“No, they haven’t! I know how the winds have been. They’ve had as good and steady a wind as ever blew—just the breeze for a boat.”
The next day after this conversation, the captain, after running in and out half of the forenoon with the spy-glass in his hand, said, “Wife, I won’t look any more till they come. I’m going to have patience; but there’s Tige been laying all the morning before the door, with his nostrils to the wind.”
He put the glass in the brackets, and taking up a book, began to read. He had hardly commenced, when a tremendous roar, ending in a prolonged howl, rang through the house.
“Heavens!” cried the captain; “why couldn’t I have seen them? I’ve been looking with all the eyes I’ve got the whole morning;” and rushing to the door, he caught a glimpse of Tige’s tail disappearing round the corner of the wood-pile.
To his astonishment, there was no boat to be seen in the cove, nor in the offing. Turning round to learn what had become of Tige, he espied him going at full speed across the orchard, clearing logs and fences at a leap, for the main road, emitting sharp, short barks as he ran, and was soon lost to view around a point of thick woods. The captain sat down on a log to see what would turn up next, and in a quarter of an hour was joined by all the family.
“What do you suppose it means?” asked Mrs. Rhines.
“Means? It means they are coming along the road. Tige has known it since six o’clock this morning. I knew he did by his actions, and that was what made me so patient.”
“Yes, you was very patient; but what has become of their boat?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps she has sprung a-leak, or they run on to some reef and punched a hole in her. Here they come!” roared the captain, as Tige’s voice was again heard. He was evidently returning, and the barking sounded louder and louder. In a few minutes Tige appeared in view around the point of woods.
He presented a comical appearance. He was coming sidewise, doubled all up like a rainbow, or the colonel’s horse prancing at the head of the regiment general-muster morning, caused by the effort to keep one eye on the boys and the other on Captain Rhines and his company, and progress at the same time.