“Young and pretty and innocent. I’ll keep a little watch over her and speak to Simmons about her when he comes on for duty,” he thought.
Meanwhile the father and mother in the home growing farther and farther away with every turn of the wheels, were praying silently and constantly that no harm might befall her. John Pennington, too, who hardly knew whether he really believed anything or not, said to himself, as he sat smoking in his room at “The Helena” until far into the night: “If there is a God, and I suppose there must be, I hope He will take care of Elithe.” God did take care of her, but did not keep her from being uncomfortable and tired and sickening of both her own lunch basket and that of Mrs. Baker, as the food grew stale and old, and the car grew hot and dusty, and so crowded that her two seats had to be given up, and she was finally driven to sitting with Mrs. Baker, whose fat shoulder was her pillow during the night before the train drew into Chicago.
Here she was to part with Mrs. Baker, who waited in the station till she found the conductor of the Eastern train and told him of Elithe, bidding him look after her till he reached the terminus of his route.
“Then I suppose the Lord will have to take her in charge,” she said, with so much concern that the conductor answered, laughingly: “If He don’t the next conductor will. I’ll tell him about her. Don’t you worry.”
Thus reassured, Mrs. Baker felt relieved, but stayed by Elithe until her train was ready to start, talking to her through the window, telling her not to be afraid when crossing Detroit River or Suspension Bridge, and to be sure to look at the Falls in the right place and to call on her if she was ever in Chicago. Then she shook both her plump hands as a farewell, and Elithe was left alone to accomplish the rest of her journey, which was done without accident or delay. Everybody was kind to her, from the conductor to the tall brakeman, who got her out upon the boat when crossing the river at Detroit, and took her to the best place for seeing the Falls when nearing Suspension Bridge.
Elithe saw a great deal on that journey, and felt herself quite a traveled personage, regretting that she could not at once compare notes with Rob, who had been to Salt Lake City with his father and ever after boasted of his superior knowledge of the world. She saw the Genesee and the beautiful Hudson and went out upon the platform in the moonlight to look at the mountains between Albany and Springfield,—mere hills she called them when compared with the Rockies, and scarcely worth keeping awake to look at. She was very tired by this time, and, returning to her seat, fell into a deep sleep from which she did not waken until the train stopped in Worcester depot. There was only one change more before she reached the boat which was to take her to Oak City, and she made it without mistake, and drew a long breath of relief when she finally left the car at New Bedford and her journey by rail was ended.
CHAPTER XIII.
ON THE BOAT.
The Naumkeag was standing at the wharf waiting for the passengers who had come on the Western train. There was a great crowd, all hurrying, with bags and umbrellas, towards the boat with as much speed as if their lives depended upon getting there first and securing the best seats. Elithe lingered, anxiously watching the baggage as it was taken from the car. She was hot and dusty and tired and worn with the long journey. Her straw hat, with its faded ribbons, was crushed and bent, her flannel gown was soiled and wrinkled, and her gloves were worn at the fingers tips. “A dowdy little thing,” some might have called her, as she stood waiting the appearance of her trunk, which had caused her a great deal of anxiety. Whenever the train stopped long enough and it was possible for her to do so, she had managed to assure herself that it was there with her, and she always scanned closely any trunks standing in a station they were leaving, fearing lest by some mistake hers might have been taken out with others. If it were in New Bedford it was safe, and she stood in the broiling sun faint and dizzy, but resolute, until she caught sight of it and saw a train hand put it upon a truck not far from where she was standing.
“This is the kind of trunk to have,” the man said to a companion, staggering under a huge Saratoga four times as large as Elithe’s poor little box tied with a rope, with one of the hinges to the lid wrenched nearly off and a great crack across the end where the card with her name upon it was fastened.
It was rather dilapidated, but it was there, and Elithe followed it to the boat and stayed below until she saw it placed by six immense Saratogas with “Clarice Percy, Washington, D. C.” marked upon them. Elithe had seen many handsome trunks during her journey, but the difference between them and her own had never struck her as it did now when Clarice Percy’s stared her in the face. How very insignificant hers looked beside them, she thought, wondering who Clarice Percy was, and why she had so much baggage. She had heard some one say they stopped once before landing at Oak City, and she was tempted to stay below and watch her property lest it be carried off. But it was too hot and close down there, and, going up to the crowded deck, she tried to find a seat sheltered from the sun, which was beating down upon the water with all the fervor of a sultry afternoon. Her first feeling, as the boat moved off, was one of relief. Her trunk was safe, and so was the little box which held the diamond, and which had troubled her nearly as much as her baggage. A dozen times a day her hand had gone into her pocket to see if it were there, and it did so now, as she took the seat a young man had just vacated and for which a woman made a rush. Elithe was before her, feeling, as she sat down, that she had never been so tired and faint in her life as she was now. Her head was throbbing with pain, and the lump in her throat, which always came when she thought of home, was increasing in size until she felt as if she were choking. The motion of the boat as they got further from the shore and struck the swell made her sick. There was a horrible nausea at her stomach and a blur before her eyes, while the people around her kept the air from her.