Doctor Jones' Picnic Part 5

'Taste it, Lois,' was all Aunt Joan would condescend to reply. She complied, taking quite a generous swallow.

'Oh! my stars!' she fairly screamed, 'What horrible stuff is this?

Waugh!'

'Why, that is Gunpowder tea, Lois,' said Aunt Joan with grim sarcasm.

'Beautiful, isn't it?'

'There is some awful mistake about this,' said grandmother. 'I'll see that drunken Pete about it.'

Pete was called in. Grandmother brought the box of tea out before him and said: 'Pete, what is the matter with this tea? It has nearly poisoned us all to death. What is this black stuff mixed up with the tea?'

The Dutchman looked at it stupidly for a moment, then his mouth expanded from ear to ear, and he roared with laughter. 'Dunder und blixen, Aunt Loish, but dot vos a goot choke on you. Dot vos Gunpowder dee mitout any mishtake,' and again he howled with laughter.

"The long and short of the matter was, that Pete had bought a pound of tea and a pound of gunpowder, and had put the two packages into the same pocket before getting drunk. During his drunken brawling and fighting the papers had become broken, with the result related."

The evening was balmy and beautiful, and they promenaded about the balcony until the shades of night had set in. The twinkling lights of the towns and farmhouses began to appear. They were pa.s.sing over the mountainous region of southeastern Pennsylvania, and the globe had ascended to the four thousand foot level. The wind had shifted to nearly due west.

"Where are we now, Doctor?" asked Mattie.

"We are crossing the southern portion of Pennsylvania. We are traveling nearly due west. I shall seek a more northerly current to-morrow morning if this wind does not become more favorable by that time."

They finally tired of walking and sat conversing until nearly ten o'clock, when, by general consent, they retired, except Will, who remained up to keep a lookout, and to watch the barometer and thermometer.

CHAPTER VIII.

Relating how the Beautiful Picnic Progressed.

Shortly before six o'clock all arose. The Doctor and his wife, at her earnest solicitation, ascended to the observatory to witness the sunrise. Mattie had manifested symptoms of vertigo that morning on first looking out, and decided not to go up with them. The exertion of climbing that long flight of stairs flushed the lovely face of Mrs.

Jones, and her cheeks were like twin roses when they reached the observatory. Once there, she was glad to sit and rest. The Doctor opened the windows and then sat beside her. Mrs. Jones sat quiet and dumb, hands clasped, looking out upon the most glorious scene her eyes had ever beheld. The sun was just peeping above the horizon. The painting of the clouds; the variegated face of the earth; the pure, balmy atmosphere; the great globe beneath their feet; the exquisitely graceful shaft that pierced the vault nearly one hundred feet above their heads, bearing our beautiful symbol of liberty; all these, combined with the inspiration that always attends looking out upon the works of G.o.d from great elevations, thrilled the souls of the two spectators as they had never been before in their lives. Thus they sat in silence drinking in the beauties of the morning for nearly a quarter of an hour. Approaching steps upon the stairway broke the spell, and the Professor and Fred stepped into the observatory. As they looked out upon the transcendent loveliness of the scene, the Professor raised his hands above his head and cried: "'What is man, that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that Thou visitest him? Thou hast made him little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor.' You told us yesterday that you never felt so little as when you looked out from this magnificent aerie; but I declare to you, Doctor, that I feel now that G.o.d has made man a wonderful being. As we go thus sailing through these roseate skies in this most splendid creation that ever came from the hands of man, I feel like crying with old Elisha, 'My father! My father!

The chariot of Israel and the hors.e.m.e.n thereof.'"

They sat a few minutes and then descended to the cabin. Mattie, Will, and Denison were upon the balcony, speculating as to what city they were rapidly approaching. Dr. Jones looked at it through his gla.s.ses, and said: "That is Columbus, the capital city of Ohio. Those great stone buildings you see there, inclosed by high stone walls, const.i.tute the state prison. It contains at present, I believe, nearly three thousand convicts."

"The poor things!" said Mattie. "Just think of the contrast between sailing so smoothly and easily as we are doing, away above the world with all its cares and sorrows, and being incarcerated within those gloomy walls, many of them for life. I am sure that if they could become 'Children of the Skies,' they would all reform in a short time."

"No, no, Mattie," replied the Doctor, "G.o.d did infinitely more than that for man. He placed him in the garden of Eden, and he transgressed the only restrictive law laid upon him. And he became so vile that the Lord was compelled to drown them like so many rats. Beautiful and inspiring though our present circ.u.mstances and surroundings are, yet they could never change the hearts of the majority of those miserable men."

Breakfast was now announced by Sing. The bracing atmosphere of this upper region seemed to be very appetizing, for they all ate heartily.

The ship was acting splendidly, continuing at nearly the same level of the day before, and but little fuel had been burned during the night.

The wind had shifted to the south, and they were sailing twenty miles an hour, due north. The Doctor rubbed his hands gleefully. "We're getting there now, ladies and gentlemen, we're getting there finely. Nothing could be better."

The sweet, happy valleys of Ohio were so exceedingly beautiful; the little towns appeared so pure and lovely to the voyagers; and the people were out in such crowds, cheering them so l.u.s.tily, that our friends could do little else than sit through the day and watch them through their gla.s.ses. And numerous were the dispatches they wrote and cast from the balcony. They could see the people rushing eagerly for them, as they reached the earth.

"I wish we had a morning paper," sighed Fred. "I do not doubt that we receive some mention in it."

"That is about the only thing I have missed so far," said the Professor.

"But we can well afford to forego that luxury for what we are now enjoying."

"And I really do wish we could attend church Sunday mornings," said Mattie.

"Oh! we will have a church service," replied Denison. "I notice that the Doctor has brought with him a book of sermons and a Bible. Then we have an organ, and the best choir I ever heard. The Doctor or Professor can act as parson; and, to make the thing realistic and homelike, I will pa.s.s the contribution box."

"I will see that he uses a bell punch," cried Fred. This suggestion was immediately rejected as unworthy of one of the Children of the Skies.

The Professor sat consulting a map. "We are heading straight for Cleveland," he remarked.

"I am really glad of that," said Dr. Jones. "That is my old native town, and I have not seen it for many years. The population has doubled several times since I left it, immediately after the war."

An hour or so later, as he stood upon the balcony, the Doctor suddenly shouted, "There's Cleveland! And that town this side of it is Berea, the great stone quarry place. Do you see on the north side of the town those brick and stone buildings in a campus? That is Baldwin University, where I attended school several years. You didn't dream, dear old girl," said he, tenderly and apostrophizingly to said inst.i.tution of learning, "that you would ever turn out such a sky traveler as I am, did you?"

All the gla.s.ses were turned upon the University. "We shall pa.s.s directly over it," said Fred.

"They have sighted us!" cried the Doctor excitedly. "See the students pouring out of the buildings! Let's give them some messages." This they did in a liberal shower.

They had lowered to the five hundred foot level, so that a good view might be taken of the beautiful metropolis of Ohio--Cleveland. They were just about pa.s.sing over it.

"What a splendid city it has grown to be," said Professor Gray.

"Yes, indeed," replied Dr. Jones. "That portion of the city," continued he, pointing with his finger, "was formerly called Brooklyn Center. I was born a mile or so from there. Yes!" he cried, looking earnestly through his gla.s.s, "I am quite sure that I can see the old two-story farmhouse where I was born. It is, sure as shooting! There is grandfather's farm where the 'Gunpowder tea' party was held that I told you of. And off here are the Heights, or South Cleveland. In 1862, when I joined the army, that was Camp Cleveland. It was then covered with rough wooden barracks, but now you see that it is densely built up with houses. My regiment, the 124th O.V.I. was in camp there three months before we went south."

"You must have been a very small soldier at that time," said Mattie.

"Yes," he replied, "I was but fifteen years old at that time. I didn't do much good or harm, for I was but a snare drummer the first two years of my soldiering, and the last year I was detailed as mounted orderly at brigade headquarters. But just see the people! Give them some messages!

We shall be out of 'Yankee Doodle' land very soon."

So the half million (more or less) of Clevelanders were treated to a shower of greetings.

"If I had thought sooner, I would have dropped anchor here and given my old townies a handshake," said the Doctor.

"Too late now, Doctor. We have pa.s.sed the princ.i.p.al portion of the city, and will be above Lake Erie in two or three minutes."

"Yes, yes, I see," sighed the Doctor. "But we may see you again.

Good-bye, Cleveland."

The blue water of Lake Erie was now rolling beneath them. Steamers and sail vessels thickly dotted the face of the beautiful lake; for the traffic and travel upon these great inland seas are exceedingly large.

The Canadian sh.o.r.es were visible, and when Sing announced dinner, the splendid domain of Her Majesty Victoria, Ontario, lay widespread before them. It was hard to realize that they were not still in their own land, so much like it did the peaceful towns, villages, and farms appear.

After dinner, the five men, in the little smoking-room, lighted their pipes and cigars, and entered into a general chat.

"If this wind holds, we shall be in the Arctics in two or three days,"

said Will.

"I suppose that we shall then be obliged to get out our furs," replied Fred.