Dorothy's Travels Part 14

Stark's remarks, yet seemed to have eyes in the back of his head; for presently he asked:

"What are you youngsters lagging behind for? Dolly, take Melvin under your shelter and make him tell you everything you want to know about Digby. He's been here before many times, I've learned. And Molly, you and Monty walk ahead if you please. I like to keep my eye on my own and I fancy Mrs. Stark does too."

Separated from these two, who had been in the rear of the whole party, Melvin did exert himself to overcome his abnormal shyness and to talk; and when after proceeding a little way and his finding Dorothy eagerly observant of even the most trivial things that were new to her, he had an abrupt burst of courage--or was it a harmless spite against his tormentor of the day before, Molly? Whatever it was that emboldened him, he suddenly laid his hand on her arm and said:

"Wait just a minute! There comes a man I know. He's a transplanted Yarmouthian who's moved to Digby to 'haul' for his livelihood. He'll be glad to see me and hear the news from home; and won't want to waste time in doing it. I'll ask him to give us a ride. I don't believe either of you girls from the States ever did ride in such an equipage."

She had paused as he wished and was listening in surprise. As much because he talked so well and so easily as at the really joyous tone in which he hailed his uncouth acquaintance from "Home."

"h.e.l.lo, Snackenberg! Here am I! Give me a ride?"

"Well, well, well! Son of all the Cooks! What you doin' here? Allowed you was sailin' the 'blue and boundless' just about now!" cried the teamster and leaning forward shook the lad so heartily by his own hard hand that Melvin squealed and protested:

"Well, we can't stand here, you know. I'll just help this young lady in--she's from the States--and you can jog on."

The team was of the sort that is always willing to stop, and the "equipage" was easily entered by merely stepping into its open rear. It swung low to the ground, after the fashion of Nova Scotian carts, and for seats it had a bundle of clean straw.

In another moment the animals had been goaded to fresh effort, their owner had turned about on the chain where he balanced himself for a seat and also turned a corner into a side street that climbed the hill behind the town. Then he ordered:

"Fire ahead! Tell everything you know; and I say, Sissy, did you ever see a purtier pair of creeturs than them be? I'm prouder of 'em than I could be of the finest team o' thoroughbreds ever stepped. Gee, there!

Haw, I tell ye!"

Beyond, at the postoffice, the truants had been suddenly missed; and with varying degrees of anxiety their elders were asking one another:

"What do you suppose has become of Dorothy and that queer boy?"

But Molly was more vexed than anxious and she looked upon Monty with rising disfavor. She guessed that they were having some fun from which she was shut out and which Montmorency Vavasour-Stark would never have had the originality to suggest.

"Oh! I wish I knew! Maybe they're eating each other up! Yesterday she asked if he was a 'wildcat' and I told her 'yes.' Maybe, maybe--Oh! Why did you make us walk in front, namby-pamby so, Papa dear? If we'd been with them we'd know what they are doing and what has happened. Oh! dear!

If I hadn't been in front I'd have been behind!" she complained. Nor was she greatly pleased by the laugh which her Irish-cism raised.

CHAPTER IX

AN OX-OMOBILE AND A SAILBOAT

Even Melvin had not expected that Dorothy and he would long be away from the rest of the party, though he did not realize that he was in any wise responsible to them, since his duties as camp-helper had not yet begun.

But he enjoyed his freedom from the society of so many strangers and found Dorothy a pleasant companion. She might have been just another boy, for any "nonsense" there was about her; and she was so delighted with everything he pointed out that he, also, began to find new beauties in the familiar scenery, and to grow eager to show her all he could.

For the teamster prolonged his journey to the very crest of the hill behind the town, and made it slowly. He had so many questions to ask concerning his old neighbors that he delayed all he reasonably could and rather resented Melvin's attempts to entertain Dorothy.

"That's Point Prim lighthouse, yonder. See? Yes, Joel, Reuben Smith did paint his house bright blue, just as he vowed he would to spite his neighbor. That's Digby Gap, where the two hills come so near together in the water. The boats that sail from here have to pa.s.s through it and travelers say--No. I didn't hear what price that Company did get for its last 'catch.' Lobsters haven't been running so free this year, I hear; and there's another company started canning them. If Judge Breckenridge stays long enough I hope he'll take you sailing up Bear River. It's a nice drive there, too, but the sail is better. Up yonder is the Joggin--Why, Joel, I'm sure I don't know. I hadn't heard."

Such was a sample of the talk which went on and which provoked from the lad, at last, the comment:

"Learning under difficulties!" which he said with such an amused glance toward Dorothy that she laughed and felt that Molly had been right in her belief that "that boy has some fun in him." Thought of Molly made her also exclaim:

"Oh! I do wish she were here! She would have liked this so much! I don't believe she ever rode in an ox-cart either, any more than I did before.

How funny it is! And how much longer shall we be? I'm afraid I ought to have asked Mrs. Hungerford or Miss Greatorex before I came. But I didn't think. I never do think till--afterward."

"Glad of it. Glad you didn't, else likely you'd have lost the ride. Joel doesn't call this an ox-cart, though. Not by any means. This, if you please, is an 'ox-omobile,' and very proud of it he is. Guess you needn't worry. n.o.body can get lost in little Digby; and--Where now, Joel? How much longer will you be?"

"Oh! I reckon not long. Just a little minute or few. Depends on folks havin' their trunks ready to haul. Some towerists have been stopping up here to one these houses and engaged me to take their luggage down to the pier. They're goin' over to St. John, I reckon, only one of 'em.

She's goin' to the dee-po. When we go down hill you two may set on the trunks--if you can!" and Mr. Snackenberg laughed at his own thoughts.

The trunks did happen to be ready. Indeed the "towerists" were even impatient to be gone and were just starting to walk to the pier when the carter arrived. They looked rather enviously at Dorothy and Melvin, so comfortably seated in the cart, but its owner did not extend an invitation to them to ride. Indeed, as he explained to his companions:

"If I was a mind I could have all Digby village a ridin' in my 'ox-omobile.' They seem to think it's powerful cunnin', as if they'd never seen a team of oxen before. Where've they lived at, I'd like to know, that they don't know an ox when they see it. There. Them trunks is in. Now, Sissy, you just set right down and--You'll find out the rest."

The trunks did fill the cart pretty well but there was plenty of room to put one's feet in the s.p.a.ces between; and Dorothy fixed herself comfortably, wondering why Melvin disdained to ride but strode along beside the teamster who also walked. Throned in solitary state all went well for awhile, until a corner was turned and the steep descent into the town began. Then the trunks slid upon the slippery hay, resting their weight against the chain at the rear, which alone prevented their falling out; and after a few efforts to maintain her seat Dorothy also sprang to the ground and joined the others.

"Ha, ha, ha! Ridin' up-hill and ridin' down is two quite different things, ain't it, Sissy? Ever been to the pier to see the boat start across the Bay to St. John's, New Brunswick? No? First time you been to the Province? All right. You stick close to me and I'll p'int out all the 'lions' there is to see. Melvin, here, can talk as glib as the next one when he gets waked up, but I know more about Digby 'an he does. One the sights towerists rave the most over is the fish-grounds. They're right adj'ining the pier and you can kill them two 'lions' at once. Ha, ha!"

"But, sir, I'm afraid I ought to go back. I mean--to where my friends are. Is the pier on the road home?" asked Dorothy.

"All roads lead home--for somebody. The pier and the fish-curin' grounds amongst 'em. Don't you vex yourself, Sissy. If you was to go from one end to the other of this little town you couldn't never get fur from where you live."

The truth was that the old teamster wanted to keep the young folks with him as long as he could. There were still numberless questions he hadn't put to Melvin and he had taken a fancy to Dorothy. If she was simply a "towerist" she was, of course, an idler and it was of no consequence her wasting her time. He hadn't learned yet why Melvin was here and if he didn't find that out he felt he "couldn't bear it." So now he asked:

"Well, son of all the Cooks, what's fetched you here this time o' day?

Lost your job?"

"Not exactly. I've given it up. I'm tired of sailing back and forth over the same old route and a friend of mine wanted to take my place. I'm going to help a gentleman I know in his camping out. Cook, maybe, or whatever he wants. Now--that's all. You needn't ask me how much I earn, or what's next, or anything. You just go ahead and tell this Miss Dorothy anything you fancy; since you know so much more of things than I do."

"H'ity-t'ity! Miffed, be ye? Never mind. You'd ought to rest your tongue, 'cause I 'low it's never wagged so fast afore in your whole life. But I'm ekal to it. I'm ekal. I've growed to be a regular 'Digby chicken,' I've tarried here so long already. Ever eat 'Digby chicken,'

Sissy?"

Joel was affronted in his own turn now and determined to ignore that "Miss" which Melvin had p.r.o.nounced so markedly. Joel wasn't used to "Miss"-ing any girl of Dorothy's size and he wasn't going to begin at his time of life. Not he!

Meanwhile, Melvin had relapsed into utter silence. He declined to answer any of the teamster's further questions, and if his knowledge of the locality had been quite as accurate as he had boasted he would have suggested to the girl that they take a short-cut back to the hotel. Yet, he had heard that teasing Molly say they were bound for the fish-grounds. Beyond these lay, also, that notable Battery Point, with its rusty old guns; its ancient, storm-bent trees; and the Indian encampment still further along. He had seen tourists so many times that he fancied they were all alike, full of curiosity, and with ample leisure to gratify it. So, in all probability, the Judge and his friends were still at that end of town and he had better stick to Joel till he conducted the girl and him to their presence. Then he would himself vanish until such time as the Judge might require his service.

They came to the pier and drove along its great length, the teamster pointing out all sorts of interesting things, so that Dolly forgot all else in her eager listening.

"Forty feet high the tide rises sometimes, right on this very p'int.

That's why it's built so lofty. Look over the edge. See that sloping wharf clean down into the water? Well, sir, that's where folks land sometimes; and other times away up top here. My heart! The pretty creetur!"

Joel abruptly checked his team and stooped above something lying on the wide planking of the pier. Then he lifted the object and handed it to Dorothy, explaining:

"That's a poor little coddy-moddy! A little baby gull. Pity! Something's hurt it, but it's alive yet. Makes me feel bad to see any young creetur suffer; most of all to see a bird. Put it in the crook of your elbow, Sissy, and fetch it along. I'll take it home with me and see if I can't save its life."

After a moment he added, seeing her look wistful, as he thought:

"I'd give it to you, Sissy, but towering folks haven't no time nor chance to tend sick birds. It'll be better off in my house than jogglin'

over railroads and steamboats."

There was sense in this as Dorothy rather reluctantly admitted, for she would have liked to keep the "coddy-moddy" and made a pet of it. With Joel, however, it would simply be cured and set free, or it would die in peace. Also she was touched by the real tenderness with which the rough-handed teamster made a nest in the straw of his cart and placed the bird upon it.