William O. Stoddard

“ The very water of the East River, on either side of the island, seemed to dance in the sunlight, and the mad rush of the tide through Little Hellgate channel, between that and Ward’s [86] Island, northerly, was all one glitter. The great city of New York, over on Manhattan Island, was looking its very best, but the boys in the House of Refuge parade-ground could not see it. They could see nothing outside of their stone walled enclosure, but one boy saw something inside of it, just after the battalion broke ranks, which made him stand still and almost turn pale. ”

“ Away out in the middle of it stood the commander, the drill-master of that very remarkable battalion. He was a handsome, pleasant eyed man, of about twenty-five, dressed in a trim blue uniform, very like that of a United States Army officer. He was really a naval officer, detailed there by the Government to be practically the colonel of a regiment of pretty wild boys. He was there to teach them discipline, order, obedience, only a shade or so more strictly than if [13] they had been cadets at West Point, or the Naval Academy at Annapolis. ”

“ That was not the only matter that Jim had to study, during that very long day. He believed that he knew every stone in the parade-ground wall, already, and now he [64] found himself studying the buildings also, and wondering how he should ever manage to lead a squad of escaping boys right through them. Getting out of a bedroom was only a kind of beginning, after all, and Jim’s heart sank within him, for he thought:
“They are stronger than the wall is, and beyond them is the East River.—I don’t care! It’s just the awfullest kind of thing to do, but I’m going to do it, somehow!” ”

“ Head foremost, they followed their leader, down the wooden-railed companion way to the wharf.
“There might have been a man on guard here,” said Jim, “but there isn’t.”
There was a light in the cabin of the tug and another in the engine room, but no living being was to be seen as they scurried up [96] the bit of ladder that took them to the upper deck, the roof, of the tug, where the lifeboat lay.
“Quick, boys!” said Jim. “Over with her! There isn’t a minute to spare!—Don’t you see? There’s a stir in the House! We are missed, already!” ”

“ It is one of the traditions of the House that all of the half-way rebellions among the young fellows have broken out in the dining-room or in the schoolroom, where the discipline is so complete, and never in any manner out of doors, no matter how severe might be the drill of the parade-ground. ”

“ When morning came, the usual round of activities began, everywhere. The boys in the House of Refuge dormitory dressed themselves in their rooms. Then, as the Superintendent’s assistant came and let them out, they all marched away to breakfast. Jim went with the rest, but he gave a keen, inquiring side-glance, at the lock of every door they passed. He thought he saw something worth remembering in the lock of the great, outer door of the dormitory itself. ”

“ It’ll cover us up so they can’t follow us. It isn’t the tug I’m afraid of, now.”
“What then, Jim?”
“It’s the telegraph!” said Jim. “Our getting out’ll be known at every police station in the city, inside of five minutes. We must get ashore as quick as we can.”
“It’s an awful swift tide,” said Joe. “Why don’t you run right ashore?”
“You can’t tell where you’re going, in this fog,” said Jim, anxiously, for it seemed to him that they had gone more than far enough to have crossed the East River at that narrow place, even in a slanting direction. ”

“ He could hardly have guessed that Jim was already at a case in another shop, setting type as busily as usual.
Mr. Kirby himself, a grey-haired, silent man, with a queer kind of smile on his face, was working at the press in another room, but Jim was not the only type-setter. At the next case stood Millie, and between them and the door were other ranges of cases, and two of these were journeymen printers. All were seemingly absorbed in their type-sticking [121] when a man in a blue uniform opened the street door and strolled in. ”

“ Jim said nothing, but it was not long before he led the way through a front gate, around through a shrubberied houseyard, and right in at a kitchen door.
“Aunt Betty?” he exclaimed.
[130] “Jim!” almost screamed Mrs. Bronson, Springing forward to throw her arms around his neck. “You? Here?—O, my boy! My boy! I’m so glad! What would your mother say, if she were alive!—They didn’t catch you, did they?”
“No, Aunt Betty,” said Jim. “This is Rodney Nelson. He isn’t one of the House of Refuge boys. He and his folks helped me. ”

“ A sea tide ebbs with as much force and swiftness as it flowed in with, and it will carry loads both ways. This was the reason why when the House of Refuge lifeboat was found, some hours after it was shoved off by Jim and his crew, it was found knocking against the side of a pier away down, near the middle of the city. Therefore it gave no hint as to where it had landed the runaways. Only an hour or so later, however, the police knew a little more, for they managed to capture poor Joe. ”

“ There was Billy, indeed, with his toes on the very edge, and with a wisp of something green sticking out at one side of his mouth.
“Greens!” exclaimed Rodney. “He can steal from a grocer’s wagon better than any other goat I know of.—We used to have a garden. Tell you what, we can make garden of our lots and all the others, too, if we can only have it ploughed. But how would a horse and plough ever get down here?”
It was a pretty deep question and he gave it up, for that time. In a minute more he was upstairs and out through the window, on his errand to Pat. ”

“ They have frequent visits from a young man they call “Jim,” who runs a printing office, in a village about fifty miles up the Hudson. He lives at the Bronson farm, near the village, and when he comes to the city he spends a great deal of his time at the house of Mr. Kirby, the printer, on the other avenue, for he worked in Kirby’s shop, once. He told them, at his last visit, of a grand time he had had with a friend of his named Joe, a junior officer on one of the Sound Steamers, who came all the way up there to let him know how well three of their old friends were doing. ”

“ When Rodney Nelson parted from Jim, at Kirby’s printing office, that morning, he walked away with a strange look of energy and determination on his face. What the meaning of it was did not come out until his mother reached home, after her hard day’s work. She was very tired and for once she actually complained and said how hard it was.
“Mother!” instantly burst from Rodney. “That’s it. I guess you won’t have to work so hard, any more——”
“Why Rodney, what do you mean?”
“I’ve been at it, all day, mother. I’ve found people,—found ’em easy,—that’ll let us have things to sell. Don’t you see? ”

“ The Superintendent is always telling us we are Americans. Going to be citizens. So is the Military Instructor. They’re both naval officers—I’m an American, but loads of the other fellows are not. It’s my flag—I’ll set it up——”
[56] There was something in it. A great deal more teaching than he or any of the others knew was in the flag, the starry flag of freedom, that was carried at the head of the parade-ground battalion; that was displayed in the larger rooms of the House; that hung over the principal’s platform in the schoolroom ”

“ There were others like them who came and worked as they did, and it was curious how strong a hold the youngsters seemed to have upon them. Of course the boys liked their friendly, sympathizing visitors, but probably none of them ever knew, at least while on the Island, what a study and worry they were to such men as these, as well as to the exceedingly capable and faithful officers who were all the while in charge of them. Many learned more after going out into the world and finding that even then these friends of theirs did not let go of them but followed them with help and hope and sympathy. ”

“ Somebody took it, but I didn’t, and Uncle John may not have been so much to blame. He never liked me anyhow——”
“He ought not to have sent you to jail,” said Mrs. Nelson, positively. “And I suppose they treated you awfully. Did they flog you much?”
“No, they didn’t,” said Jim. “They never flog anybody. It’s the best place in the world for loads of those boys. They get a chance to learn something and they have to behave themselves. What I mean is that I didn’t do anything to go there for, and I didn’t belong there. They’re the best kind of men for the boys that ought to be there.” ”

“ Nobody can ever tell what is coming next or how their plans will unexpectedly run into those of other people.
Mrs. Nelson and Rodney, for instance, could hardly say that they had any plans, beyond hoping to sell one of their town lots for enough to pay the taxes and assessments on the rest; and having a door put in; and having a garden. She could not afford to keep Rodney any longer at school. He was old enough to earn something, and, besides, what if she should get sick or be out of work?
“I’ve got to do something,” he said, as he was carrying a chair upstairs. “Millie Kirby can set type. ”

“ To this day, the old river works steadily on, trying to change the saltness of the Atlantic by pouring in fresh water, and trying to widen its own mouth by washing away these islands, but the ocean is as salt as it was a thousand years ago and the islands are of about the same size that they ever were, so far as anybody can see. ”

“ Jim knew more, now, about the tug and the wharf, and he had had opportunities for examining both sides of the engine house.
“It’s too high to climb,” he said, “unless we can get something to climb with. They [82] never leave out a ladder, anywhere. It’s nothing but walls, walls, walls!”
He could not solve that problem, yet, but one of Rodney Nelson’s had been solved for him. Mrs. Kirby had permitted Pat’s friend to take his pony and plow through her hall, and the garden had been thoroughly ploughed and harrowed. ”

“ Rodney, too, was thinking of that.
“Jim,” he said, “Kirby’s printing office is better than working in our garden. They might see you, from the sidewalk, and ask where you came from.”
“I guess I could tell ’em, with these clothes on,” laughed Jim, for his spirits were improving and it seemed to him as if Randall’s Island were drifting away.
At that very moment, in the Bronson [116] farmhouse, away up the Hudson, they were talking about Jim. ”

“ Then there was a shove, a grating sound, a splash in the water,—but Jim’s exulting:
“Now, boys! Down we go! She’ll float. All we’ve got to do is to bail her out—” was followed by a loud shout from the front door of the main building and through all its corridors there were hurrying feet and rapidly given orders, for the officers had found five sleeping cells wide open and not a boy in one of them.
About the last place in the world where anyone would look for a missing boy, at about two o’clock in the morning, would be [97] in a lifeboat on the outer side of a steam tug in the East River. ”

“ He was glad enough to get away homeward [74] and carry an account of Billy’s transactions to Pat the carpenter, up on the new avenue.
“The baste!” exclaimed Patrick. “But thim will climb anywhere.—Luk at that? It’s a big hole for wan dure but it’s the good job I’m makin.”
“I can paint it,” said Rod. “I guess I can paint all the side of the house. ’Twon’t take much, all that’s above the street.—Then if I could get the garden ploughed——”
“Why not?” exclaimed Pat. “Sure, I know a man wid a small horse and a plough of his own. If Billy can come through Kirby’s hall, why can’t a pony? ”

“ Nelson. “We’ve three whole [65] lots of our own, and we can garden all the rest till they build on them. That won’t be for ever so long.”
“It’s about all I can do,” said Rodney, and he seemed to have a hopeless feeling about it and he went to bed thinking:
“If there’s anything that just tires a fellow out, it’s having nothing to do.”
Jim, on the other hand, marched into the dormitory, with the rest, feeling tired all over because he had something to do and did not yet know how to do it. He lay awake a long time, listening to the faint sounds which now and then disturbed the silence. ”