Joe Wayring

“ So thought Joe Wayring, who by good luck happened to strike the well-beaten path that led through the evergreens from the cove to the spot whereon the squatter's miserable lean-to had once stood. Having no bushes to impede his progress, Joe crept rapidly forward on his hands and knees without making the slightest sound, and in a few moments came within sight of a glowing bed of coals, with a clearly defined pair of legs in front of it. ”

“ Having disposed of their late dinner and cleaned up the camp, the boys were at liberty to lie around under the trees and rest. This, for a wonder, Joe Wayring was quite willing to do; but Roy and Arthur suddenly took it into their heads that they would like to explore the spring-hole and see how big it was and what it looked like.
"Well, go on," said Joe, "and I will stay here and keep up the fire and rest. Two are enough to ride in that canoe. Take your rods and catch some trout for breakfast. You ought to have fine sport, for they are jumping up in every direction." ”

“ During the winter Tom Bigden and his cousins, who grew more vindictive and unreasonable in their hatred as time progressed, waged a secret but incessant warfare upon Joe Wayring and his two chums. They coaxed Mars from the post-office to the drug-store, and sent him home with a tin can tied to his tail. They practiced with their long bows at Roy Sheldon’s fan-tail and tumbler pigeons as often as the birds ventured over to their side of the lake. They went across on their skates one night, and overturned the Young Republic, which Joe had hauled out on the beach and housed for the winter ”

“ Noble saw defeat staring him in the face, and believing that he could gain a few feet on Hastings and his companion, and throw Loren out of the race at the same time, he resorted to an expedient which drew a warning shout from Joe Wayring, who was contentedly following in Tom's rear.
"Look out there, Frank!" cried Joe. "You'll be foul of somebody in a minute more." ”

“ The squatter's family, believing that Jake had been mortally wounded, gathered about him with expressions of sympathy, and Joe Wayring took advantage of the confusion to climb into the skiff and put on his clothes. If there was going to be a fight he wanted to take a hand in it.
"Whoop!" shrieked the old woman, rolling up her sleeves and shaking a pair of huge, tan-colored fists at the object of her wrath. "If I was a man I'd swim off to that there boat an' maul the last one of you. ”

“ The truth of the matter was, that Joe Wayring and some of his particular friends had won too many honors, and made themselves altogether too popular in the community. These boys were angry about it, because they wanted to be first in every thing themselves. Tom Bigden and his cousins had fully intended to take Mount Airy by storm, and to establish themselves at once as leaders among their new acquaintances; and their failure to accomplish their object bewildered as well as enraged them. ”

“ Almost stunned as he was, he sprang up again in an instant, only to be floored by Joe Wayring. A second later Arthur's little rifle spoke again, and this time the dog did not get up. He was as dead as the sheep he had helped pull out of the bushes. "This is rather ahead of my time," said Joe, who was the first to speak. "I never dreamed that domestic dogs could be so savage. ”

“ Joe Wayring at once set off to hunt up a couple of suitable boards, another started a fire, two more fell to work upon the fish and squirrels, and the rest found employment in gathering a supply of fuel, and providing birch-bark plates and platters. Although Tom and his cousins did their full share of the work, they did not neglect to keep an eye on their more experienced companions; and they were astonished to see how easily one can get on without a good many things which the majority of people seem to think necessary to their very existence. ”

“ Swan, to his employer, "Didn't I tell you that he was a sharp one? The tricks that that fellow don't know ain't worth knowing."
Just then a twig snapped on the bank and Joe Wayring came into view. "Don't talk so loud," he whispered, as he held up his finger warningly. "Matt's scow isn't twenty feet from here, and that's all the proof I want that his camp is close at land."
Instantly seven pairs of oars were dropped into the water, and as many boats were forced through the bushes and into the little bay on the other side. ”

“ We can send a team to beat them at target shooting, and we can enter our sail-boats for prizes in the regatta; but I, for one, don't care to. I've had quite enough of that crowd, and think we can see all the fun we want among ourselves."
"I think so, too," said Tom. "I don't care for their old canoe club, but I should really like to see the Toxophilites go to pieces. I'd see Joe Wayring happy before he should come into this club with my vote." ”

“ I believe he would rather have lost his handsome breech-loader. I tell you we made a mistake in having any thing to do with George Prime. Wayring and his crowd are much the better lot of fellows.”
These remarks settled one thing to Tom Bigden’s satisfaction. Ever since his interview with the squatter he had been asking himself whether or not he ought to take his cousins into his confidence, and now he knew that he had better not. He was afraid, as well as ashamed, to show them how far his unreasonable enmity toward Joe Wayring had led him, and so he said nothing. ”

“ What he was about to say was that he would pay Joe Wayring for stealing the money.
"You can do jest what you please with him, an' I won't say a word agin it," answered the squatter. "The way them rich folks has always run over us ain't to be put up with no longer."
Pursuers and pursued slept soundly within three miles of one another that night, but the morning's sun found them all astir. While Joe and his companions were working like beavers on their bark shanty, Matt Coyle was wasting his time in searching for the portage that led from Indian Lake to No-Man's Pond. ”

“ Prime and his friends were suspicious of Tom. The latter kept away from the drug-store altogether; he and his cousins were often seen in Joe Wayring’s company, and Prime said that looked as though Tom wasn’t in earnest when he promised to assist in carrying out the arrangements that had been made for defeating Joe and Arthur at the coming canoe meet.
“I’ll vote for him,” said Prime, after Noble, Scott, and one or two others had labored with him for a long time, “but if he plays us false, as I really think he means to do, he can just hang up his fiddle, so far as the Toxophilites are concerned. ”

“ I am a present for Joe Wayring, and hope in some degree to recompense him for the disappointment he must have felt when he found that his uncle could not take him on a trip this summer. Use me regularly and judiciously, and if you do not say that life has suddenly doubled its charm—if you do not, before the end of the year, notice a thousand and one improvements in yourself, both physically and mentally, then I shall have failed of my mission. ”

“ Their three companions of the previous day were there, and their attention was concentrated upon a beautiful blue silk flag, trimmed with gold fringe and bearing in its center the monogram of the Mount Airy canoe club, which occupied a conspicuous position among the prizes.
“That’s some of Miss Arden’s handiwork,” said Joe Wayring, after he had cordially greeted Tom and his cousins. “It is to go to the first one who walks the greasy pole.” ”

“ When Joe Wayring and his friends went home they might pass directly over me, and I would have no power to attract their attention, I knew Joe would miss me sometimes, but I wasn't so conceited as to think that he could not get another canoe that would more than fill my place. I thought of these things, and then I asked myself what had become of Matt Coyle. If he were a strong swimmer he might succeed in making a landing after the current had carried him a mile or so down the river, provided he could keep out of the way of the driftwood. ”

“ Jake, who had dropped his paddle and sat holding his chin in his hands, paid no attention to the order; but Matt and Sam worked to such good purpose that they finally succeeded in backing the scow out of the lilies into clear water. When they reached the bank, Joe Wayring was out of sight; but they knew which way he had gone, and at once set out in pursuit; while Jake stayed in the scow and howled dismally. ”

“ Which way shall we start?" added Joe, who while he was speaking kept turning his wheel first up and then down the track. "The majority rules."
"That way," said Roy.
"Come on then. Let's cover as many miles as we can while daylight lasts. We'll have to touch a match to our lamps pretty soon."
It was fine wheeling on the hard road-bed, and Joe Wayring made the pace hot enough to satisfy anybody but a professional racer; but fast as he went, the darkness traveled faster, and when they had gone about three miles, he suggested that the lamps ought to be lighted. ”

“ At the same moment Arthur wiped out the insult that had been put upon Jim by taking Matt a whack under the eye that raised a lump as large as a hen's egg.
"Whoop-ee!" shouted Joe Wayring, as a potato from his own hand struck Sam' s tattered cap from his head. "That was a bully shot. Look out! Here comes another. We ain't got no taters on this side of the creek, I reckon."
The fusilade that followed was a hot one, and the squatter and his family, finding that they could not stand against it, beat a hasty retreat into the bushes. ”

“ It was a close and exciting struggle, and the boy who brought his Rice Laker first across the line was fairly entitled to the silver pitcher.
"That was a splendid race," exclaimed Joe Wayring, as the contestants, after beaching their canoes, came into the boat-house to listen to the congratulations, or to receive the sympathy of their friends. "The paddle race comes off now, and I hope that those of us who take part in it will make as good a showing as you did." ”

“ Now we know that Matt didn't tell the truth when he said that Joe Wayring's father would not let any one live on his land except those who had money to pay for the privilege. Mr. Wayring was one of the most liberal citizens in Mount Airy. Nearly all the men who were employed as guides and boatmen by the summer visitors lived in neat little cottages that he had built on purpose for them, and for which he never charged them a cent of rent ”

“ I am the historian of the Wayring family, or, rather, of the youngest branch of it," he added, with no little pride in his tones. "I carry secrets enough to sink any ordinary craft, and if I only had the power to communicate some of them to my master, perhaps he wouldn't open his eyes! I am a canvas canoe, at your service."
"Oh!" said I.
"Yes," said he. "And unless my judgment is at fault, you are a fly-rod. I heard Joe say that his uncle was going to get one for him." ”

“ Swan's boat. He had always lived and worked in the company of gentlemen, and he did not like to occupy close quarters with so disreputable a fellow as the scow.)
"Get away from here yourself," was the report. "I was here first, an' I'm going to stay."
"I'll bet you will," said Bushboy. (That was the name of the boat Joe and his chums hired at Indian Lake.) "But you may be sure of one thing: You will stay a wreck."
"That's so," said I. "Joe Wayring will never go away leaving him above the water. ”

“ His merriment was forced, and he was as angry as he ever got to be.
"Are you willing that Prime and his crowd should lay out a programme for the races without saying a word to us about it?" demanded Ralph, who forgot that that was just the way in which he and his two companions had treated Prime.
"And did you really ask Wayring to propose our names at the club's next meeting?" chimed in Loren.
"No, to both your questions," replied Tom, emphatically. "They must be a bright set of boys if they think we are going to let them rule us. ”

“ While I was being taken out of my case, I noticed that now and then there was a slight commotion in the water, just outside the lilies, and I knew it was occasioned by trout jumping from the water, even before Joe Wayring said so.
"Just look at them!" he exclaimed, in great excitement. "They are having a high old time among themselves. I wouldn't take a dollar for my chance of going home with a full creel. There! Did you see that whopper?"
"Put on a white miller and a brown hackle, and give me your rod as quick as you can," answered his uncle. ”

“ You want Wayring to win because you think he can do more to get you into the archery club than we can; but I assure you that you are mistaken there. You can't get in without our votes, and if you go back on us we shan't give them to you."
"I don't want Wayring to win," said Tom, emphatically. "My Cousin Loren is going to come out at the top of the heap in this race."
"Well, I'll bet you a dollar he isn't," exclaimed Noble, whose flashing eyes showed how angry he was. "If I don't win this race nobody shall." ”

“ I need not stop to go into the particulars of the fight, for every boy who has caught a heavy trout on a light rod will know just what happened; and besides, to be frank with you, I don't remember much about it. Neither does Joe Wayring, who was so highly excited that he could not stand still. I recollect he afterward told his chums that the fish jumped clear out of the water two or three times, and then started from the middle of the spring hole and ran toward the angler at the top of his speed, trying to loosen the line so that the hook would drop out of his mouth ”