Rusty

“ Rusty couldn’t think of anything to worry about. And her husband frequently remarked that it was a lucky day for all of them when he decided to hire a boy.
Both Rusty and his wife had quite forgotten the strange feeling of that good [79] little lady’s that some sort of trouble was coming to them on account of taking an outsider into their house.
So the days passed happily for them. And all the while their six children were fast growing bigger. The proud parents often remarked that they had never before known youngsters to change so rapidly. ”

“ He sometimes went so far as to receive kindnesses from strangers, and then to fly at their [Pg 64] legs if he saw one of his own people coming. But to those who lived with him he was just perfectly loveable. I don't think I can say more than that. He and we loved one another.
So Rusty shared all our fun, and all our troubles too—such as they were—for we had our troubles of course; who hasn't? For instance, we hated school, at least Cuthbert and Hildred did, and I, wishing to be like them, said, and I believe thought, that I hated it too. ”

“ It is easy to understand why Farmer Green and his family overslept, when one knows that Rusty Wren no longer sang his dawn song beneath Farmer Green’s window. And when Rusty saw that the whole household never stirred until long after sunrise, he was so pleased that he couldn’t help making a few remarks about the new bird in the farmhouse, which had annoyed him so by singing “Cuckoo! cuckoo!”
“This stranger is a very poor songster!” Rusty said to his wife. “All he [26] can sing is ‘Cuckoo! cuckoo!’ in that silly way of his. He has no trills and runs and ripples at all! ”

“ Nor was the agitation by any means diminished, when the scout rushed back with the intelligence that the lady was ‘a slap-up gal in a bang-up chariot.’
Rumty himself, with his pen behind his ear under his rusty hat, arrived at the carriage-door in a breathless condition, and had been fairly lugged into the vehicle by his cravat and embraced almost unto choking, before he recognized his daughter. ‘My dear child!’ he then panted, incoherently. ‘Good gracious me! What a lovely woman you are! ”

“ But the call was not repeated.
“Farmer Green is not satisfied with my [22] singing!” Rusty cried. And thereupon he flew into such a rage that when his wife came home, a few minutes later, she was actually frightened.
“What in the world is the matter?” she asked her husband anxiously.
“Matter?” cried Rusty Wren. “Here I’ve sung my best for Farmer Green all summer, and waked him at dawn every morning without fail! And what do you suppose he’s done? He has brought home a strange bird from the village, because he doesn’t care for my singing.” ”

“ Rusty asked.
“Who knows?” was MacGregor’s sober reply. “Let us hope for the best. They’ll not let us go now. When they’re well beyond the three-mile limit they may give us gas and let us go.
“In the meantime, Rusty,” he warned, “don’t forget you’re a boy. It’s a good thing you’ve got on knickers instead of a dress.”
They were brought alongside. A ladder was let down. They climbed aboard. There they were ushered before one more small man who wore even more brass and braid. Johnny thought with a touch of humor that he would make a very fine monkey if only he had a cap, a tin cup and a string. ”

“ And he had not waited two days before Rusty Wren discovered the bright tin can that was to be his summer home.
As soon as she saw it, Rusty’s wife said that there must be kind people living in the farmhouse, or they never would have driven nails through a spick-and-span can just to make strangers happy. ”

“ Rusty’s voice rose. “And such sunshine! Nowhere in the world is it so glorious.”
“All right,” Johnny agreed. “Ice-box cookies, hot chocolate and sunshine. That will be keen.”
[210]
“Dreams,” he was thinking. “How often when things are hard, very hard, we dream.” As he closed his eyes now he could see dead salmon in endless rows. He could hear the monotonous drone of brown men and the endless wash-wash of the sea. “How grand at times to dream of other things far away!” ”

“ Rusty kissed her mother and said she would try to see what she could do with Frank. She sought out her brother.
“Frank, you and Freddy’ll mind the baby while Anna goes to Wenham with me to meet Reuben, won’t you?” she begged. “You know I’ve been away so [204] long you haven’t had a chance to do anything for me for weeks and weeks.”
“Why Rusty Miller,” the boy exclaimed, “ain’t writing letters anything,—with ink, too! It takes the whole evening, even if you begin the minute the table cloth’s off.” ”

“ But Rusty Wren said, “Nonsense! The doorway’s made of tin—not wood. You have grown—that’s the whole trouble! And you’ve got us into a pretty fix.”
“I begin to think that it was all planned this way by his father,” Mrs. Rusty told her husband, “so Mr. Chippy wouldn’t have to take care of his son. But I don’t intend to adopt a big, overgrown boy like him—not when I have six small children of my own!” ”

“ Rusty cried. “An alarm clock!”
But old Mr. Crow shook his head.
“No!” he replied. “It’s just an everyday clock. And, instead of striking, it lets this little wooden bird come out and sing.”
Rusty Wren said that he wouldn’t care for a clock like that and that he didn’t see why Farmer Green had brought it home, anyhow.
“Cuckoo clocks amuse the women and children,” Mr. Crow remarked wisely.
“Then you think Farmer Green was not dissatisfied with my singing? You think he would like me to wake him every morning, just as I used to?” Rusty waited eagerly for Mr. Crow’s opinion. ”

“ Meanwhile, Long Bill hopped briskly outside his house, and joined them on the ground.
“My party!” he cried. “Why, I know of no party here! Somebody has made a mistake. I haven’t given a party for a year—just a year ago to-day.... I invited you at that time,” he told Rusty Wren, “but you didn’t come. And I never received any word from you about the matter.”
“That’s strange!” said Rusty. “This [118] is the first I ever heard of the affair.”
“I engaged Mr. Crow to take your invitation to Jolly Robin in the orchard and ask him to give it to you,” Long Bill informed his bewildered cousin. ”

“ It seemed to take Rusty Wren’s wife a long time to recover from the fright that Jasper Jay had given her. He had amused himself by dropping cherries upon the roof of her house. But the trick had not amused the Wren family in the least.
Even after Johnnie Green had driven the blue-coated rascal away from the dooryard Mrs. Rusty Wren was all aflutter. She jumped at the slightest noise. And she was so nervous that Rusty soon saw that it was a great effort for her to go abroad for food for their hungry family.
“You must stay right here at home and [63] rest,” he urged her. ”

“ He was so cheerful and good-natured that Rusty Wren and his wife did not object [49] to Jolly’s visits—so long as he did not venture too near their house. They always scolded loudly when an outsider came too close to their home, for they had a big family of children, and they couldn’t help feeling that the youngsters were safer with no prying busybodies to meddle with them.
Of course, Jolly Robin never once thought of harming any of Rusty’s family. And as soon as he saw that Rusty—and especially his wife—wanted him to keep away from their side of the tree, he took care to respect their wishes. ”

“ You couldn’t see as much of the field as I’d expected, because the top of the grand stand cut off the nearer side of it, but it wasn’t bad, and I made Sandy take his coat off and sit down on the window-seat. He was very grateful, was Sandy. Doing things for him is a real pleasure, fellows!” And Rusty looked around the small circle of his audience with much feeling. Stanley was chuckling and Blash and Dick grinning broadly, and Rusty seemed surprised at their amusement. ”

“ Rusty’s wife agreed with him on that point. But she still insisted that she wanted to live near the farmhouse; and she said that she expected her husband to find a good spot for their nest, for she certainly wasn’t going to spend the summer in a hole in a fence-rail, or in an old apple tree, either. ”

“ Well, Rusty, we've been through this old castle pretty thoroughly now, from dungeon to tower, and not a sign of the Prince or the Duke or any one else, unless they pound or carry a smoky lantern. It's a clue, Rusty, it's a clue. We'll stick right here till we find out where it leads. I'll swear the Duke never went to Madrid, but came straight here from the inn. (Jarvis crosses to fireplace r. Rusty follows.) Get away from me. (Strikes a match and holds in chimney.) There's a fine chance for a fire. Good, it draws. ”

“ The awful scene with Rusty. To-night in the fog under the pines. “Wanted more than anything to drop myself in the river.”
He was walking the floor, back and forth, limping to one edge of the rug, then limping to the other. “Then Jane came. Little Jane Barnes. You know her, and she told me—where to get off—said I was—captain of my soul——” He stopped in front of the doctor, and smiled whimsically. “Are any of us captains of our souls, doctor?”
“I’ll be darned if I know.” The doctor was intensely serious. “Will power has a lot to do with things. ”

“ Before Rusty Wren came to live in Farmer Green’s dooryard the family had been known to oversleep now and then. Working hard all day long as everybody did (except Johnnie Green, who played hard enough—goodness knows!) , they slept very soundly at night. And two or three times every summer they were sure to rise late, just by accident.
Though such a mishap always annoyed Farmer Green, it never troubled either the hired man or Johnnie in the least. On the contrary, they seemed to enjoy those occasions. But with Rusty Wren to rouse them at dawn all that was changed. ”

“ What had happened may be quickly told. When Blackie and his crew failed to return, and Rusty as well, there had been consternation about the cannery. There was little use searching Bristol Bay in a fog. When, however, Dan MacMillan appeared in his seaplane, they went into action. Red McGee climbed into the cockpit and they were away. They had circled for an hour when they sighted the Oriental ship.
As they flew over it Red McGee experienced no difficulty in getting the unusual signals Johnny and Rusty had set up for him. He recognized the boxing forms of both Rusty and Johnny. ”

“ Rusty Wren said.
But his wife caught hold of his coat-tails and begged him to stay with her.
“No! no!” she cried. “You must not stir out of the house. I’d be terribly worried if you left me alone here with these six small children. And you might get hurt, besides.”
Meanwhile the racket on the roof continued, [55] with only a short pause between each outburst. The six Wren children began to cry—for they were hungry as well as frightened. And all the time Mrs. Rusty clung to her husband’s coat-tails and besought him not to leave her. ”

“ And he can’t even repeat his song ten times a minute, as I give mine. He has to wait at least half an hour before he cries ‘Cuckoo! cuckoo!’ again. And no one but a simpleton would ever attempt to awaken a hard-working farmer by such half-hearted singing.”
Mrs. Rusty quite agreed with her husband.
“Farmer Green will be sorry he brought home such a worthless bird,” she said.
[27]
VI MR. CROW TO THE RESCUE
As time went on, and the Green family overslept each morning, Rusty began to grow very weary of the monotonous “Cuckoo! cuckoo!” ”

“ On seeing Rustem the rhinoceros retreated, and the elephant was led back. But now the horses were gone. "Strange things happen to travellers in the forest!" exclaimed Rustem. The servants were dismayed, and their master was in despair at having lost his horses, his favourite negro, and the sage Topaz, for whom he had always had a regard, though he did not always agree with his opinion.
He was comforting himself with the hope of soon finding himself at the feet of the beautiful Princess of Cashmere, when he met a fine striped ass, which a vigorous peasant was beating violently with a stick. ”

“ Rustan immediately begins to exult, and his people to throw themselves upon their knees and to fall upon their backs in astonishment, and cry out, "A miracle! a miracle! Rustan is the favorite of Witsnow, the well-beloved of Brahma. He will become the master of mankind."
Rustan believed it; he was quite beside himself; he was raised above himself.
"Alas, Ebene," said he, "my dear Ebene, where are you? Why are you not witness of all these wonders? How did I lose you? Beauteous princess of Cachemire, when shall I again behold your charms!" ”

“ Behold, as I crossed the great salt plains upon the border of the kingdom this day, I encountered a solitary huntsman, mounted upon a magnificent charger, and towering in his saddle like a giant among men. More like unto a god than mortal man, surely this could have been no other than Rustem, the Champion of the World, and his famous war-horse Rakush; for verily there exist not two such mighty heroes in the world!—of that I am certain. ”

“ The first to open the chapter of battle was Rustem, who spurred his charger into the mid-field and cried out, saying, ‘God is Most Great! I am Rustem, chief of the champions of the Arabs and the Persians. Who is for jousting, who is for fighting? Let no sluggard or weakling come out to me to-day!’ Then there came forth to him a champion of the Persians and there befell between them a sore battle, till Rustem smote his adversary with a mace he had with him, seventy pounds in weight, and beat his head down upon his breast, and he fell to the earth, dead and drowned in his blood. ”