Oliver Optic

“ Flora, it was Ham who robbed the mail. I saw him do it."
I told her what I had seen in the store the night the senator arrived, and that Ham accused me of the crime in order to save himself.
"You will be sent to prison, Buckland!" exclaimed she, in terror, as she threw her arm around my neck. "Ham hates you, and so do his father and mother."
"Dear Flora, if you will go with me, I will not stay another night with our tyrants. They abuse us both." ”

“ For the [246] first time in my life I saw a ship—hundreds of them, whose forest of masts and spars was as strange to me as though I had been transported to the centre of the Celestial Empire.
It seemed to me an age since I had left Torrentville; since, with bounding bosom, I had guided the raft down the creek to the Wisconsin. The events which had preceded our departure appeared to have occurred years ago, and to be dwarfed into littleness by the lapse of time. Captain Fishley, his wife, and Ham seemed almost like myths, so far removed were they from me by distance and time. ”

“ I pushed off the raft, and poled it over to the fallen tree, where we should not be disturbed by any possible passer-by. Sim looked piteously sad and sorrowful; he glanced wistfully at the paper bag, and seemed to begrudge every moment of delay. At the tree, I took out the contents of the bag, and [112] spread them on the log. Sim's eyes dilated till they were like a pair of saucers, and an expression of intense satisfaction lighted up his dull features.
"Go in, Sim," said I, as soon as I had spread the table for him.
"Thank you, Buck! You are a good fellow," replied he, warmly. ”

“ WHO IS MASTER. I remained in the back room long enough to assure myself that Mrs. Fishley did not intend to put a rude hand upon Flora. I even ventured to hope that she was ashamed of herself, and would not repeat the dastardly act. I went to the barn to consider the situation. I felt just as though I had won the victory over my tyrants in the present battle; but I was confident that the conflict would be renewed at some more favorable time.
Like all small-minded men, like all tyrants and oppressors, Captain Fishley was a revengeful person. ”

“ We heard the heavy step of a man, as he went up stairs; but we did not witness the first interview between Emily and her father. They had much to say, and we did not see them for half an hour. When they entered the parlor together, both of them were tolerably calm; but the traces of tears were still visible in their eyes.
"Young man," said Mr. Goodridge, taking me by the hand, after Emily had introduced Flora and me by name, "I am indebted to you for the life of my child." ”

“ We were all too young and inexperienced to behold a human being apparently at the gates of death without a tremendous sensation of horror.
"Hookie!" gasped Sim, after he had gazed an instant at the object, his breath collapsing as he uttered the favorite expression.
"Can't you save her?" cried Flora, in trembling tones.
"I will if I can." [216]
"O, do save her. It's terrible."
"She is clinging to a piece of wood, and has her head quite out of water," I added, as I turned the raft.
The unfortunate person was still some distance farther up the stream than the raft. ”

“ Though he was a year older and two inches taller than I was, while he had been clerking it in the store, I had been nursing my muscles with the shovel and the hoe, the pitchfork and the axe; and I was the stronger and tougher of the two. I could do more, and bear more, than he. A fight depends as much upon the ability to endure injury as it does to inflict it.
The rough usage I had given Ham was very disheartening to him; while I, with the exception of being a little shaky about the head from the blow of the mail-bag, was as fresh as ever. ”

“ Fishley.
Captain Fishley evidently believed that his wife was lame; but this did not make much difference to him. He was a tyrant and a bully; but, as tyrants and bullies always are, he was a coward, or he would have demolished me before this time. He had a wholesome respect for the poker, which I still kept in readiness for immediate use.
"No matter whether Mrs. Fishley touched the child or not," said he, savagely. "No boy in my house shall insult my wife, or raise his hand against her."
"And no man or woman, in this or any other house, shall raise his hand against my sister," I answered. ”

“ There was work enough on the raft to keep us both employed, and he was in no danger of dying from inaction.
"Are you going to keep her a-going all night, Buck?" asked he, in a tone so loud that it seemed to reverberate over the broad prairies which bounded the river. [198]
"Hush, Sim! Don't talk so loud," I replied, in a whisper. "You will keep Flora awake if you do."
"Hookie! I didn't think of her," said he, slapping his great fist over his mouth, in token of his intention to do better.
"We shall keep moving, night and day, Sim."
"Are you always going to set up all night?" he whispered. ”

“ I replied.
"A raft!"
"Yes; it is big enough to hold twenty men."
"But we can't go to New Orleans on a raft."
"Perhaps not; but when we get tired of it, we can take a steamboat and go the rest of the way. We shall have no tyrants to vex us," I added, with enthusiasm. "I have made a nice house for you, dear Flora."
"I will do anything you say, Buckland," said she, clasping her arms around my neck. "I cannot stay here."
"Then we must go this very night, before Captain Fishley and his wife return. The raft is in the swamp. ”

“ I needed no help myself, and was on the raft almost as soon as the girl. She was utterly exhausted, and unable to hold up her head. Sim and I carried her into the house. We laid her in Sim's bunk, and Flora was as tender with her as though she had been a baby.
"Hookie!" exclaimed Sim, staring at the sufferer, [225] with his mouth open wide enough to take in a canal boat. "Is she dead?"
"No—not dead!" replied Flora, as she lifted the wet locks from her face, and gently rubbed her temples. "What shall we do for her, Buckland?"
"She is chilled with the cold, and worn out with fear and exertion." ”

“ Sim pulled and hauled with energy, if not with skill. When he abandoned the steering oar, the raft began to whirl, and thus to complicate his labor. I caught a glance of the simple-minded fellow, as the craft turned, and I heard him yell, "Hookie!" He was nonplussed by the change of the raft; but he did not know enough to follow it round upon the outside. I am not sure this freak of the current did not save us from a calamity, for as it revolved, and the rope became tangled in the platform, we were thrown against the raft, thus saving my helpmate half his toil. ”

“ Haven't we done enough for you, Buck Bradford, that you want to use us in this way? How du'st you run away, and take Flora with you? You will make her as bad as yourself byme-by."
"I hope not," I replied, smiling.
"She went all the way to New Orleans with him on a raft, and so did that Sim Gwynn," interposed the captain.
"Well, there's no end of wonders with bad boys. But where's Flora now?" asked Mrs. Fishley.
"She's at the hotel in Riverport, with Clarence and his wife." ”

“ DOWN THE RIVER.—Page 178.
Sim led the way with the wheelbarrow piled high with Flora's bed, bundles of clothing, blankets, sheets, and comforters, while I brought up the rear, dragging Flora's wagon, in which she was seated. My poor sister was quite cheerful, and did not seem to be disturbed by any timidity. [179]
"Hurry up, Sim!" I called to my file-leader. "We have no time to lose."
"Won't Captain Fishley come after us?" asked Flora, as Sim quickened his pace.
"He will if he knows where to come; but the swamp will be the last place in the world where any one would think of looking for us. ”

“ I saw Ham take the money out of the envelope, and then burn the letter."
"Well, that's a good one!" said Ham, laughing heartily; but his face was pale, and his laugh hollow.
Captain Fishley looked at his son earnestly. Perhaps he saw the unrealness of his mirth. Ham was extravagant in his demonstrations, and so far overdid the matter, that even his father must have been troubled with a suspicion that all was not right in relation to him.
"Buck Bradford, you have a large sum of money about you," said he. "Have you not?"
"No matter how much," I answered.
"You have forty dollars. ”

“ I suppose he laid it out for fine clothes," added the constable.
"Do you persist in saying that Ham Fishley robbed the mail?" said the captain, angrily.
"I do; and I think I shall be able to prove it, too."
"You see, the fellow is a black-hearted scoundrel," said the postmaster, turning to the man who was a stranger to me, and who, I afterwards learned, was a post-office agent or detective. "This boy has been in my family for several years, but he tries to screen himself by laying his crime to my son."
"Have you got any money about you?" asked the constable. ”

“ Youth is hot-blooded, and age and experience are generally required to cool the impetuous current that courses through its veins.
My father—blessings on his memory—had taught me the lesson. One day, a fire in the long grass of the prairie threatened the destruction of all our buildings. Clarence and myself went into a flurry, and did a great many stupid things, so excited that we did not know what we were about. ”

“ I was a powerful swimmer, and nerved by the peril of the stranger in the water, I felt able to do anything. I let myself down into the river, and struck out with all my strength towards the sufferer. The current of the Mississippi is swift and treacherous. ”

“ I am inclined to think that Captain Fishley himself, at some remote period, long before I was [17] born, had been a more decent man than he was at the time of which I write. If he ever had been, his degeneracy was easily explained; for it would not have been possible for a human being, in daily contact with such a shrewish spitfire as his wife, to exist untainted in the poison which floated in the atmosphere around her.
This was the woman who inflicted herself upon the world, and upon me, though I was by no means the greatest sufferer. ”

“ Sim took a luncheon, and declared he never felt better in his life. It was the best fun he had ever known, and he enjoyed every moment of it. Flora said she liked it very much, but thought it would be pleasanter in the daytime, when the ever-changing scene could be viewed in the sunshine.
"I'm sure I shall be happy on the raft for a month," she added. "There will be something new to be seen every day." [196]
"And we shall pass ever so many towns and cities, and the river will be full of steamers and flat-boats," I continued, as the raft glided round the bend into the great river. ”

“ I took off all my clothes but my pants and shirt, and secured the cord around my body, making fast the other end to the raft.
"Sim!" said I, startling him with the sharpness of my tones. [219]
"Yes; I'm here, Buck! Hookie!" stammered he.
"Mind what you're about!"
"O, yes! I will!"
"When I tell you, let go the oar, and pull in on this rope."
"I'll help him," said Flora.
"Don't you touch the rope, Flora. You may get dragged overboard."
"What shall I do?"
"You may make a fire in the stove, if you can," I answered, wishing to get her out of the reach of danger if I could. ”

“ The raft was ten or twelve miles below Cairo; but the swift current would speed me on my way with little labor at the oars. I pulled steadily, and with just power enough to give me steerage-way; and when I reached the raft, I found I had made the passage in little more than two hours.
"Hookie!" ejaculated Sim, with a stupid stare, as I ran the skiff up to the raft.
"Catch the painter!" I called, throwing him the rope.
"I hain't seen no painter," he replied, staring around him, and letting the rope run off the raft, and the skiff go adrift. ”

“ Flora boards here, and isn't anybody's servant," I replied. [39]
"I should like to know! Is that girl to sit there before the fire and let whatever's on the stove burn up before she'll raise her hand to save it?"
"It's no use of talking," said I. "You know all about it as well as I do. All I have to say is, that Flora shall not be abused by anybody, I don't care who it is."
"Nobody's going to abuse her," snapped the shrew.
"I've got another account to settle with you, Buck Bradford," continued Captain Fishley. "Did Ham tell you to black his boots?" ”

“ I replied, rather sheepishly, for I realized that my brother had his suspicions.
"Why should a man give you a hundred dollars?" [261]
"Because I saved his life," I answered, desperately.
"If you did, he ought to be the first one to give you the credit for the noble deed."
"There's the hitch."
"So I think," said my brother, shaking his head.
"Clarence, I know Buckland is honest and true," interposed Flora. "He is the best brother that ever was, and you mustn't think hard of him." ”

“ I don't think she had the least idea that she was not the best friend Flora had in the world, so blind are many people to their own errors and shortcomings.
"She has had enough to eat, and enough to wear; and my brother has paid for all she has had," I added. "But you are continually scolding at her, browbeating her, and making her as uncomfortable and unhappy as you can."
"Scolding her!" almost whistled Mrs. Fishley, so high was the key. "I never scold at any one. I never was a scolding woman." ”

“ We hoisted the sail, hauled in the braces, and I took my place on the platform again. After no little labor at the steering oar, I succeeded in putting the raft before the wind, thus heading her up the river.
"What are you going to do, Buckland?" asked Flora, who was watching the scene of the accident with the most painful interest.
"Hundreds of those poor people have already perished, and more will be drowned, unless they have some help," I replied, much excited. ”

“ Fishley believed she was one of the most amiable, self-denying, self-sacrificing, benevolent women in the world. Nobody else believed it. She had to endure more trials, bear more crosses, undergo more hardships, than any other housekeeper in town. She had to work harder, to think of more things, stagger under more burdens, than all her female neighbors put together. ”