About nine o'clock we went to bed, the captain promising to call us if
anything turned up. But I couldn't sleep well--my bunk was too close and
hot, and so I pretty soon got up and went up to the pilot-house, where I
found the captain. He and one of the hands were hard at work putting the
boat around.
"Hello!" said he. "I thought you were sound asleep."
"Hello!" said I. "What are you turning round for?"
It was bright starlight, and I could see that we were making a complete
circuit in the smooth water.
"Well," said he, "we're going back."
"Back!" I cried. "What's the meaning of that? We haven't made half a
search. I don't believe we've gone a hundred miles. We want to search
the whole coast, I tell you, to the lower end of Florida."
"You can't do it in this boat," he said; "she's too small."
"Why didn't you say so when we took her?"
"Well, there wasn't any other, in the first place, and besides, it
wouldn't be no good to go no further. It's more 'n four days, now, since
them boats set out. There's no chance fur anybody on 'em to be livin'."
"That's not for you to decide," I said, and I was very angry. "We want
to find our friends, dead or alive, or find some news of them, and we
want to cruise until we know there's no further chance of doing so."
"Well," said he, ringing the bell to go ahead, sharp, "I'm not decidin'
anything. I had my orders. I was to be gone twenty-four hours; an' it'll
be more 'n that by the time I get back."
"Who gave you those orders?"
"Parker and Darrell," said he.
"Then this is all a swindle," I cried. "And we've been cheated into
taking this trip for nothing at all!"
"No, it isn't a swindle," he answered, rather warmly. "They told me all
about it. They knew, an' I knew, that it wasn't no use to go looking for
two boats that had been lowered in a big storm four days ago, 'way down
on the Florida coast. But they could see that this here girl would never
give in till she'd had a chance of doin' what she thought she was called
on to do, and so they agreed to give it to her. But they told me on no
account to keep her out more 'n twenty-four hours. That would be long
enough to satisfy her, and longer than that wouldn't be right. I tell
you they know what they're about."
"Well, it wont be enough to satisfy her," I said, and then I went down
to the little deck. I couldn't make the man turn back. I thought the tug
had been hired to go wherever we chose to take her, but I had been
mistaken. I felt that we had been deceived; but there was no use in
saying anything more on the subject until we reached the city.
I did not wake Rectus to tell him the news. It would not do any good,
and I was afraid Corny might hear us. I wanted her to sleep as long as
she could, and, indeed, I dreaded the moment when she should awake, and
find that all had been given up.
We steamed along very fast now. There was no stopping anywhere. I sat on
the deck and thought a little, and dozed a little; and by the time it
was morning, I found we were in the Savannah River. I now hated this
river worse than ever.
Everything was quiet on the water, and everything, except the engine,
was just as quiet on the tug. Rectus and Corny and Celia were still
asleep, and nobody else seemed stirring, though, of course, some of the
men were at their posts. I don't think the captain wanted to be about
when Corny came out on deck, and found that we had given up the search.
I intended to be with her when she first learned this terrible fact,
which I knew would put an end to all hope in her heart; but I was in no
hurry for her to wake up. I very much hoped she would sleep until we
reached the city, and then we could take her directly to her kind
friends.
And she did sleep until we reached the city. It was about seven o'clock
in the morning, I think, when we began to steam slowly by the wharves
and piers. I now wished the city were twenty miles further on. I knew
that when we stopped I should have to wake up poor Corny.
The city looked doleful. Although it was not very early in the morning,
there were very few people about. Some men could be seen on the decks of
the vessels at the wharves, and a big steamer for one of the northern
ports was getting up steam. I could not help thinking how happy the
people must be who were going away in her. On one of the piers near
where we were going to stop--we were coming in now--were a few darkey
boys, sitting on a wharf-log, and dangling their bare feet over the
water. I wondered how they dared laugh, and be so jolly. In a few
minutes Corny must be wakened. On a post, near these boys, a lounger sat
fishing with a long pole,--actually fishing away as if there were no
sorrows and deaths, or shipwrecked or broken-hearted people in the
world. I was particularly angry at this man--and I was so nervous that
all sorts of things made me angry--because he was old enough to know
better, and because he looked like such a fool. He had on green
trousers, dirty canvas shoes and no stockings, a striped linen coat, and
an old straw hat, which lopped down over his nose. One of the men called
to him to catch the line which he was about to throw on the wharf, but
he paid no attention, and a negro boy came and caught the line. The man
actually had a bite, and couldn't take his eyes from the cork. I wished
the line had hit him and knocked him off the post.
The tide was high, and the tug was not much below the wharf when we
hauled up. Just as we touched the pier, the man, who was a little
astern of us, caught his fish. He jerked it up, and jumped off his post,
and, as he looked up in delight at his little fish, which was swinging
in the air, I saw he was Mr. Chipperton!
I made one dash for Corny's little cubby-hole. I banged at the door. I
shouted:
"Corny! Here's your father!"
She was out in an instant. She had slept in her clothes. She had no
bonnet on. She ran out on deck, and looked about, dazed. The sight of
the wharves and the ships seemed to stun her.
"Where?" she cried.
I took her by the arm and pointed out her father, who still stood
holding the fishing-pole in one hand, while endeavoring to clutch the
swinging fish with the other.
The plank had just been thrown out from the little deck. Corny made one
bound. I think she struck the plank in the middle, like an India-rubber
ball, and then she was on the wharf; and before he could bring his eyes
down to the earth, her arms were around her father's neck, and she was
wildly kissing and hugging him.
Mr. Chipperton was considerably startled, but when he saw who it was who
had him, he threw his arms around Corny, and hugged and kissed her as if
he had gone mad.
Rectus was out by this time, and as he and I stood on the tug, we could
not help laughing, although we were so happy that we could have cried.
There stood that ridiculous figure, Mr. Chipperton, in his short green
trousers and his thin striped coat, with his arms around his daughter,
and the fishing-pole tightly clasped to her back, while the poor little
fish dangled and bobbed at every fresh hug.
Everybody on board was looking at them, and one of the little black
boys, who didn't appear to appreciate sentiment, made a dash for the
fish, unhooked it, and put like a good fellow. This rather broke the
spell that was on us all, and Rectus and I ran on shore.
We did not ask any questions, we were too glad to see him. After he had
put Corny on one side, and had shaken our hands wildly with his left
hand, for his right still held the pole, and had tried to talk and found
he couldn't, we called a carriage that had just come up, and hustled him
and Corny into it. I took the pole from his hand, and asked him where he
would go to. He called out the name of the hotel where we were staying,
and I shut the door, and sent them off. I did not ask a word about
Corny's mother, for I knew Mr. Chipperton would not be sitting on a post
and fishing if his wife was dead.
I threw the pole and line away, and then Rectus and I walked up to the
hotel. We forgot all about Celia, who was left to go home when she
chose.
It was some hours before we saw the Chippertons, and then we were called
into their room, where there was a talking and a telling things, such as
I never heard before.
It was some time before I could get Mr. and Mrs. Chipperton's story
straight, but this was about the amount of it: They were picked up
sooner than we were--just after day-break. When they left the ship, they
rowed as hard as they could, for several hours, and so got a good
distance from us. It was well they met with a vessel as soon as they
did, for all the women who had been on the steamer were in this boat,
and they had a hard time of it. The water dashed over them very often,
and Mr. Chipperton thought that some of them could not have held out
much longer (I wondered what they would have done on our raft).
The vessel that picked them up was a coasting schooner bound to one of
the Florida Keys, and she wouldn't put back with them, for she was under
some sort of a contract, and kept right straight on her way. When they
got down there, they chartered a vessel which brought them up to
Fernandina, where they took the steamer for Savannah. They were on the
very steamer we passed in the inside passage. If we had only known that!
They telegraphed the moment they reached Fernandina, and proposed
stopping at St. Augustine, but it was thought they could make better
time by keeping right on to Fernandina. The telegram reached Savannah
after we had left on the tug.
Mr. Chipperton said he got his fancy clothes on board the schooner. He
bought them of a man--a passenger, I believe--who had an extra suit.
"I think," said Mr. Chipperton, "he was the only man on that mean little
vessel who had two suits of clothes. I don't know whether these were his
weekday or his Sunday clothes. As for my own, they were so wet that I
took them off the moment I got on board the schooner, and I never saw
them again. I don't know what became of them, and, to tell the truth, I
haven't thought of 'em. I was too glad to get started for Savannah,
where I knew we'd meet Corny, if she was alive. You see, I trusted in
you boys."
Just here, Mrs. Chipperton kissed us both again. This made several times
that she had done it. We didn't care so much, as there was no one there
but ourselves and the Chippertons.
"When we got here, and found you had gone to look for us, I wanted to
get another tug and go right after you, but my wife was a good deal
shaken up, and I did not want to leave her; and Parker and Darrell said
they had given positive orders to have you brought back this morning, so
I waited. I was only too glad to know you were all safe. I got up early
in the morning, and went down to watch for you. You must have been
surprised to see me fishing, but I had nothing else to do, and so I
hired a pole and line of a boy. It helped very much to pass the time
away."
"Yes," said Rectus, "you didn't notice us at all, you were so much
interested."
"Well, you see," said Mr. Chipperton, "I had a bite just at that minute;
and, besides, I really did not look for you on such a little boat. I had
an idea you would come on something more respectable than that."
"As if we should ever think of respectability at such a time!" said Mrs.
Chipperton, with tears in her eyes.
"As for you boys," said Mr. Chipperton, getting up and taking us each by
the hand, "I don't know what to say to you."
I thought, for my part, that they had all said enough already. They had
praised and thanked us for things we had never thought of.
"I almost wish you were orphans," he continued, "so that I might adopt
you. But a boy can't have more than one father. However, I tell you! a
boy can have as many uncles as he pleases. I'll be an uncle to each of
you as long as I live. Ever after this call me Uncle Chipperton. Do you
hear that?"
We heard, and said we'd do it.
Soon after this, lots of people came in, and the whole thing was gone
over again and again. I am sorry to say that, at one or two places in
the story, Mrs. Chipperton kissed us both again.
Before we went down to dinner, I asked Uncle Chipperton how his lung had
stood it, through all this exposure.
"Oh, bother the lung!" he said. "I tell you; boys, I've lost faith in
that lung,--at least, in there being anything the matter with it. I
shall travel for it no more."
CHAPTER XXII.
LOOKING AHEAD.
"We have made up our minds," said Uncle Chipperton, that afternoon, "to
go home and settle down, and let Corny go to school. I hate to send her
away from us, but it will be for her good. But that wont be until next
fall. We'll keep her until then. And now, I'll tell you what I think
we'd all better do. It's too soon to go North yet. No one should go from
the soft climate of the semi-tropics to the Northern or Middle States
until mild weather has fairly set in there. And that will not happen for
a month yet.
"Now, this is my plan. Let us all take a leisurely trip homeward by the
way of Mobile, and New Orleans and the Mississippi River. This will be
just the season, and we shall be just the party. What do you say?"
Everybody, but me, said it would be splendid. I had exactly the same
idea about it, but I didn't say so, for there was no use in it. I
couldn't go on a trip like that. I had been counting up my money that
morning, and found I would have to shave pretty closely to get home by
rail,--and I wanted, very much, to go that way--although it would be
cheaper to return by sea,--for I had a great desire to go through North
and South Carolina and Virginia, and see Washington. It would have
seemed like a shame to go back by sea, and miss all this. But, as I
said, I had barely enough money for this trip, and to make it I must
start the next day. And there was no use writing home for money. I knew
there was none there to spare, and I wouldn't have asked for it if there
had been. If there was any travelling money, some of the others ought to
have it. I had had my share.
It was very different with Rectus and the Chippertons. They could afford
to take this trip, and there was no reason why they shouldn't take it.
When I told them this, Uncle Chipperton flashed up in a minute, and said
that that was all stuff and nonsense,--the trip shouldn't cost me a
cent. What was the sense, he said, of thinking of a few dollars when
such pleasure was in view? He would see that I had no money-troubles,
and if that was all, I could go just as well as not. Didn't he owe me
thousands of dollars?
All this was very kind, but it didn't suit me. I knew that he did not
owe me a cent, for if I had done anything for him, I made no charge for
it. And even if I had been willing to let him pay my expenses,--which I
wasn't,--my father would never have listened to it.
So I thanked him, but told him the thing couldn't be worked in that
way, and I said it over and over again, until, at last, he believed it.
Then he offered to lend me the money necessary, but this offer I had to
decline, too. As I had no way of paying it back, I might as well have
taken it as a gift. There wasn't anything he could offer, after this,
except to get me a free pass; and as he had no way of doing that, he
gave up the job, and we all went down to supper. That evening, as I was
putting a few things into a small valise which I had bought,--as our
trunks were lost on the "Tigris," I had very little trouble in packing
up,--I said to Rectus that by the time he started off he could lay in a
new stock of clothes. I had made out our accounts, and had his money
ready to hand over to him, but I knew that his father had arranged for
him to draw on a Savannah bank, both for the tug-boat money and for
money for himself. I think that Mr. Colbert would have authorized me to
do this drawing, if Rectus had not taken the matter into his own hands
when he telegraphed. But it didn't matter, and there wasn't any tug-boat
money to pay, any way, for Uncle Chipperton paid that. He said it had
all been done for his daughter, and he put his foot down hard, and
wouldn't let Rectus hand over a cent.
"I wont have any more time than you will have," replied Rectus, "for I'm
going to-morrow."
"I didn't suppose they'd start so soon," I said "I'm sure there's no
need of any hurry."
"I'm not going with them," said Rectus, putting a lonely shirt into a
trunk that he had bought. "I'm going home with you."
I was so surprised at this that I just stared at him.
"What do you mean?" said I.
"Mean?" said he. "Why, just what I say. Do you suppose I'd go off with
them, and let you straggle up home by yourself? Not any for me, thank
you. And besides, I thought you were to take charge of me. How would you
look going back and saying you'd turned me over to another party?"
[Illustration: "YOU'RE A REGULAR YOUNG TRUMP."]
"You thought I was to take charge of you, did you?" I cried. "Well,
you're a long time saying so. You never admitted that before."
"I had better sense than that," said Rectus, with a grin. "But I don't
mind saying so now, as we're pretty near through with our travels. But
father told me expressly that I was to consider myself in your charge."
"You young rascal!" said I. "And he thought that you understood it so
well that there was no need of saying much to me about it. All that he
said expressly to me was about taking care of your money. But I tell you
what it is, Rectus, you're a regular young trump to give up that trip,
and go along with me."
And I gave him a good slap on the back.
He winced at this, and let drive a pillow at me, so hard that it nearly
knocked me over a chair.
The next morning, after an early breakfast, we went to bid the
Chippertons good-bye. We intended to walk to the dГ©pГґt, and so wanted to
start early. I was now cutting down all extra expenses.
"Ready so soon!" cried Uncle Chipperton, appearing at the door of his
room. "Why, we haven't had our breakfast yet."
"We have to make an early start, if we go by the morning train," said I,
"and we wanted to see you all before we started."
"Glad to see you at any hour of the night or day,--always very glad to
see you; but I think we had better be getting our breakfast, if the
train goes so early."
"Are you going to start to-day?" I asked, in surprise.
"Certainly," said he. "Why shouldn't we? I bought a new suit of clothes
yesterday, and my wife and Corny look well enough for travelling
purposes. We can start as well as not, and I'd go in my green trousers
if I hadn't any others. My dear," he said, looking into the room, "you
and Corny must come right down to breakfast."
"But perhaps you need not hurry," I said. "I don't know when the train
for Mobile starts."
"Mobile!" he cried. "Who's going to Mobile? Do you suppose that _we_
are? Not a bit of it. When I proposed that trip, I didn't propose it for
Mrs. Chipperton, or Corny, or myself, or you, or Rectus, or Tom, or
Dick, or Harry. I proposed it for all of us. If all of us cannot go,
none of us can. If you must go north this morning, so must we. We've
nothing to pack, and that's a comfort. Nine o'clock, did you say? You
may go on to the dГ©pГґt, if you like, and we'll eat our breakfasts, take
a carriage, and be there in time."
They were there in time, and we all went north together.
We had a jolly trip. We saw Charleston, and Richmond, and Washington,
and Baltimore, and Philadelphia; and at last we saw Jersey City, and our
folks waiting for us in the great dГ©pГґt of the Pennsylvania railroad.
When I saw my father and mother and my sister Helen standing there on
the stone foot-walk, as the cars rolled in, I was amazed. I hadn't
expected them. It was all right enough for Rectus to expect his father
and mother, for they lived in New York, but I had supposed that I should
meet my folks at the station in Willisville. But it was a capital idea
in them to come to New York. They said they couldn't wait at home, and
besides, they wanted to see and know the Chippertons, for we all seemed
so bound together, now.
Well, it wasn't hard to know the Chippertons. Before we reached the
hotel where my folks were staying, and where we all went to take
luncheon together, any one would have thought that Uncle Chipperton was
really a born brother to father and old Mr. Colbert. How he did talk!
How everybody talked! Except Helen. She just sat and listened and looked
at Corny--a girl who had been shipwrecked, and had been on a little raft
in the midst of the stormy billows. My mother and the two other ladies
cried a good deal, but it was a sunshiny sort of crying, and wouldn't
have happened so often, I think, if Mrs. Chipperton had not been so
ready to lead off.
After luncheon we sat for two or three hours in one of the parlors, and
talked, and talked, and talked. It was a sort of family congress.
Everybody told everybody else what he or she was going to do, and took
information of the same kind in trade. I was to go to college in the
fall, but as that had been pretty much settled long ago, it couldn't be
considered as news. I looked well enough, my father said, to do all the
hard studying that was needed; and the professor was anxiously waiting
to put me through a course of training for the happy lot of Freshman.
"But he's not going to begin his studies as soon as he gets home," said
my mother. "We're going to have him to ourselves for a while." And I did
not doubt that. I hadn't been gone very long, to be sure, but then a
ship had been burned from under me, and that counted for about a year's
absence.
Corny's fate had been settled, too, in a general way, but the discussion
that went on about a good boarding-school for her showed that a
particular settlement might take some time. Uncle Chipperton wanted her
to go to some school near his place on the Hudson River, so that he
could drive over and see her every day or two, and Mrs. Colbert said she
thought that that wouldn't do, because no girl could study as she ought
to, if her father was coming to see her all the time, and Uncle
Chipperton wanted to know what possible injury she thought he would do
his daughter by going to see her; and Mrs. Colbert said, none at all, of
course she didn't mean that, and Mrs. Chipperton said that Corny and her
father ought really to go to the same school, and then we all laughed,
and my father put in quickly, and asked about Rectus. It was easy to see
that it would take all summer to get a school for Corny.
"Well," said Mr. Colbert, "I've got a place for Sammy. Right in my
office. He's to be a man of business, you know. He never took much to
schooling. I sent him travelling so that he could see the world, and get
himself in trim for dealing with it. And that's what we have to do in
our business. Deal with the world."
I didn't like this, and I don't think Rectus did, either. He walked over
to one of the windows, and looked out into the street.
"I'll tell you what I think, sir," said I. "Rectus--I mean your son
Samuel, only I shall never call him so--has seen enough of the world to
make him so wide awake that he sees more in schooling than he used to.
That's my opinion!"
I knew that Rectus rather envied my going to college, for he had said as
much on the trip home; and I knew that he had hoped his father would let
him make a fresh start with the professor at our old school.
"Sammy," cried out Mrs. Colbert,--"Sammy, my son, do you want to go to
school, and finish up your education, or go into your father's office,
and learn to be a merchant?"
Rectus turned around from the window.
"There's no hurry about the merchant," he said. "I want to go to school
and college, first."
"And that's just where you're going," said his mother, with her face
reddening up a little more than common.
Mr. Colbert grinned a little, but said nothing. I suppose he thought it
would be of no use, and I had an idea, too, that he was very glad to
have Rectus determine on a college career. I know the rest of us were.
And we didn't hold back from saying so, either.
Uncle Chipperton now began to praise Rectus, and he told what
obligations the boy had put him under in Nassau, when he wrote to his
father, and had that suit about the property stopped, and so relieved
him--Uncle Chipperton--from cutting short his semi-tropical trip, and
hurrying home to New York in the middle of winter.
"But the suit isn't stopped," said Mr. Colbert. "You don't suppose I
would pay any attention to a note like the one Sammy sent me, do you? I
just let the suit go on, of course. It has not been decided yet, but I
expect to gain it."
At this, Uncle Chipperton grew very angry indeed. It was astonishing to
see how quickly he blazed up. He had supposed the whole thing settled,
and now to find that the terrible injustice--as he considered it--was
still going on, was too much for him.
"Do you sit there and tell me that, sir?" he exclaimed, jumping up and
skipping over to Mr. Colbert. "Do you call yourself----"
"Father!" cried Corny. "Keep perfectly cool! Remain just where you are!"
Uncle Chipperton stopped as if he had run against a fence. His favorite
advice went straight home to him.
"Very good, my child," said he, turning to Corny. "That's just what I'll
do."
And he said no more about it.
Now, everybody began to talk about all sorts of things, so as to seem as
if they hadn't noticed this little rumpus, and we agreed that we must
all see each other again the next day. Father said he should remain in
the city for a few days, now that we were all here, and Uncle Chipperton
did not intend to go to his country-place until the weather was warmer.
We were speaking of several things that would be pleasant to do
together, when Uncle Chipperton broke in with a proposition:
"I'll tell you what I am going to do. I am going to give a dinner to
this party. I can't invite you to my house, but I shall engage a parlor
in a restaurant, where I have given dinners before (we always come to
New York when I want to give dinners--it's so much easier for us to come
to the city than for a lot of people to come out to our place), and
there I shall give you a dinner, to-morrow evening. Nobody need say
anything against this. I've settled it, and I can't be moved."
As he couldn't be moved, no one tried to move him.
"I tell you what it is," said Rectus privately to me. "If Uncle
Chipperton is going to give a dinner, according to his own ideas of
things in general, it will be a curious kind of a meal."
It often happened that Rectus was as nearly right as most people.
CHAPTER XXIII.
UNCLE CHIPPERTON'S DINNER.
The next day was a busy one for father and mother and myself. All the
morning we were out, laying in a small stock of baggage, to take the
place of what I had lost on the "Tigris." But I was very sorry,
especially on my sister Helen's account, that I had lost so many things
in my trunk which I could not replace, without going back myself to
Nassau. I could buy curiosities from those regions that were ever so
much better than any that I had collected; but I could not buy shells
that I myself had gathered, nor great seed-pods, like bean-pods two feet
long, which I had picked from the trees, nor pieces of rock that I
myself had brought up from a coral-reef.
But these were all gone, and I pacified Helen by assuring her that I
would tell her such long stories about these things that she could
almost see them in her mind's eye. But I think, by the way she smiled,
that she had only a second-rate degree of belief in my power of
description. She was a smart little thing, and she believed that Corny
was the queen of girls.
While I am speaking of the "Tigris" and our losses, I will just say that
the second boat which left the burning steamer was never heard from.
We reached our hotel about noon, pretty tired, for we had been rushing
things, as it was necessary for father to go home early the next day. On
the front steps we found Uncle Chipperton, who had been waiting for us.
He particularly wanted to see me. He lunched with us, and then he took
me off to the place where he was to have his dinner, at six o'clock that
evening. He wanted to consult with me about the arrangements of the
table; where each person should sit, and all that sort of thing. I
couldn't see the use in this, because it was only a kind of family
party, and we should all be sure to get seated, if there were chairs and
places enough. But Uncle Chipperton wanted to plan and arrange
everything until he was sure it was just right. That was his way.
After he had settled these important matters, and the head-waiter and
the proprietor had become convinced that I was a person of much
consequence, who had to be carefully consulted before anything could be
done, we went down stairs, and at the street-door Uncle Chipperton
suddenly stopped me.
"See here," said he, "I want to tell you something. I'm not coming to
this dinner."
"Not--coming!" I exclaimed, in amazement.
"No," said he, "I've been thinking it over, and have fully made up my
mind about it. You see, this is intended as a friendly reunion,--an
occasion of good feeling and fellowship among people who are bound
together in a very peculiar manner."
"Yes," I interrupted, "and that seems to me, sir, the very reason why
you should be there."
"The very reason why I should not be there," he said. "You see, I
couldn't sit down with that most perverse and obstinate man, Colbert,
and feel sure that something or other would not occur which would make
an outbreak between us, or, at any rate, bad feeling. In fact, I know I
could not take pleasure in seeing him enjoy food. This may be wrong, but
I can't help it. It's in me. And I wont be the means of casting a shadow
over the happy company which will meet here to-night. No one but your
folks need know I'm not coming. The rest will not know why I am
detained, and I shall drop in toward the close of the meal, just before
you break up. I want you to ask your father to take the head of the
table. He is just the man for such a place, and he ought to have it,
too, for another reason. You ought to know that this dinner is really
given to you in your honor. To be sure, Rectus is a good
fellow--splendid--and does everything that he knows how; but my wife and
I know that we owe all our present happiness to your exertions and good
sense."
He went on in this way for some time, and although I tried to stop him,
I couldn't do it.
"Therefore," he continued, "I want your father to preside, and all of
you to be happy, without a suspicion of a cloud about you. At any rate,
I shall be no cloud. Come around here early, and see that everything is
all right. Now I must be off."
And away he went.
I did not like this state of affairs at all. I would have much preferred
to have no dinner. It was not necessary, any way. If I had had the
authority, I would have stopped the whole thing. But it was Uncle
Chipperton's affair, he paid for it, and I had no right to interfere
with it.
My father liked the matter even less than I did. He said it was a
strange and unwarrantable performance on the part of Chipperton, and he
did not understand it. And he certainly did not want to sit at the head
of the table in another man's place. I could not say anything to him to
make him feel better about it. I made him feel worse, indeed, when I
told him that Uncle Chipperton did not want his absence explained, or
alluded to, any more than could be helped. My father hated to have to
keep a secret of this kind.
In the afternoon, I went around to the hotel where the Chippertons
always staid, when they were in New York, to see Corny and her mother. I
found them rather blue. Uncle Chipperton had not been able to keep his
plan from them, and they thought it was dreadful. I could not help
letting them see that I did not like it, and so we didn't have as lively
a time as we ought to have had.
I supposed that if I went to see Rectus, and told him about the matter,
I should make him blue, too. But, as I had no right to tell him, and
also felt a pretty strong desire that some of the folks should come
with good spirits and appetites, I kept away from him. He would have
been sure to see that something was the matter.
I was the first person to appear in the dining-room of the restaurant
where the dinner-table was spread for us. It was a prettily furnished
parlor in the second story of the house, and the table was very
tastefully arranged and decorated with flowers. I went early, by myself,
so as to be sure that everything was exactly right before the guests
arrived. All seemed perfectly correct; the name of each member of the
party was on a card by a plate. Even little Helen had her plate and her
card. It would be her first appearance at a regular dinner-party.
The guests were not punctual. At ten minutes past six, even my father,
who was the most particular of men in such things, had not made his
appearance. I waited five, ten, fifteen, twenty minutes more, and became
exceedingly nervous.
The head-waiter came in and asked if my friends understood the time that
had been set. The dinner would be spoiled if it were kept much longer. I
said that I was sure they knew all about the time set, and that there
was nothing to be done but to wait. It was most unaccountable that they
should all be late.
I stood before the fireplace and waited, and thought. I ran down to the
door, and looked up and down the street. I called a waiter and told him
to look into all the rooms in the house. They might have gone into the
wrong place. But they were not to be seen anywhere.
Then I went back to the fireplace, and did some more thinking. There was
no sense in supposing that they had made a mistake. They all knew this
restaurant, and they all knew the time. In a moment, I said to myself:
"I know how it is. Father has made up his mind that he will not be mixed
up in any affair of this kind, where a quarrel keeps the host of the
party from occupying his proper place, especially as he--my father--is
expected to occupy that place himself. So he and mother and Helen have
just quietly staid in their rooms at the hotel. Mrs. Chipperton and
Corny wont come without Uncle Chipperton. They might ride right to the
door, of course, but they are ashamed, and don't want to have to make
explanations; and it is ridiculous to suppose that they wont have to be
made. As for Rectus and his people, they could not have heard anything,
but,--I have it. Old Colbert got his back up, too, and wouldn't come,
either for fear a quarrel would be picked, or because he could take no
pleasure in seeing Uncle Chipperton enjoying food. And Rectus and his
mother wouldn't come without him."
It turned out, when I heard from all the parties, that I had got the
matter exactly right.
"We shall have to make fresh preparations, sir, if we wait any longer,"
said the head-waiter, coming in with an air of great mental disturbance.
"Don't wait," said I. "Bring in the dinner. At least, enough for me. I
don't believe any one else will be here."
The waiter looked bewildered, but he obeyed. I took my seat at the place
where my card lay, at the middle of one side of the table, and spread my
napkin in my lap. The head-waiter waited on me himself, and one or two
other waiters came in to stand around, and take away dishes, and try to
find something to do.
It was a capital dinner, and I went carefully through all the courses. I
was hungry. I had been saving up some extra appetite for this dinner,
and my regular appetite was a very good one.
I had raw oysters,
And soup,
And fish, with delicious sauce,
And roast duck,
And croquettes, made of something extraordinarily nice,
And beef _Г la mode_,
And all sorts of vegetables, in their proper places,
And ready-made salad,
And orange pie,
And wine-jelly,
And ice-cream,
And bananas, oranges and white grapes,
And raisins, and almonds and nuts,
And a cup of coffee.
I let some of these things off pretty easy, toward the last; but I did
not swerve from my line of duty. I went through all the courses, quietly
and deliberately. It was a dinner in my honor, and I did all the honor I
could to it.
I was leaning back in my chair, with a satisfied soul, and nibbling at
some raisins, while I slowly drank my coffee, when the outer door
opened, and Uncle Chipperton entered.
He looked at me in astonishment. Then he looked at the table, with the
clean plates and glasses at every place, but one. Then he took it all
in, or at least I supposed he did, for he sat down on a chair near the
door, and burst out into the wildest fit of laughing. The waiters came
running into the room to see what was the matter; but for several
minutes Uncle Chipperton could not speak. He laughed until I thought
he'd crack something. I laughed, too, but not so much.
"I see it all," he gasped, at last. "I see it all. I see just how it
happened."
And when we compared our ideas of the matter, we found that they were
just the same.
I wanted him to sit down and eat something, but he would not do it. He
said he wouldn't spoil such a unique performance for anything. It was
one of the most comical meals he had ever heard of.
I was glad he enjoyed it so much, for he paid for the whole dinner for
ten, which had been prepared at his order.
When we reached the street, Uncle Chipperton put on a graver look.
"This is all truly very funny," he said, "but, after all, there is
something about it which makes me feel ashamed of myself. Would you
object to take a ride? It is only about eight o'clock. I want to go up
to see old Colbert."
I agreed to go, and we got into a street-car. The Colberts lived in one
of the up-town streets, and Uncle Chipperton had been at their house, on
business.
"I never went to see them in a friendly way before," he said.
It was comforting to hear that this was to be a friendly visit.
When we reached the house, we found the family of three in the parlor.
They had probably had all the dinner they wanted, but they did not look
exactly satisfied with the world or themselves.
"Look here, Colbert," said Uncle Chipperton, after shaking hands with
Mrs. Colbert, "why didn't you go to my dinner?"
"Well," said Mr. Colbert, looking him straight in the face, "I thought
I'd better stay where I was. I didn't want to make any trouble, or pick
any quarrels. I didn't intend to keep my wife and son away; but they
wouldn't go without me."
"No, indeed," said Mrs. Colbert.
"Oh, well!" said Uncle Chipperton, "you needn't feel bad about it. I
didn't go, myself."
At this, they all opened their eyes as wide as the law allowed.
"No," he continued, "I didn't want to make any disturbance, or
ill-feeling, and so I didn't go, and my wife and daughter didn't want to
go without me, and so they didn't go, and I expect Will's father and
mother didn't care to be on hand at a time when bad feeling might be
shown, and so they didn't go. There was no one there but Will. He ate
all of the dinner that was eaten. He went straight through it, from one
end to the other. And there was no ill-feeling, no discord, no cloud of
any kind. All perfectly harmonious, wasn't it, Will?"
"Perfectly," said I.
"I just wish I had known about it," said Rectus, a little sadly.
"And now, Mr. Colbert," said Uncle Chipperton, "I don't want this to
happen again. There may be other reunions of this kind, and we may want
to go. And there ought to be such reunions between families whose sons
and daughter have been cast away together, on a life-raft, in the middle
of the ocean."
"That's so," said Mrs. Colbert, warmly.
"I thought they were _saved_ on a life-raft," said old Colbert, dryly.
"And I didn't know it was in the middle of the ocean."
"Well, fix that as you please," said Uncle Chipperton. "What I want to
propose is this: Let us settle our quarrel. Let's split our difference.
Will you agree to divide that four inches of ground, and call it square?
I'll pay for two inches."
"Do you mean you'll pay half the damages I've laid?" asked old Colbert.
"That's what I mean," said Uncle Chipperton.
"All right," said Mr. Colbert; "I'll agree." And they shook hands on it.
"Now, then," said Uncle Chipperton, who seemed unusually lively, "I must
go see the Gordons, and explain matters to them. Wont you come along,
Rectus?" And Rectus came.
On the way to our hotel, we stopped for Corny and her mother. We might
as well have a party, Uncle Chipperton said.
We had a gay time at our rooms. My father and mother were greatly amused
at the way the thing had turned out, and very much pleased that Mr.
Colbert and Uncle Chipperton had become reconciled to each other.
"I thought he had a good heart," said my mother, softly, to me, looking
over to Uncle Chipperton, who was telling my father, for the second
time, just how I looked, as I sat alone at the long table.
Little Helen had not gone to bed yet, and she was sorry about the dinner
in the same way that Rectus was. So was Corny, but she was too glad that
the quarrel between her father and Mr. Colbert was over, to care much
for the loss of the dinner. She was always very much disturbed by
quarrels between friends or friends' fathers.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE STORY ENDS.
Three letters came to me the next morning. I was rather surprised at
this, because I did not expect to get letters after I found myself at
home; or, at least, with my family. The first of these was handed to me
by Rectus. It was from his father. This is the letter:
"MY DEAR BOY:" (This opening seemed a little
curious to me, for I did not suppose the old
gentleman thought of me in that way.) "I shall not
be able to see you again before you leave for
Willisville, so I write this note just to tell you
how entirely I am satisfied with the way in which
you performed the very difficult business I
intrusted to you--that of taking charge of my son
in his recent travels. The trip was not a very
long one, but I am sure it has been of great
service to him; and I also believe that a great
deal of the benefit he has received has been due
to you." (I stopped here, and tried to think what
I had done for the boy. Besides the thrashing I
gave him in Nassau, I could not think of
anything.) "I have been talking a great deal with
Sammy, in the last day or two, about his doings
while he was away, and although I cannot exactly
fix my mind on any particular action, on your
part, which proves what I say" (he was in the same
predicament here in which I was myself), "yet I
feel positively assured that your companionship
and influence have been of the greatest service to
him. Among other things, he really wants to go to
college. I am delighted at this. It was with much
sorrow that I gave up the idea of making him a
scholar: but, though he was a good boy, I saw that
it was useless to keep him at the academy at
Willisville, and so made up my mind to take him
into my office. But I know you put this college
idea into his head, though how, I cannot say, and
I am sure that it does not matter. Sammy tells me
that you never understood that he was to be
entirely in your charge; but since you brought him
out so well without knowing this, it does you more
credit. I am very grateful to you. If I find a
chance to do you a real service, I will do it.
"Yours very truly,
"SAMUEL COLBERT, SR."
The second letter was handed to me by Corny, and was from her mother. I
shall not copy that here, for it is much worse than Mr. Colbert's. It
praised me for doing a lot of things which I never did at all; but I
excused Mrs. Chipperton for a good deal she said, for she had passed
through so much anxiety and trouble, and was now going to settle down
for good, with Corny at school, that I didn't wonder she felt happy
enough to write a little wildly. But there was one queer resemblance
between her letter and old Mr. Colbert's. She said two or three
times--it was an awfully long letter--that there was not any particular
thing that she alluded to when she spoke of my actions. That was the
funny part of it. They couldn't put their fingers on anything really
worth mentioning, after all.
My third letter had come by mail, and was a little old. My mother gave
it to me, and told me that it had come to the post-office at Willisville
about a week before, and that she had brought it down to give it to me,
but had totally forgotten it until that morning. It was from St.
Augustine, and this is an exact copy of it:
"My good friend Big Little Man. I love you. My
name Maiden's Heart. You much pious. You buy
beans. Pay good. Me wants one speckled shirt.
Crowded Owl want one speckled shirt, too. You send
two speckled shirts. You good Big Little Man. You
do that. Good-bye.
"MAIDEN'S HEART, Cheyenne Chief.
"Written by me, James R. Chalott, this seventh day
of March, 187-, at the dictation of the
above-mentioned Maiden's Heart. He has requested
me to add that he wants the speckles to be red,
and as large as you can get them."
During the morning, most of our party met to bid each other good-bye.
Corny, Rectus and I were standing together, having our little winding-up
talk, when Rectus asked Corny if she had kept her gray bean, the
insignia of our society.
"To be sure I have," she said, pulling it out from under her cloak. "I
have it on this little chain which I wear around my neck. I've worn it
ever since I got it. And I see you each have kept yours on your
watch-guards."
"Yes," I said, "and they're the only things of the kind we saved from
the burning 'Tigris.' Going to keep yours?"
"Yes, indeed," said Corny, warmly.
"So shall I," said I.
"And I, too," said Rectus.
And then we shook hands, and parted.
THE END.
Scribner's New Books for Young People
1901 and 1902
By the author of "Wild Animals I Have Known"
LIVES OF THE HUNTED
=By Ernest Seton-Thompson. Profusely illustrated
by the author. Square 12mo, $1.75 net.=
The most important work of Mr. Seton-Thompson since his "WILD ANIMALS I
HAVE KNOWN," fully equalling that most popular book in size, and
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It includes all the animal stories Mr. Seton-Thompson has written since
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* * * * *
THE IMP AND THE ANGEL
=By Josephine Dodge Daskam, author of "Sister's
Vocation," "Smith College Stories," etc. Profusely
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In her portrayal of the "Imp," the seven-year-old hero of this series of
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A SON OF SATSUMA
=Or, with Perry in Japan. By Kirk Munroe. 12mo,
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HANS BRINKER
=Or, The Silver Skates. By Mary Mapes Dodge. With
100 illustrations by Allen B. Doggett. 12mo,
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In order to give a still wider circulation to Mrs. Dodge's celebrated
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THE STORY OF MANHATTAN
=By Charles Hemstreet, author of "Nooks and
Corners of Old New York." Illustrated. 12mo, $1.00
net=
Mr. Hemstreet becomes in this charming young people's work the annalist
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LEM--A NEW ENGLAND BOY
=His Adventures and Mishaps. By Noah Brooks.
Illustrated by H. C. Edwards. $1.00 net.=
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THE OUTCASTS
=By W. A. Fraser, author of "Mooswa." Illustrated
by Arthur Heming. $1.25 net.=
Another inimitable animal book by the author and artist of "Mooswa." It
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