ACT IV.
Scene.—Garden belonging to the Countess. Lustucru enters with a large bag and heavy cane.
Lustucru (meditatively). At length my decision is made. Moumouth, the charming cat, shall go into this bag, and I, Lustucru, shall beat him to death. Ah! he shall not escape me again. Michel goes for a walk; I seize Moumouth; I tie him in this bag; and then—oh, then he shall die. I could fly for joy when I think of it. Michel will not have her five hundred francs, and perhaps she will be discharged. Dearest Moumouth, how grateful I ought to be to you for bringing me such joy!
Solo.—Lustucru.
Tune—"Then you'll remember me." Bohemian Girl. Balfe.
When other cats and other pets
Around me sweetly rove,
When other objects dear to me,
Appeal unto my love,
At such times then will my heart,
In joyful throbbing be,
Turned thankfully to Moumouth dead:
Oh! I'll remember thee—
Oh! I'll remember, I'll remember thee!
[Exit Lustucru. Enter almost immediately Michel attired for a walk.]
Michel. I thought I heard Lustucru here? Well, I was mistaken. I was going to leave Moumouth in his care—but no matter. Moumouth rests peacefully under yon lilac bush. Dear Cat, how sweet is his repose! I will sing softly as I go; so perchance in his dreams he may hear my song.
Solo.—Michel.
Tune—"Serenade to Ida." Weingand.
Softly shadows creep and linger
Where my Moumouth lies asleep;
And ye flowers that nod and blossom,
Over him your vigils keep.
Guard well my slumbering Moumouth;
Let no evil harm or pain,
And let him but wake from dreaming,
To sleep and dream again—
Dream on!
[Exit slowly. A fearful cat howling is heard without. Enter Lustucru, bag in hand, full of Moumouth, and a club in the other.]
Lustucru. At last! at last! Moumouth, you jewel, you angel. You refuse cold water diet and hash, but a beating you never refused yet. Beets are good enough, too, in their way, and you shall soon be a "dead beat." But first let me rejoice awhile. [Moumouth struggles in the bag.] Ah! you do not like being shut up in a bag? Then we will have to hasten affairs. One, two, three, and away we go. One, two— [Raises stick. Mother Michel is heard without, calling "Moumouth!" Lustucru drops his stick, dumfounded.]
Michel (without). Moumouth! Moumouth! Surely I heard Moumouth somewhere. [Entering.] Ah, Father Lustucru, have you— [In amazement.]. Why, what have you in that bag?
Lustucru. I—I was—beating a little meal, or corn—out—that—
Michel (sternly). Lustucru, that bag has something alive in it. Moumouth, where are you? [Moumouth mews in the bag.] Traitor [flying at Lustucru and grasping the bag], thou art unmasked.
Lustucru (dropping on his knees). Mercy, mercy, my good Michel—my sweet Michel.
Michel (swinging aloft the bag). Then you have endeavored to kill him all along? The hash was—
Lustucru. Poisoned. Oh, forgive me. And I tried to drown him! Oh, forgive me. I'll never do it again.
Michel. Ah, doubly dyed traitor! the Countess returns to-morrow, and then stern justice shall reign. Moumouth, rejoice. Victory, victory is ours. [Swings empty[1] bag over Lustucru's head, while Moumouth is held in her arms.]
Duo.—Lustucru and Michel singing together.
Tune—"On yonder rock reclining." Fra Diavolo. Auber.
Lustucru.
Oh! pity me, I pray,
Nor let thy wrath on me descend;
Let my prayers move thy heart,
And mercy for me bend.
Your cat my rage inviting,
By tricks and ways so cute and skilled,
I could not see alive and well,
And so I wished him killed.
Mercy! mercy! Bend thy righteous pride:
The cat is well and healthy now—
Oh, would that he had died!
[Repeat last two lines.]
Michel.
On your knees now bending,
Justice shall be fully shown;
And my rage sternly descending,
You shall for this atone.
My heart you've caused to tremble,
With anxious fears and doubts assailed:
You would have killed my Cat had he
Been one-lived as he is one-tailed.
Tremble! tremble! Traitor doubly dyed,
You shall feel the pressure rare of my angry pride.
[Repeat last two lines.]
[Quick curtain, while Michel waves the bag and cat in triumph over Lustucru's head.]
[PICKING BERRIES.]
BY MARGARET SANGSTER.
Away to the hill-side on swift little feet,
Trot quick through the meadows in shadow and sun;
Broad brims and deep crowns over brows that are sweet,
And round rosy cheeks that are dimpling with fun.
And home from the hill-side on slow little feet,
With baskets as heavy as faces are bright;
And who will be first the dear mother to greet,
And see her surprise and her look of delight?
But she never will dream, by the berries they bring,
Of the millions they left where the sweet berries grow,
Away on the hills where the merry birds sing,
And the brook dances down to the valley below.
[BLOCKADED BY A LION.]
BY DAVID KER.
"Now, monsieur," says old Major De Launay, pointing to the vast jungle of monstrous reeds fringing the African coast far as the eye can reach, as the Tunis steamer heads seaward out of Bona Harbor, "if you want some sport, take a gun and go in among those reeds, and you may be sure of not having long to wait before you find yourself face to face with a lion."
"A lion?" echo I. "Why, I thought they had all been killed off long ago."
"So they have everywhere else along the coast; but just here, as you see, it's a wild kind of country, and Monsieur Yellowmane has it all his own way. There are plenty of brave fellows among our Arabs here, and we Frenchmen don't consider ourselves cowards; but I can tell you that you won't find a man in all this district, Arab or Frenchman, who would go through those reeds after night-fall—no, not if you were to offer him a thousand francs."
"Wouldn't you do it yourself, then, M. De Launay?" ask I, rather surprised at such an avowal from a man whose reckless courage is a proverb throughout the length and breadth of Algeria.
"No, that I wouldn't," answers the old soldier, emphatically. "I've tried it once already, and I can promise you I won't easily forget how that adventure ended. Would you like to hear the story? Well, then, here it is for you:"
Some thirty years ago, when I was a good deal nimbler than I am now (and a good deal sillier too, I'm afraid), a lot of us were quartered at Bona, with nothing much to do except taking charge of some stores; and as always happens with young officers when there's not enough duty on hand to keep them steady, we weren't long in getting into mischief. One day at mess somebody brought up this story of the reed jungle, and how no one dared go into it, and we all began joking each other about who should be the man to face the lions.
"De Launay's the one to do it!" cried Alphonse St. Foix, a young sub-lieutenant. "He's afraid of nothing. Don't you remember how he led the assault at Constantine?"
"It would hardly be a fair trial, though," said our senior Major, in his polite way; "for the lions would undoubtedly let him pass as one of themselves."
"Or if he were to put on a lion's hide," chimed in Claude Latour (who must have his joke, whatever happened), "they'd never find him out so long as he didn't bray."
At that there was a general laugh, which put me out so much that (more shame for me) I fairly lost my temper.
"Well," cried I, springing up, "for that one word I'll go and do the thing this very night, and then it shall be seen which of us is the lion, and which the ass."
"Agreed! agreed!" shouted all, clapping their hands, and hallooing like madmen.
But poor Claude looked quite chop-fallen, for he had never intended to push the joke so far, and the moment we rose from table he came up to me and held out his hand.
"For Heaven's sake, Henri," said he, "don't go and get yourself killed just for that foolish joke of mine, which I ought to have bitten my tongue off sooner than utter. I never dreamed you'd take it so seriously, and I'm heartily sorry to have vexed you."
I answered not a word, but just looked him straight in the eyes for a moment, and then turned my back and walked off. Many a time have I been sorry for it since then, for the poor fellow was killed by those rascally Kabyles (Arabs) a few months later; but one always repents of these things too late.
Well, night came at last, and every officer who wasn't on duty turned out to see me start. It had been arranged that I was to set off a little after midnight, and that my comrades were to see me into the jungle at a point close to the sea, and then come to meet me about sunrise at another point farther inland. The whole length of my circuit through the reeds would be only a little over two miles, but this, in a tract where one step was generally supposed to be certain death, was thought quite sufficient.
I took my double-barrelled rifle and hunting knife (not that they could be much good against a whole jungle of lions), and the moment our watches pointed to half past twelve, off we started. I couldn't help thinking as we went along that there could hardly have been a worse night for the purpose, so far as I was concerned. The night was so still that you might have heard a step hundreds of yards away, and the full moon gave light enough to make out the smallest print of a newspaper, let alone the figure of a man. But, as we say, "when you've broken the shell, you must eat the egg"; so I kept my thoughts to myself, and tramped on.
It was a pretty long march, and a difficult too, down to the place for which we were bound. By the time we got there it was two o'clock, leaving less than two hours before sunrise. At last the great reed forest began to rise before us, shadowy and spectral in the moonlight. My comrades shook me by the hand, and wished me good-speed. In another moment the reeds had closed behind me.
Just at first I didn't feel it so much, for the excitement of the adventure kept me up; and, besides, I had quite enough to do in picking my way along, the reeds being a good deal higher than my head, and very nearly as thick as a man's wrist. But when the first excitement began to wear off, then it all came upon me at once, just like the shock of a shower-bath. Every time a reed rustled I seemed to feel the sharp teeth in my flesh already; and indeed it's a wonder how I ever escaped, for I could hear them moving on every side of me; but somehow or other none of them offered to touch me.
On I went—on, on, on—until I seemed to have done ten miles instead of two. In fact, I afterward found that I had gone far beyond the prescribed distance; but what could I do, with the reed-tops shutting out the very sky, until sometimes I had hardly any moon to steer by? At last the reeds began to grow thinner, and presently, just as I was getting fairly tired out, forth I came on to the open plain, with the first gleam of daybreak just dawning in the eastern sky.
Then I discovered, to my very great disgust, that instead of striking the point where my comrades were to meet me, I had gone ever so far beyond it.
"Well," thought I, "there's time enough yet, at all events, before sunrise. I'll just sit down and rest for five minutes, and then walk back to the meeting-place."
So down I sat upon a rock, and, as you might expect, was fast asleep directly.
I don't know how long I slept; but I awoke suddenly with that uneasy feeling which you sometimes have when somebody stands by your bedside and looks fixedly down upon you as you sleep. And sure enough somebody was looking fixedly down upon me; for when my eyes opened they rested upon the biggest lion I'd ever seen in my life.
I took in the full horror of the situation at a glance. My gun had slid down over the smooth rock, and was lying fully six feet away, with the beast right between me and it. My comrades, even if they hadn't got tired of waiting and gone home (as they most likely had), were too far off to be summoned by any shout. Add to this that I was already parched with thirst, and that the sun was mounting, and making the rock on which I lay hotter and hotter every moment, and you'll have some idea of the nice predicament that I was in.
It's an awkward confession for an old soldier to make, but I must admit that I fairly lost my head. All hope of escaping went out of my mind at once; my only thought was to throw myself upon the lion, and get it over as soon as possible. But as I put my hand behind me to raise myself up, it struck against a big stone.
In a moment, as if some one had spoken it in my ear, I got the idea of a device that might save me yet. I clutched the stone, and keeping it well behind my back (for I knew that any sudden movement would bring the lion upon me at once), jerked it from me so as to let it fall among the reeds. At the crash that it made, the lion turned like lightning, and gave a spring in that direction, and I gave another, right across the rock to where my gun was lying. I had barely seized it, when the beast turned upon me.
After that it was all like a confused dream. The rush of the huge tawny body, the glare of the yellow eyes into mine, and the hot, foul breath steaming on my face, the flash and crack of my piece, the lion's hoarse, bubbling growl, and the report of my second barrel, seemed all to come together. I remember nothing distinctly until I found myself leaning upon my rifle, sick and dizzy, as if I'd fallen out of a window, with the lion dead at my feet.
Just then my comrades, startled by the shots, came running up. I was glad then that they hadn't seen me in my difficulty, although I wouldn't have thought it an intrusion, a few minutes before, if the whole French army had come up in a body. They praised me up to the skies, and insisted on carrying off the skin as a trophy. But when our old Colonel heard the story, he shook his head, and looked at me in a way that made me feel rather ashamed of myself.
"M. De Launay," said he, very gravely, "to risk one's life in the cause of duty is the act of a brave man; to risk it uselessly, for the sake of a mere boast, is that of a fool. Always remember that in future."
And I have remembered it ever since.
A SCHOOL IN THE WOODS.—Drawn by A. Hoohstein.
[RABBITS AS PETS.]
As a matter of course all boys and girls love pets, and the number they own is probably only limited by the space which their parents are willing they should devote to such purposes.
But very many boys are too liable, after they have had their pets a few days, and the novelty has worn off, to neglect them, and the little prisoners suffer more from want of care than, when they were first brought to their new home, they did from too much attention.
If your parents have decided that you can keep pets, do not get too many, for fear that they will need more of your time than you will be willing to give; and then be careful that you care for them properly, first learning what they need.
Since rabbits are more easily cared for than almost any other kind of animals, and can be procured more easily and cheaply, repaying their owner for his care by producing a large number of young ones, it may be a favor to many to tell just how these pets can best be kept.
In England, where a great many men keep rabbits, and raise young ones in order to produce as many and as peculiar kinds as possible, one is able to buy all the fancy varieties, each of which is known by the manner in which the ears are carried. One kind is known as the "oar lop ears," another as the "horn lop," and the most expensive as the "real or perfect lop," where the ears hang straight down each side of the face. Then in these fancy varieties of rabbits the chin must be formed in a certain way, and the back must arch so that it is carried at least two inches higher than the head.
In that country very high prices are paid for what is called a perfectly formed animal; but since the habits are the same whether the ears hang down properly, or the back is sloped instead of arched, a pair of common white pink-eyed rabbits will afford quite as much pleasure as an expensive pair which do not look nearly as pretty, except to those who make a study of the animal.
Rabbits can be bought from almost any dealer in pets; but before making a selection the most important thing is to build a house for them, in order to have everything ready for their reception when they arrive.
Some boys seem to think that there is excuse enough for keeping their pets in a small box or barrel if they say that is the only place they have; but it is worse than no excuse, since they should give up the pleasure of owning animals if they can not care for them properly.
Rabbits need plenty of exercise, and that can be given in a limited amount of space provided the house, or hutch, be built in a manner to attain that object. A good one, suitable for from four to six rabbits, can be made by almost any boy who has any idea of using a hammer and saw. Build a box four feet square, three feet high at one side, and three feet six inches high at the other side, which provides for a sloping roof. Make the top nine inches larger all around, in order to have a projection which shall shelter the gimlet holes that are to be made for purposes of ventilation along the top of the sides.
Fasten the top or roof on with a pair of stout hinges at the upper or higher side, which will enable you to look in at the chambers of the house, and also to clean them. Any kind of a fastening may be used to hold it down when closed, and if there is any danger of the inmates being stolen, a staple and padlock serve the double purpose of protection and safety from their various enemies.
The hutch should be divided by a flooring about half way up, in order to give a dining-room and sleeping-room story. The upper portion should be connected with the lower by a hole cut in the floor, about six inches square, with a narrow strip of board laid at as much of an angle as the width of the building will permit. The lower story is to be used as a dining and sitting room, and holes should be bored in the floor, about two inches apart, in order that the water may run off, while a door from six to eight inches square should be made in one corner of the building, to communicate with the yard, which should be built of laths firmly imbedded in the earth. The upper floor is to be divided into four rooms of equal size, each one connected with the others by openings cut through the partitions, about six inches square.
A PET RABBIT.
Such a house may be made of rough boards; and with a medium-sized yard, where the rabbits can run during the day, they will be as contented and happy as possible. But their owner may not be quite as happy regarding them, since it will be only possible to see them while they are in the yard or by raising the roof of the house. To obviate this, the entire front of the house can be formed of lattice-work made of planed laths. If this is done, a shutter made like the sides of the house must be provided, so that the building can be closed during a storm or in cold weather.
Fill the chambers half full of hay; have a neat little drinking-trough just outside the door in the yard; and then procure your pets.
If you are anxious to raise young rabbits enough to provide all your friends with pets, get two or three females and one male. It is better that you get pure white ones, since those which are spotted are neither as cleanly nor as nice-looking.
In a day or two after they have been introduced to their new house they will be perfectly at home, and whether they thrive well or not depends entirely on you.
They are by no means dainty as to what they eat, provided it is green or vegetable food. Cabbage, lettuce, or turnip leaves, clover tops, carrots with the tops on, a little barley or oatmeal, corn or hay, makes up the full bill of fare for them.
Although some people say that rabbits require no water, it is better to be on the safe side, and give them plenty. It is true that they need but little during the summer, when they are fed almost entirely on green food; but in the winter, when they are living on hay and vegetables that have been stored, they certainly need as much liquid as other pets.
When the female has young—and she will have ten litters a year—she should have plenty of oatmeal and milk. Do not trouble or handle her at such times; but let her have her own way until the young are eight weeks old, when they should be taken from her, and put into a yard or hutch by themselves.
Be sure of one thing, boys, before you decide upon keeping any kind of pets—be perfectly certain that you are willing to devote to them all the time necessary to care for them, not feeding them too much for a few days, and then neglecting them almost entirely. Once positive that you are willing to do this, get all the pets your parents are willing you should keep, and you will find no slight degree of enjoyment in attending to the wants of the little fellows who are dependent on you.
[DIGGING FOR INDIAN RELICS.]
BY S. L. FREY.
In ancient times it was the custom to place in the grave or the tomb with the dead whatever had been most prized during life, perhaps with the idea that it could be carried by the spirit of the departed on its long journey to the unknown land. Whether we open the old graves of Greeks or Phœnicians, Germans, Norse vikings, Britons, Celts, or North American Indians, we are indebted to this early custom for much knowledge and light thrown upon the life of all these ancient peoples by the implements and ornaments that we find.
All the early nations and savage tribes have had much to do with war and hunting, and in the old graves we find many remains of their weapons. The very swords and spears used by Agamemnon, King of men, that some of you no doubt are reading about now in the Iliad, were found by Dr. Schliemann in the tombs at Mycenæ; and in France not long since a great tomb was opened, where long ago some fierce fighter had been buried with his armor on, his sword by his side, and with him his noble war-horse that had carried him through many a fierce battle.
You have many of you read of the Northmen, who a good many hundred years ago were the cause of so much trouble to the people of England and France, coming down from Scandinavia, and burning and stealing, and laying waste all the coasts. We know what kind of vessels these people sailed in; but it is a great deal better to actually see one for ourselves, as we can now, for it was only last year that one of these queer ships was dug out of a mound, which was the tomb of some great viking or chief. I think that Rollo and William the Conqueror and the human life of that age would seem more real to us if we could sit on one of the seats of that old vessel.
And so it is in this country. All the boys and girls have read about the Indians, and heard many stories of the life they led all over this broad land when our forefathers first came here, and many have seen the stone arrow-heads and other implements that the Indians used, and have themselves picked up these things that are scattered over the fields so abundantly in some places; but I doubt if there are any of you who have opened an old grave, and been astonished at the strange and curious treasures it contained. It is always hard to find these places in this country, where for the most part there are no monuments of any kind to mark the spot where the Indians buried their dead. If we could find them all, it would be an easy matter to fill a large museum at once, for the most finished and best preserved of these things are always found in the graves. I have found a few of these places, and they always contain relics of great interest. I once took from a single grave 189 arrow-heads, which seemed to indicate that the man was a great warrior, or perhaps one of the ancient arrow-makers.
But what I particularly want to tell you about now is the opening of some graves containing not only articles of Indian make, but also many other things that had been brought in by the white people when they first began to trade with the Indians.
This grave-yard was upon a side-hill that looked down upon the winding Mohawk and the rich intervales that line its banks. It was known to the boys of several generations as a place where they could pick up curious beads after the spring rains; and on a wet day in November I started off on a buckboard wagon, with a hoe and a spade, to see what I could dig up. As there were so many beads on the surface, I wanted to see what there was below. There was a hop-yard covering the whole hill, so I commenced by opening a trench between two rows of hops, and had dug but a few inches when I found a dozen or more red and white glass tubes about as large and long as a common slate-pencil. At a depth of three feet I came to the first grave.
Now at first thought it may not seem a proper thing to do, to disturb the bones of a man, even though he be a savage, and has lain in the earth hundreds of years; but we may want very much to know what manner of men they were, these early inhabitants of our country, and may perhaps be able to find this out, more or less, from their skulls and bones, and the things we find buried with them. So I carefully removed the earth with a knife, and found a great variety of glass beads. There had evidently been a grand necklace made of them; they were round and oval and octagonal, and of various colors—red and amber-colored and blue and green. They had no doubt been brought to America by some Dutch trader, as beads of this kind have been made at Venice for several hundred years, and are still made for trading with the savages of Africa and our Western Indians. Before the white traders came, the savages made their beads of bone and stone and sea-shells, for they were very fond of ornaments, and took great pains to secure jewels of some kind.
I took out a hundred or more of these beads, and also an oval tube of catlinite, or red pipe-stone, which is a peculiar stone much used by the natives for pipes and beads, and is only found in Minnesota. But this was only the beginning of the finds I made. To the Indian all things animate and inanimate were endowed with a spirit, and the idea seemed to be that the spirit of the ornament, or utensil, or weapon went with the spirit of the man on the long journey to the happy hunting grounds.
The next thing I found was a white clay pipe with the letters R. T. stamped on the bowl, and this was one of the things that enabled me to determine the age of the place; for as R. T. probably stood for Richard Tyler, a celebrated maker of pipes about 1650, I could pretty safely conclude that some time during the latter half of the seventeenth century these things had been brought to America. Continuing to throw out the earth toward the foot of the grave (for the man had been buried with the beads around his neck, and the pipe in his hand), I found one triangular copper arrow-head—all that remained of the bow and arrows that were buried with him. A rude iron axe and a hoe next came to light. Axes of this kind are quite common on the sites of the more recent Indian villages; they have a peculiar mark, and were probably made at Utrecht.
At the foot of the grave I found a small copper kettle, and a rude iron hook to suspend it over the fire, and also what was by far the most interesting and valuable of the relics, a salt-glazed earthen jug of the kind known to collectors of ceramics as Grès de Flanders. It was without crack or flaw, and is an interesting specimen of this early pottery. Upon it are various devices stamped in the clay, the most prominent of which are two remarkably slim lions with enormous heads; the outlines of the designs and the lines encircling the jug are bright blue.
The kettle and jug were upside down, and in the former was the hollow shell of a small pumpkin or gourd. This, I think, is by far the oldest pumpkin to be found anywhere; it must be as old as the one that Peter, Peter, the pumpkin-eater, imprisoned his wife in.
Some other things in the grave were a rusty gun-barrel, seven copper kettles, two English pipes, an Indian clay pipe, a whetstone, about two thousand beads, fifty large wampum beads, two thimbles, a jew's-harp, a bear's tooth, a long bone tube, two earthen jars of native manufacture (one of them smaller than a tea-cup), and a rosary with a brass cross—seeming to indicate that the Jesuit missionaries had reached these people before this warrior died.
With all these relics, one can form some idea as to what manner of men lived on the sunny hill-sides and by the shores of our rivers before civilization came to take possession of their hunting grounds, and drive them from their homes.
[AND WHY?]
BY MARGARET EYTINGE.
"A little bird's gone from my nest,"
Sang mournfully Robin Redbreast:
"Oh! somebody tell me, I pray,
Who carried the darling away."
"Katy did, Katy did," came quick in reply.
"And why?" Redbreast queried, "and why? and why?"
But no other word
From Katy was heard
But, "Katy did, Katy did, Katy did."
"A sweet bud I miss from my side,"
Said a red rose. "I watched it with pride,
It promised so lovely to be.
I wonder who stole it from me?"
"Katy did, Katy did," came quick in reply.
"And why?" asked the red rose, "and why? and why?"
But no other word
From Katy was heard
But, "Katy did, Katy did, Katy did."
"A kitten I've lost," mewed the cat;
"I left it upon the door-mat.
Its fur was as white as an egg.
Tell me, some one, who took it, I beg."
"Katy did, Katy did," came quick in reply.
"And why?" asked poor pussy, "and why? and why?"
But no other word
From Katy was heard
But, "Katy did, Katy did, Katy did."
Now I knew very well 'twasn't true,
For Katy such things couldn't do,
As carry off bud, bird, or kit;
For she is not larger a bit
Than her cousin the beautiful Prince Butterfly.
"And why do you fib so?" I asked her, "and why?"
But no other word
From Katy I heard
But, "Katy did, Katy did, Katy did."
[A BIT OF FOOLISHNESS.]
BY SARAH O. JEWETT.
Part I.
When Jack and Alice Denfield's mother heard the story of this adventure of theirs, she was much annoyed at first, and thought they must have been in a good deal of danger. Afterward, when she was convinced that they came to no harm but very slight colds, she laughed at them heartily, and said it had been a good lesson, and if she had been twenty years younger she probably should have enjoyed it as much as they did.
They had all three been staying at the White Mountains; they had planned to be at the Glen House through July and early August, and then go to the sea-shore to stay until late in September. But the very first of August Mrs. Denfield found that she must go to Boston for a few days to attend to some business; and they were all sorry, for they had counted upon having a week or ten days more among the mountains. They had had a most satisfactory time, for they knew a charming set of people at the hotel, and every pleasant day there had been long drives or walks, small fishing parties or large picnics. Jack and Alice always were glad to be together; they were very near the same age, and had always been great cronies from their babyhood. They were equally fond of out-of-door life; Jack had said more than once that his sister was exactly as good company as another fellow, and she responded that she did not have such good times with anybody else in the world. I think it is seldom one sees such a friendship between a brother and sister. They both had a great many friends, but they were always delighted to have vacation come, and get back to each other.
They came in late to supper one Monday evening. They had been out all day, and it was their last chance for a long expedition, for they were to go down by the stage the next day to take the train. For a little while Jack was uncommonly silent, and did not pay much attention to the chattering of the other young people at the table; but suddenly he said to Alice, who happened to sit next him, "I have made a plan"; and she stopped to listen to it with great interest. "Suppose we ask mamma to let us stay here a little longer, and then go down to Boston by ourselves? She will have to be there for a week, she told me, and we could go up Mount Washington with the Eastfields and Dunns. You know they're going to walk up the mountain, and stay all night. It'll be great fun."
Alice was delighted at the idea, and after supper was over they went at once to propose this change of plans.
"I do not know why not," said Mrs. Denfield, slowly. "You are surely familiar enough with travelling, and almost grown up, at any rate, you tall creatures! But you must not take any longer journey" (they had all three wished to go farther up among the mountains); "you must be in Boston Saturday evening."
So next day Mrs. Denfield started off by herself, and Alice said, just after the stage had gone, "I wish we had asked mamma if we could not walk part of the way; we could send our trunks on by the stage to North Conway."
Jack's eyes began to shine with delight. "Of course she wouldn't mind," said the boy. "Don't you remember how sorry she was when you couldn't go down through the Notch with the rest of us last summer, because you had sprained your ankle? Let's do it, Alice. We can go up Mount Washington to-morrow, and come down next day. Yes, there will be just time enough to reach Boston Saturday night. Why, it's nothing to do; we have walked almost as far a dozen times."
"But not by ourselves," said Alice, "in such a wild country. I'm not a bit afraid, though—you needn't think that."
So they made their plans, and kept them great secrets, for Jack said that everybody would insist upon going with them, and making a public occasion of it, and it would be much better fun to go alone by themselves. They had often taken short excursions together, and they knew that they could get on much faster. It was settled that they were to start early Friday morning, and to say good-by to everybody the evening before, and then go away even before any one would be down to see them start by the stage.
The walking party up Mount Washington was a grand success, and the afternoon and evening of the day were just the right sort of weather, cool and fresh and bright, with a most glorious sunset, and a clear though very late moonrise. But next morning it was damp and cloudy, and most of the party thought it would be more sensible to drive back to the Glen instead of walking. They found that the clouds were only around the tops of the high mountains, and that it was really a pleasant day, after all, when they reached the valley; and after they had told the story of their expedition, the party scattered itself about the piazzas and rooms of the hotel, and Jack presently went to find Alice, and asked her eagerly why it would not be a good plan to take half their journey that day, and the rest the next, and spend the night somewhere on the road. Then they would have more time in North Conway, for there were some friends there whom they both wished to see.
"We will start by the stage just after dinner, and ride a little way, and then get down," Jack told his sister; and Alice at once hurried off to finish their packing, and to say good-by to her friends.
They meant to go ten or twelve miles that afternoon. Jack was sure he remembered the road perfectly, and knew where they could find lodgings for the night. Some one found out that they were going afoot, and said that it was a capital day for it; but the long climb up the mountain the day before seemed to have tired almost everybody but themselves, and no one offered to accompany them except two or three of their cronies, who strolled along with them for half a mile or so.
Our friends were in the highest spirits, and started off at last side by side without a fear, keeping step and looking around at each other every few minutes to smile and say what fun it was. Jack had a traveller's bag slung over his shoulders with a strap, and Alice carried a little lunch-box and her light jacket, and they both had the sticks which they had carried on all their tramps about the mountains. They felt like people who were journeying in earnest, and were not merely out for a stroll.
They were both capital walkers; they had had good practice during the last few weeks at the Glen, and they went gayly down the road for the first few miles without taking much thought of anything but the mere pleasure of walking. There had been a good many rains, and the streams were full, and the foliage was as fresh and green as if it were the first of June. The mountains stood up grand and tall, and there was not a cloud to be seen.
"It is even clearer than yesterday," said Alice. "I am sorry we are not just coming to the mountains instead of just going away. Jack! there must be trout in that brook."
"I was just thinking of that," said the boy. "Here is a line in my pocket; I mean to cut a little pole and rig it, and go up the hill a little way. You could be resting."
But Alice disdained the idea of being tired, and sat down to wait in a most comfortable place under a pine-tree. "I wish there was another line," she said. "I put all my tackle in my trunk before we thought of letting mamma go on without us."
Jack was soon ready, and pushed in through the bushes, and in the silence that everything kept but the brook, his sister could hear him for a few minutes as he went on from point to point, sometimes snapping the dead branches that he stepped upon. It was growing warmer, and she was, after all, not sorry to sit still for a little while. She called to Jack once or twice to be sure he had not gone too far away, and he whistled in answer, softly, as if there might be some chance of a trout, and at last he did not answer at all.
Alice looked at the mountains, and pulled an envelope out of her pocket and began to make a little sketch of a strange old tree the other side of the road, and she did not hurry about it; so after she had finished it she said to herself that Jack had been gone long enough. There was no possible danger of his losing his way, but it was long past the middle of the afternoon already, and they must go on. So she whistled again and again the odd little call with which Jack was very familiar, but he did not answer. He had evidently gone a good way up from the road; and she shouted, but he did not shout to her, and she said to herself that it was very wrong of him, and that there was no more fishing to be done on that journey out of sight of the road. She grew very worried at last, and annoyed as well; the mosquitoes had grown troublesome, and she did not like staying there alone for so long; and the thought seized her that her brother must have fallen over the rocks and hurt himself badly, for it was over an hour since he had gone away.
She followed the brook up its bed for some distance, and at last she heard the bushes rustling, and called eagerly, and there was Jack, safe and sound, with three or four good-sized trout on a birch twig.
"There are the best trout I have caught this summer," said he, triumphantly.
And Alice forgot to scold him at first, she was so pleased. "We must have them for our supper," she told the proud fisherman; and they hurried back to the roadside.
"I haven't been gone long, have I?" asked Jack, persuasively. "I hated to turn back, you know."
And Alice said that they must hurry; it was already nearly five, and they had five or six miles further to go to the house where they were to spend the night.
But Jack was hot and tired, and said he must have some biscuits, and rest a few minutes. It was so bright a day that it would not be dark early. And who cared if it were? The road was straight and safe enough, and it would be much cooler after the sun went down a little. It was really very hot, and Alice was satisfied, now that he had come back, and she made no objection when he had finished his lunch, and had taken a drink of the cold brook water, and threw him self down to rest.
"You have been sitting still here while I have been going up the side of the hill," said he. "No wonder that you are ready to go on."
"I WISH A STAGE WOULD COME BY."
Alice wrapped the trout in some great beech leaves, and tied a bit of fish-line round them. One was unusually large, and Jack was very proud of it, and told her what a hard time he had in catching it, and how it came very near going into the brook again after he had fairly landed it. After a while they got up unwillingly and set off again. The sun was almost down behind the mountains, but the air seemed to grow hotter, and hotter, although they were in the shade. The leaves were perfectly still on the trees; there did not seem to be a breath of wind.
"I don't think this is very good fun," said Jack, angrily; and Alice laughed, but she thought that pedestrianism in hot weather was not so full of pleasure as it might be.
"I wish a stage would come by," she said, laughingly. And when they met one bound for the Glen a little later, I think they were both tempted to hail it and take passage.
Jack whistled manfully, and they both made fun of themselves, but the little knapsack which Jack carried was not the trifling weight it seemed at first. It was as heavy as lead; and he wondered what was in it, and shifted it to the other shoulder and back again with a manner as if he did not like to carry it at all. "It must have been the tramp yesterday that makes us so fagged," said he. "We have walked so very far, you know. I say! look at those clouds coming over. It's going to rain. There's going to be a tremendous shower. What had we better do?"
But Alice did not know. "Go on, I suppose," said she, "as fast as we can. Very likely some one will drive by. Somehow I never thought of its raining."
"Nor I either," answered Jack, dismally. "I wish I had not stopped for the trout: that took up so much time. But aren't they beauties?" and he held them up for consolation. The leaves about them were already wilted, and the colors of the fish looked dull. "I wish I had my little scales here," said Jack; "I took them out of my pocket only yesterday."