big bucket. ”

“ Who’d eat melons full of maggots!” demanded Aurora, with a little shiver. Evidently, though she must often have heard them, she had paid scant attention to the cries of the negro hucksters through her own city’s streets.
“It isn’t ‘Maggotty’ but ‘Magothy’,” explained Dorothy. “I used to think just as you do until I learned better. I’m bad as Mabel. I just can’t wait. I must have a ‘cantaloupe’ for supper, I must! Scooped out and filled with ice—sweet and juicy——”
“Hold on! Hold on! Wait till I fetch it!” returned Gerald, with a smack of his own lips. ”

“ The Water Lily glided quietly along, forced onward by the tender where the trio of lads sat long, exchanging experiences and, under cover of the friendly darkness, growing natural and familiar.
But after a time even they grew drowsy and “turned in,” finding their new “bunks” as snug as comfortable. The chug-chug of the small engine chimed in with the snores of the colored folks, in their own quarters beyond the galley and formed a soothing lullaby. ”

“ Little Methuselah called after her but she did not pause. She meant to get her own share from that distant melon-patch, and her maternal ears were deaf to his outcries.
Sharing the common feeling of repose and safety which had fallen upon all the company when the Water Lily had been tied up for the night, Metty had felt it a fine time to don his livery and show off his finery before the white folks. Clad in its loose misfit, but proud as ever, he clung to the stern-rail of the Pad and gazed after his departing parent.
What had happened? Why were all those people running away so fast? ”

“ Calvert shook her head and Elsa had to obey.
“But, Dorothy, aren’t you afraid? There might be snakes. It might rain. It looks wet and swampy—I daren’t get my feet wet—father’s so particular——”
“If it rains I’ll run back and get you an umbrella, Aunt Betty’s own—the only one aboard, I fancy. And as for fear—child alive! Did you never get into the woods and smell the ferns and things? There’s nothing so sweet in the world as the delicious woodsy smell! Ah! um! Let’s hurry!” cried Dolly, linking her arm in the lame girl’s and helping her over the grassy hummocks. ”

“ I never saw anybody so pleased with monkeys as she is, and not one mite afraid. That’s more than some of us can say:” sweetly apologized Elsa, with a mischievous glance toward Aurora who had gathered up her skirts and mounted a chair.
“Mamma! I want the monkeys! The lovely monkeys! I do, I do! Don’t you know? Don’t you ’member? Always you told me I should have anything I wanted that day when Grandpa comes, anything—any single thing. You wouldn’t like to tell a wrong story, would you, Mamma dear? Because he’s comed—this is the day—and what Eunice wants is the lovely, lovely monkeys! ”

“ Tell us where you live and I give you my word of honor I’ll go to your place the first thing to-morrow and settle. I’ll even pay double,” begged Jim; and when the farmer remained obstinately silent, leaped from the wagon and dragged Gerald after him. “Run, run! You’ll get warm that way! Run, I tell you, for your life!”
But the poor lad couldn’t. He sank down upon the wet earth and was fast lapsing into unconsciousness when the lash of the teamster’s whip fell smartly about him.
“I’ll warm you, ye young scamp! Cheat an honest man of his earnin’s, will you?” ”

“ Probably because her words made some of the intruders ashamed a few turned to leave; more lingered, among these the hucksters, and Dorothy got angry. Folding her arms and firmly standing in her place she glared upon them till one by one they slipped away over the gang-plank and contented themselves with viewing the Water Lily and its Pad from that point.
As the last smock-clad farmer disappeared Dorothy dropped upon the floor and laughed.
“O Mrs. Bruce! Wasn’t that funny? Those great big men and I—a little girl! They mustn’t do it again. They shall not!” ”

“ Run away and write the silly man that we’ve no use for house-boats, but if he does happen to have an elephant on hand, a white elephant, we might consider accepting it as a gift! We could have it kept at the park Zoo, maybe, and some city youngsters might like that.”
Dorothy’s face clouded. She had become accustomed to receiving rich gifts, during her Summer on a Ranch, as the guest of the wealthy Fords, and now to have a house-boat offered her was only one more of the wonderful things life brought to her. ”

“ Jim laughed, shouldered his hoe, and marched away across the little strip of grass between the house and garden—so-called. The ground for this Lucetta’s feeble hands had dug with a spade that matched in condition the hoe Jim had found. Melon seeds had been sown there and had duly sprouted. But the “inquiring” minds of the children had daily pulled them up to see if there were any melons at the root. The potatoes had received the same treatment, the corn ditto, and the wonder was that even a few plants had survived their efforts to “make ’em grow faster.” ”

“ A captain for nothing, an engineer the same, a housekeeper who’s glad to cook for the sake of her daughter’s pleasure, and the rest of the crew belonging—so no more wages to earn than always. Sounds—fine. By the way, Dorothy, who deals out the provisions on this trip?”
“Why, you do, of course, Mrs. Bruce, if you’ll be so kind. Aunt Betty can’t be bothered and I don’t know enough. Here’s a key to the ‘lockers,’ I guess they call the pantries; and now I must make that old man give the word to start! Why, Aunt Betty thought we’d get as far as Annapolis by bed-time. ”

“ The girls had gone to the woods, searching for wild grapes; and Cap’n Jack, with the lads, had taken the row-boat down stream on a fishing trip. Fish, of many varieties, had been brought to the Lily for sale, but fish that one caught for one’s self would be finer and cost less; so they reasoned with a fine access of economy.
Ephraim and Chloe were “tidying up;” and only little Methuselah and Billy-mule gave the visitor a word of welcome. These two were fast becoming friends, and both were prone on the ground; one suffering from a surfeit of grass—the other of water-melon. ”

“ Saint Anne lifted a quivering face toward them but could not speak, Wesley hid his face in his arm and blubbered audibly.
Then did all the little woman in Elsa’s nature respond to this sudden need.
“Lay Saint Augustine on that bench, where somebody must have slept. Help me to lift the lady to the bed. Don’t cry, little girl. She’ll soon be all right. It’s just a faint, I’m sure. I’ve fainted myself, often and often. I guess she’s overdone. Isn’t there a man here?” ”

“ Buy him, of course, Dorothy would and should, if it proved that a mule was really needed. But not without fair payment for the animal would she permit “him” to become a member of her family. The Colonel so persistently spoke of the creature as a human being that she began to think of Billy as a monstrosity.
The morning passed. Aunt Betty had deserted, and Dorothy had to take her place as hostess. All her heart was longing for the green shore beyond that little wharf, where now all the other young folks were having a lively frolic. ”

“ These two flower-lovers had daily studied the simple botany which Aunt Betty had brought on the trip, and the science opened to bookish Elsa a wonder-world of delight.
“Ah! there’s a creeping fern! I mean a walking one. We read how rare they are and Dorothy will just be wild to come and see it for herself. Let me see. It was yesterday we studied about ferns. Be still, Joan. No, Jocko, I’ll go no further, on account of your poor, lame foot. ”

“ Hiding in a silly little creek when there’s the whole Chesapeake to cruise in!” cried the disgusted Gerald, leaning upon the little table and hungrily eyeing the platter of chicken.
“How can we dare, how could we if we dared, try the Bay? We haven’t any engine to use now,” said Jim.
“Well, get one, then! If that girl can afford to run a house-boat and ask folks to stay on it, she ought to provide something decent for their entertainment. When we owned the Water Lily we did things up to the queen’s taste. I’m not going to bury myself in any backwoods. I’ll quit first.” ”

“ Who do they suspect?”
“Look here, Gerry, that’s a question comes pretty near home, I know that Mrs. Calvert and Dorothy suspect nobody. I can’t say as much for Mrs. Bruce and the rest. The money was there—the money is gone. We’re all in the same boat—literally, you know. There wasn’t a peddler here that day, nobody around but just ourselves. You and Jim are out of it, course, because you were away; but—it might be me, it might be Mabel, it might be Metty—Ephraim—Chloe—no not her, for she wasn’t out of Mrs. Bruce’s sight—and it might be your own sister Aurora.” ”

“ Winters—Uncle Seth, he likes me to call him—the dear man that gave us the Water Lily—they told me. Though I guessed some things myself. You can’t help that, you know, when you love anything. I think, I just do think, that the little bits of things which grow right under a body’s feet are enough to make one glad forever. Sometime, when I grow up, if Aunt Betty’s willing, and I don’t have to work for my living, I shall build us a little house right in the woods and live there.”
“Pshaw, Dolly Doodles! You couldn’t build a house if you tried. ”

“ Say, Elsa——”
“Gerald, I mean Mr. Blank, is all that true?”
“What’s the use eyeing a fellow like that? I guess it’s true. That’s about the way it must have been and, anyway, that part that our good skipper fished the boy out of the water is a fact. Old Ephraim grand-daddy hated Cap’n Jack like poison before; now he’d kiss the ground he walks on, if he wasn’t ashamed to be caught at it. Funny! That folks should make such an everlasting fuss over one little black boy!” ”

“ There’s wheels coming down the road and nobody’s been to get in provision, if it happens to be company to dinner. Mrs. Calvert hasn’t much sense that way. Seems sometimes as if she’d like to ask all creation to meals without regard to victuals. Peek under that tree. Can you see? Don’t it appear like the doctor’s rig? It is! And there’s a man with him—two men! As sure as preaching I’ll warrant you your Aunt Betty’ll ask these folks to dinner!”
Dorothy obediently “peeked.” ”

“ It was evident that this stranger was different from any of their old companions, and it scarcely needed the father’s explanation to convince them that “Elsa is a deeply religious dreamer.” Jim hoped that she wouldn’t prove a “wet blanket” and was provoked with Dorothy’s impulsive invitation; deciding to warn her against any more such as soon as he could get her alone.
Already the lad was feeling as if he, too, were proprietor of this wonderful Water Lily, and carried himself with a masterful air which made Dolly smile, as he now stepped across the little deck into the main cabin. ”

“ And what fool would give such a thing as a house-boat to a chit of a girl like our Dorothy?”
Mr. Seth laughed and pointed to the settee.
“Sit down, chap, and cool off. The world is as full of fools as it is of wise men. Which is which depends upon the point of view. I’m sorry to have you number me amongst the first; because I happen to be the stupid man who gave the ‘Water Lily’ and its belongings to little Dorothy. I knew she’d make good use of it, if her aunt would let her accept the gift, and she flatters you, I think, by inviting you to come and engineer the craft. ”

“ We don’t want two to do that in one day,” protested Dorothy.
At that point Billy began to bray; so mournfully and continuously that Mrs. Calvert sent word:
“Stop that beast! We shan’t be able to sleep a wink if he keeps that noise up!”
The Colonel paused once more. His departure had been a succession of pauses, occasioned by two things: one that the lazy man never walked when he could ride; the other, that he could not bring himself to part from his “only faithful friend.” The result was that he had again mounted the stubborn beast and disappeared in the darkness of his melon-patch. ”

“ But the doctor said you were a very sick boy, for only measles, and must be built up, so good-hearted little Dolly dipped into the marsh-mallow box for you. You——”
“Hush! Don’t say another word! I’m so mad I can’t breathe. I wish I’d never come on this cruise. Cruise? It’s nothing better ’n being buried alive. Thought we might get some fun out of it, hunting for that ‘buried treasure’ and now, up pops that old stick-in-the-mud and claims the whole business. Pshaw! I’ll go home if I have to walk there.”
“How? You couldn’t. But I’ll tell you what you could do. Hunt up Elsa and the monks. ”