SHIPPING THE HIDES AND TALLOW

NEXT morning Oshda put his new wheels on the old cart. He then got two oxen and brought them in front of the cart. He put a strong, heavy piece of wood across just behind the horns of the oxen and fastened it to their horns with rawhide. Then he hitched this wooden yoke to the cart, piled the cart full of skins, and they were ready to go.

Pantu said, “Oh, father, may I go too? I could attend to the soap-suds.”

“Yes, you may go,” said Docas.

Oshda brought out a pail of very thick soap-suds and set it down in the corner of the cart. He also put in some soap to make more suds when that was gone.

At last they started. Oshda and Docas walked along by the side of the oxen, and poked them with sharp sticks to make them go. Pantu sat up in front of the load of dry hides. As they started out, the cart jolted, the dry hides crackled, and the axle squeaked. It made such a noise that Father Catala, who was in the field half a mile away, heard them coming.

When they came up to him, he said, “You had better put some more soap-suds in the axle holes. I heard the squeaking when you first started out.” So Pantu poured some more soap-suds on the axle.

A number of other carts were going along filled also with hides and with tallow. Docas was in charge of the whole party. They travelled all day and camped at night, and by the evening of the third day they were at Monterey.

They camped just outside of Monterey, and on the next day they went up into the town. They were wandering around, when suddenly they heard the cry of “Sail ho!” In a few seconds every one was calling “Sail ho!” and running down to the beach.

Pantu stood on the beach. It was evening, and the sun was down near the water. After a few moments he saw a little white spot far out on the water. Docas said it was the sails of the ship. There was a blazing path from the sun to the shore, so that Pantu had to shade his eyes, and even then he could not look long at the glowing water. But all of a sudden the sun seemed to sink into the water, and the glow faded.

“Oh, father!” called Pantu to Docas, “the sun has dropped into the ocean and the water has put it out.”

“Don’t be afraid. It will come up again as bright and hot as ever to-morrow morning,” said Docas.

Little by little the ship came nearer. Pantu stood watching it until it grew so dark that he could no longer see even the white gleam of the sails. Docas and Oshda had been gone a long time. But still he stayed down at the beach, although it was long past supper time.

“Come, Pantu, you must come home,” he heard Oshda saying at last.

“But I want to see the big ship come up on the beach,” said Pantu.

Oshda laughed. Then he said, “It will not come anywhere near the shore.”

Pantu said, “How can we get the heavy hides and tallow into the ship if it stays away off there?”

“It can’t come nearer. The water is not deep enough. But they will send some little boats ashore in the morning. We shall load the hides into them, and they will carry them out to the ship,” answered Oshda.

In the morning, Pantu was down on the beach very early. Soon he saw a boat leave the ship and come toward the shore. When a big wave came rolling up, the men in the boat rowed very hard. The wave brought them high up on the beach, then, as it began to run back again, the men jumped out into the water, seized the boat, and kept it from being washed back into the bay again. They fastened it so that no wave could wash it away; then they began to load the hides.

Docas and Oshda brought the hides and tallow down to the beach in the ox-carts.

All the sailors had on thick woollen caps. Pantu wondered why they wore that kind of cap, until he saw how they carried the hides.

A man came up on the dry sand where Docas and Oshda had piled the hides. He took up a hide and put it on his head. He waded out through the water, put the hide into the boat, and came back for another.

Soon all the men in the boat, except the two that held it from being tipped over, were running back and forth, carrying hides. The men had to be very careful not to get the hides wet, for they would spoil if they became damp. The sharp stones cut the men’s feet, but shoes could not be worn because the salt water would soon spoil them.

After the boat was loaded, the man who steered stood up in the stern. Two of the men got into the boat and took their oars ready to row. Two other men stood by the side of the boat to push it out when the time came. They waited until a big wave floated the boat; then the man who was steering said, “Now!”

The men outside seized hold of the boat, and ran out with it until the water was above their waists. Then they tumbled over into the boat and lay in the bottom, dripping wet.

The men at the oars pulled as hard as they could, but it was of no use. A bigger wave came and swept the boat up high on the beach.

The two men jumped out and turned the boat around so that its end pointed out to sea, and waited to try again. When a large wave came, they again ran out with the boat, and tumbled in after they got to deep water.

But the big waves came so close together that the boat was tossed up and down in the air. Sometimes a big breaker would roll out from under the boat, and let it drop on the water so hard that it seemed as if the bottom would be broken in. Finally, a big curling wave came. The boat was washed around sideways. The swell tipped the boat up, and then partly broke over it.

In a moment more, the boat was upset, and hides, men and oars were mixed up in the foaming water. They were all washed up high on the sand a second time. But now these hides were wet, so they must be stretched out in the sun to dry, and the boat must be loaded with some other hides and tallow.

The third time the men said: “We shall succeed this time. The seventh big wave is the last of the big ones for a while. We will wait for it.”

So they waited until six big waves had gone by. When the seventh came, a quick run and a hard pull carried them beyond the reach of the breakers, and they were safe.

“Do they always have such hard times getting off?” asked Pantu of a white man standing near.

“No,” said the man; “the waves are unusually high to-day.”