A SUDDEN AWAKENING
"There! I knew we had forgotten something."
"What have we forgotten, Jane?"
"An ice box, Miss Elting. How are we to keep our food without an ice box?"
"But, my dear, what would be the good of an ice box without ice?"
"That's so. I hadn't thought of that. Where would we get our ice?"
"That ith eathy," piped Tommy. "Get your ithe out of the lake, of courthe. I never did thee thuch thtupid people. Did you thuppothe they got ithe on land? That it grew in the fieldth?"
"No, darlin'. We didn't suppose anything of the sort. But knowing so much, please tell us how we are to get ice from the lake in the good old summer time? Answer me that question, will you now?"
"That ith tho," reflected Tommy. "Really, I hadn't thought of it that way. I gueth I wath too previouth."
"Grace!" rebuked Miss Elting, "I am amazed at your using such expressions. You really must be more careful of your language."
"Yeth; I will."
"Until the next time," muttered Harriet, an amused smile hovering about the corners of her mouth. Harriet was busily engaged in getting supper. "Bring me a pail of water, please," she called. "We must put the water on to heat so that we can wash dishes directly after supper. Dishes mustn't go unwashed on board the 'Red Rover,' no matter whatever else may be neglected."
Jane was setting the table. The dishes that they had purchased were not expensive. Rather were they strong and serviceable, but even at this, the table looked very pretty. Miss Elting had gathered a bunch of wild flowers and these had been placed in a pitcher and stood in the centre of the table. Of course the chairs were camp stools. In this instance they were provided with backs, which made them quite comfortable. Soon beefsteak was broiling over the fire, potatoes were frying in the pan and the tantalizing fragrance of coffee filled the air.
"Bring the drinking water, Tommy. And look out that you don't fall with it. We can't afford to buy dishes every day. Will you be careful?"
"Yeth; I'll be careful."
"Hurry back. Supper will be on the table by the time you get below again."
Tommy, pitcher in hand, ran up the ladder to the deck above, Harriet and Miss Elting, in the meantime, putting the food on the table.
"Tom-m-m-y-y-y!" called Jane after some minutes had elapsed. "The little girl has gone to sleep up there, I'll wager."
A scream, followed by a loud splash, startled the passengers on board the "Red Rover." They rushed for the door.
"Tommy's fallen overboard!" yelled Harriet.
Beaching the lower deck they saw one little white hand holding aloft a pitcher, and lower down, scarcely discernible, a bit of tow hair and a freckled nose.
"Thave me!" wailed Tommy.
"We ought to leave you," flung back Margery. "What's the matter? Can't you swim?"
"Yeth. But the pitcher can't."
Knowing that Tommy could take care of herself in the water, no one went overboard to her rescue. Harriet flung out a coil of rope.
"Grab it!" she commanded. Tommy needed no second invitation to do so. She grasped the rope with one hand, still clinging to the pitcher with the other and holding it above the water. In this position Harriet drew her in. The pitcher was rescued before they helped the little girl to the deck.
"Ith thupper ready?" demanded Tommy, after getting aboard.
"Yes, it is and it's getting cold," answered Harriet.
"Then I gueth I'll thit down and eat."
"Not until you get off those wet clothes," answered Jane. "How did you come to fall overboard?"
"I—I wath trying to walk on the railing," explained the girl lamely. "I thtubbed my toe and fell in."
"Oh, help!" moaned Margery. Tommy shot a threatening look at her.
"I can thwim. Buthter ith too fat to thwim." With that parting shot, Tommy hastened inside the cabin and proceeded to change her wet clothing for dry garments. The other girls sat down to their supper, without waiting for her.
None of them, ever had eaten a meal under quite such novel conditions. Through the open door at one end they could see the lake, touched with the gorgeous red and gold of the setting sun. A pleasant breeze was drifting through the cabin from door and window, while the slight motion of the boat rather added to than took from the keen enjoyment of the hour.
"I have been wondering what we shall do in case the water gets really rough?" said Jane.
"We shall have to put something on the table to keep the dishes from sliding off," replied Harriet.
"That would be like an ocean steamer. On the tables there they have racks, strips running the full length of the table—usually brass—and others standing on edge at right angles to them. This leaves squares about the size of a plate and the strips keep the dishes from sliding off the table. They are called racks by the passengers. Among sailors they are known as 'fiddles,'" explained the guardian.
"Yeth, but the thoup will thpill over jutht the thame," observed Tommy from the cabin.
"Your soup will not, for I'm going to eat it," jeered Margery.
Tommy hurried forth, fastening her collar as she walked. She was taking no chances of losing her supper.
"Speaking of food," reflected Harriet. "Why can't we take our meats and other perishable things and put them in a pail which we can weight down until it sinks? That will keep the food cool."
"Yes. But what will you do with it when the boat is moving?" asked the guardian.
"If I have to row the small boat, and pull the 'Red Rover,' it won't move fast enough to harm the pail," spoke up Jane. "Do we have to drag this tub all over the lake?"
"I am afraid we shall have to do so when we wish to move."
"Then it's my own self for a tug," declared Crazy Jane. "I shall go out to-morrow looking for a good stout steam tug. I wonder if there is such a thing in this neighborhood?"
"Maybe they have one at the farm houthe up there on the hill," suggested Tommy. But not a smile did her observation draw from her companions.
"No, Jane. We aren't going to let you spend any more money for us. We are out to rough it, and we are going to do so. We must get along by ourselves," announced Miss Elting. "Of course it was different when those young men towed us out, and now and then we may accept a tow. The way to do will be to make short journeys, not to try to take long trips. Moving by easy stages we should be able to make the complete circuit of the lake before the vacation is ended."
"How long is the lake?" questioned Harriet.
"About thirty miles in a straight line, I believe."
"Thirty miles," groaned Crazy Jane.
"Oh, help!" moaned Margery.
"Thave uth!" lisped Grace.
"I thought you girls wanted recreation and exercise," laughed the guardian.
"Why, of course we do, Miss Elting," declared Harriet.
"Of course," agreed Jane, nodding. "But dragging a house all around a thirty-mile lake is neither exercise nor recreation. It's hard labor. If you don't think so just get out and drag us around this cove once—Once!"
"I have a plan," announced Harriet.
"It's a good one, if Harriet Burrell thought it out," returned Miss Elting smilingly. "What is your plan, Harriet?"
"Some of you may not like the idea, but it is an excellent one, I am sure. This is my idea. When we decide to cross the lake, if we do, I would suggest waiting until some day when the wind is blowing directly across. Then we can tow the 'Red Rover' out with the rowboat until the wind catches us. The rower should then get aboard the houseboat, after which the wind will carry us all the way across the lake. How do you like it?"
"Oh, thave me!" piped Tommy.
"Yes. You need some one to save you about once every five minutes I'm thinking, Tommy Thompson. Now, if Crazy Jane had thought out such a plan, no one would have been surprised. But for Harriet Burrell to do so—oh, my!" exclaimed Jane.
"I do not think the plan feasible," declared Miss Elting. "I am not saying that it would not work, but I don't believe I care to trust myself to drift across the lake in a gale. No, thank you. We will keep to the shore. Remember, we are on the water, Harriet."
"Yes. And it isn't so long ago since we were in it," nodded Jane. "Tommy was the last to be in it. Please pass the potatoes. This life at sea does sharpen one's appetite. It wouldn't do for me to go to sea really. I'd get so hungry between meals that I'd gnaw the masts off short."
"I really can't eat another mouthful!" exclaimed Tommy. "I gueth I'll go up on deck and walk thome."
"And I guess you will stay right here and wash the dishes with me," commanded Margery Brown. "Do you think I am going to wash them alone, while you promenade on deck? Not I!"
"I had forgotten about the dithheth. But I've got a plan about that. You jutht put the dithheth in a bag and thouthe them up and down in the lake. Then you put them on deck till they dry off. Now, ithn't that a plan? That ith a better plan than Harriet thaid jutht now."
"I feel sorry for your house if you ever own one," laughed Harriet, beginning to clear off the table.
"Yeth tho do I. But I feel more thorry for the folkth who have to live with me."
"I propose that we all take a hand in doing the work," suggested Harriet. "The evening is so fine that we should enjoy it together. I'll clear off the table."
"And I'll brush it," offered Jane. "Then I'll sweep the floor. Say, this is fine. All one has to do with the rubbish is just to drop it overboard. The fishes will come and clean it up. It's easy to keep house on a houseboat. We're going to have a fine time this summer. I feel it in my bones."
The supper work was cleared away quickly. Jane filled the hanging lamps, while Harriet trimmed and filled the lantern that was to be put out as a night light so that other craft should not run into them during the night.
"All hands on deck!" commanded Harriet, after the last of the work had been finished.
"That reminds me. We must elect our officers," said Miss Elting, after the girls had climbed to the pleasant upper deck. "Whom shall we have for our captain?"
"I gueth Harriet will make a good captain," suggested Tommy.
The girls agreed to this.
"I suggest then, that Jane McCarthy be chief officer—that is, the next in line to the captain—with Margery as purser, Hazel as third officer, and Tommy, what would you like to be?" asked Miss Elting.
"I gueth I'll be the pathenger," decided little Tommy wisely.
There was a chorus of protests at this.
"You and I will be the fourth and fifth officers respectively," announced the guardian.
"What doeth the fourth offither do?"
"Not much of anything."
Tommy nodded approvingly.
"Then I am that," she announced. "Harriet ith a good captain. Harriet knowth thomething about everything."
Harriet shook her head. She protested that she knew nothing at all about any boat larger than a rowboat. To be the captain of a scow, was something of a responsibility. She knew that she would have to be captain in fact as well as in name, and that the navigation and protection of the craft would be on the shoulders of Jane McCarthy and herself.
"There is one thing I do not know, Tommy," answered Harriet. "I don't know how this captain is ever going to get along with the crew she has. I fear she will have to ship a new crew. Perhaps you'll be glad of that, eh, dears?"
"Tommy would be willing if, as she already has said, she could be the whole passenger list," chuckled Miss Elting.
The girls joked and talked until the night had fallen. A few faint rays of light filtered through the cabin windows and the dim light from the anchor lantern that hung at the stern of the boat was their only illumination.
Harriet got up and walked to the bow of the boat, now pointed outward. She sniffed the air.
"Well, what is it, Captain?" inquired Jane.
"Wind," answered Harriet. "The wind is freshening, and it's blowing straight into the little cove here. The 'Red Rover' will be straining at its leashes like an angry dog before morning, unless the wind veers, which I hardly think will be the case."
"Hooray for Captain Burrell!" cried Crazy Jane.
The sky was overcast and the wind, as Harriet had said, was freshening rapidly. She went to the lower deck to test the anchor rope. The anchor was holding firmly. The wind was now blowing so strongly that the girls found little comfort in sitting on the upper deck. All hands went below. With the front cabin door closed the cabin was a comfortable and cosy place in which to sit. But the cabin floor was acquiring an unpleasant habit of rising and falling. Tommy's face, ordinarily pale, had grown ghastly, but she pluckily kept her discomfort to herself. As a matter of fact the little girl was suffering from a mild attack of seasickness.
"I—I gueth I'll go to bed," she stammered. "Will thomebody pleathe take off my thhoeth? If I bend down I'll thurely fall over on my nothe."
There was a shout at this. Both Harriet and Jane knelt on the floor to remove the shoes that Tommy feared to unbutton. They assisted her into her cot, after which they arranged their own, each girl preparing for bed behind a curtain that had been strung across the cabin, thus making part of the kitchen a dressing room. In the daytime the curtain was drawn back.
Harriet was the last to retire. She sat up for an hour after the others had retired, rather anxiously watching the weather and the anchor rope, together with the behavior of the "Red Rover." The latter was riding the swells finely and with much less motion than might have been looked for in the fairly heavy sea that was running into the cove. At last, well satisfied that the boat would ride out the moderate blow, Harriet entered the cabin and extinguishing the lamp prepared for bed, leaving only the solitary anchor light outside to dispel the gloom.
As the night went on, the seas grew with it. Great swells were sweeping into the cove, and the "Red Rover" was at times rolling heavily. Once in the night Harriet got up and staggered out through the rear door, whence she made her way to the upper deck. From there, with the spray dashing over her, she gazed off over the water. The moon had come up, and she could see fairly well; some light being furnished by it, though heavy clouds intervened. White-capped waves dashed against the boat. It was unusually rough for a lake of its size. She inhaled deeply the strong, bracing air, until, discovering that she was getting wet from the spray, the girl hurried below and crawled into her cot, shivering a little. Then she fell into a deep sleep, soothed by the rocking of the boat.
Tommy was moaning in her sleep. The others appeared to be sleeping soundly. It was late in the night when Harriet was awakened by a terrific crash. It seemed to her as though something had collided with the "Red Rover." Then came a second crash, much louder than the first. The second was followed by a sound of breaking woodwork. A draught of cold air smote her in the face, then a huge volume of water swept into the cabin overwhelming and half drowning the occupants.
Cots were overturned, the oil stove went over with a crash, and the table was hurled the length of the cabin, landing bottom side up at the rear end of the cabin.
A chorus of terrified, choking screams followed the second crash, that, to their overwrought imaginations, seemed to have lasted for hours.
"Thave me! We're thinking!" wailed Tommy Thompson.
"Harriet! What has happened?" cried Miss Elting.
"I—I don't know."
The "Red Rover" lurched heavily to one side. The rush of water that accompanied the lurch tumbled the Meadow-Brook Girls to the lower side of the cabin. A volume of water rushed over them, and the furnishings of the cabin were piled on top of them; in some instances a crushing weight pinioned them to the floor.
The houseboat had sustained a severe blow, though as yet they could not determine the nature of it. To make the situation more terrifying the cabin was in utter darkness. For a moment the voices of the Meadow-Brook Girls were stilled; then a chorus of screams, more terrified than before, rose from the lips of the frightened girls.