A moment later the girls rounded a bend and saw the ark in its usual setting. A long clothes line had been stretched from bow to stern, and wet garments fresh from the wash tub, flapped in the breeze.
“Well, Noah is still here,” chuckled Penny. “He’s run up the white flag though! Or should we say the white flags!”
On the deck of the ark, Old Noah was so busy that he failed to note the approach of the two girls. He stood in the center of a ring of soiled clothes, laboring diligently over a tub of steaming suds.
As the girls reached the gangplank, a dog from inside the ark began an excited barking. Startled, Old Noah glanced up. Unnoticed by him, his long white beard slipped into the soapy water and he rubbed it vigorously on the washboard.
Scarcely able to control a giggle, Penny followed her chum aboard the ark. As Old Noah kept on scrubbing his beard she could not resist asking: “Excuse me, but aren’t you washing your whiskers by mistake?”
Surprised, the old man straightened to his full height. Squeezing the dripping beard, he carefully wrung it out. Next he produced a comb from his loose fitting brown pantaloons, and painstakingly unsnarled the tangles. Then turning to the girls, he greeted them with his usual dignity.
“Good morning, my daughters. I am glad you kept your promise to visit me again.”
“Good morning, Noah,” responded Penny, trying not to laugh. “We thought we would drop by and see if you were still here. I remember Sheriff Anderson said he was going to call on you again.”
The old man’s weather beaten face crinkled into deep wrinkles. “Ho, ho! So he did, but he reckoned without the Might of the Righteous. I was watching for him when he came.”
“I hope you didn’t mistreat him,” Penny said uneasily.