Haste and Waste; Or, the Young Pilot of Lake Champlain Part 21

"I'm as sober as you are."

Mrs. Wilford knew that it was useless to talk to a person in his condition, and she left him to sleep off the effect of his cups if he could, after the evil deed he had done. Full of sympathy for Lawry, under his great affliction, she left the house, and hastened down to the landing, to learn, if possible, the condition of the _Woodville_. Lawry and Ethan were in the wherry, returning to the sh.o.r.e, when she reached the landing.

"Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted both of the boys, in unison, as Mrs.

Wilford came in sight.

"What now?" asked the anxious mother.

"She's safe, mother! She has not sunk," replied Lawry.

"Where is she? I don't see her anywhere," added Mrs. Wilford, scanning the lake in every direction.

"Over on the other side," replied Lawry.

"What's the reason she didn't sink?" continued his mother.

"The casks kept her up, of course. We want something for breakfast and for dinner, mother, for she is so far off we can't come home till we have pumped her out, and I won't leave her again till I am sure she's all right."

"What shall I do about the ferry, mother?" asked Lawry. "Will Ben run the boat to-day?"

"Don't trouble yourself about the ferry, Lawry. If Benjamin won't take care of it, I will."

"I don't want you to do it, mother."

"I think your brother will run the boat; at any rate, you needn't give it a thought."

Mrs. Wilford was quite as happy as the boys to find that the steamer was not at the bottom of the lake again; and she returned to the cottage with a light heart, when she had seen the wherry leave the sh.o.r.e.

From the deepest depths of despondency, if not despair, the young engineers had been raised to the highest pinnacle of hope and joy when the _Woodville_ was discovered on the other side of the lake. She had drifted in behind a point of land, and could not be seen from the ferry. They had gone out to the place where she had been anch.o.r.ed, near the Goblins; and while they were gazing down into the deep water in search of her, Ethan happened to raise his eyes and saw her on the other side of the lake. What a thrill went through his heart as he recognized her! And what a thrill he communicated to Lawry when he pointed her out to him!

"Why, the casks are all gone!" exclaimed Ethan.

"All gone!" replied Lawry.

"She must be aground," added Ethan; "but she sets out of water a great deal farther than when we left her."

"We shall soon find out what the matter is," continued Lawry. "She is safe, and on the top of the water; that's enough for me at the present time."

"What does this mean?" he exclaimed.

"I don't know. The water couldn't have run out of her without some help," replied Ethan.

"I don't understand it," added Lawry. "The casks are all gone, and the steamer has been pumped out. Somebody must have done this work."

"That's true," said Ethan. "Somebody has certainly been here."

"There's no doubt of that; but I can't see, for the life of me, what they wanted to set her adrift for."

"Nor I; they were good friends to pump her out for us, whoever they were. In my opinion, Mr. Sherwood knows something about this job."

"But slipping the cables looks just as though they intended to have her smashed up on the sh.o.r.e," added Lawry. "The anchors are not here, and, of course, they are on the bottom of the lake. I don't see through this business."

"Nor I, either; but one thing we can see through; the steamer is safe, with the water all pumped out of her. We may as well go to work, and get her over to the ferry."

This was good counsel, and without losing any more time in attempts to fathom what was dark and strange, they commenced the labors of the day.

CHAPTER XIII

GETTING UP STEAM

A survey of the position of the _Woodville_ showed that she was slightly aground at the stern; but Ethan was confident that a few turns of the wheels would bring her off. The boys then tried the pumps; but after less than a hundred strokes they refused to yield any more water. They then carefully examined every part of the interior below the decks.

"She's all right," said Lawry. "What shall we do now?"

"Get up steam," replied Ethan. "I have a couple of hours' work to do on the engine; but we will start the furnaces at once."

"Can't I make the fire?" asked Lawry.

"Yes, if you know how."

"You can show me. I don't know much about steam-boilers and engines."

"We will get our dry wood out of the wherry, and I will help you start the fire. While I am at work on the engine, you will have to overhaul your steering-gear, and see that it is all right. The chains and pulleys will need to be oiled."

Lawry got into the wherry, and threw the dry wood on deck. Ethan had not expected to kindle the fires till night, when he hoped the water would be below the furnaces. It was a grateful surprise to be able at once to go to work on the engine. He was enthusiastic in his fondness for machinery, and that of the _Woodville_ was his particular pet.

After he had tried the valves on the boiler, and a.s.sured himself that it contained the proper supply of water, the fires were started in the furnaces. There was plenty of wood and coal on board, though the former was so wet that it would not burn without some a.s.sistance, which was furnished by the dry fuel brought off in the wherry. In a little while the furnaces were roaring with the blaze from the wood, and the coal was shoveled in. Ethan, having dried a quant.i.ty of the wet packing, commenced rubbing down and oiling the machinery. He was in his element now, and never was a young man in a higher state of keen enjoyment.

While he was thus engaged, Lawry overhauled the steering apparatus, rubbed down the wheel, oiled the pulleys, and satisfied himself that everything was in working order. The situation and the work were in the highest degree exhilarating. It was not labor to clean and adjust the gear; it was a pleasure such as he had never realized from the most exciting sports. He could hardly repress the rapture he felt when he saw the black smoke from the pine wood pouring out of the smokestack.

"This is my steamer," said he to himself. "I am the owner of her."

The thought made him laugh with joy. He stood up at the wheel, and though he could not turn it, because the rudder was fast in the sand, he knew exactly how he should feel when he stood in this position with the _Woodville_ gliding swiftly over the bright waters of the lake.

The steering-gear was in perfect order, so far as he could judge without using it, and Ethan was still busy at the engine. Lawry could not deny himself the pleasure of a survey of the steamer, for the purpose of admiring her comforts and conveniences. He walked up and down the main-deck, entered the saloon and the cabin, visited the forehold, and opened the doors of the various apartments forward of the paddle-boxes. It is true, everything was in a state of "confusion worse confounded." Carpets were soaked with water, curtains were drabbled and stained, sofas and chairs upset in the cabin and saloon; while in the kitchen and storerooms, shelves and lockers had been emptied, and their contents strewed in wild disorder about the apartments.

But Lawry knew how order could be brought out of chaos, and the derangement of furniture and utensils did not disturb him. It would be a delightful occupation to restore harmony to these shelves and lockers, to bring order and neatness out of the confusion which reigned in every part of the steamer. When he had completed his survey, he went to the engine-room, and offered his services to Ethan for duty in his department. As the engineer had nothing for him to do, he returned to the kitchen, and busied himself in putting things to rights there, foreseeing that this apartment would soon be needed.

He made a fire in the galley, in order to dry the room more speedily, and then occupied his time in picking up the tins and the kettles, and putting them in their places.

While he was examining the lockers and shelves, he found part of a leg of bacon, and some potatoes, which had been left from the stores used by the crew on the pa.s.sage from New York up to the lake. There were coffee and tea in the canisters, sugar in the buckets, b.u.t.ter and salt in the boxes; though all these articles had been more or less soaked in the water, depending upon the tightness of the vessels that held them. There was a good fire in the stove, and a bright thought entered Lawry's excited brain; he and his companion would breakfast on fried ham and potatoes, flanked with hot coffee!

Lawry was a cook of no mean accomplishments, and he immediately went to work in carrying out his brilliant idea. Somehow, it is a singular fact that boys have a special delight in "getting up something to eat" in the woods, on the water, and generally in all out-of-the-way places. A dinner at Parker's or Delmonico's is not to be compared with baked potatoes and roasted ears of corn in the woods, or with fried fish and potatoes in a boat or on an island. The young pilot was no exception to the common rule, and in a state of rapture known only to the amateur cook of tender years, he put on the teakettle, pared and sliced the potatoes, and put a quant.i.ty of the brown mud from the canister into the coffeepot.

Things were hissing and sizzling on the stove in the most satisfactory manner, and Lawry presided over the frying-pan with a grace and dignity which would have been edifying in a professional cook. While the ham was cooking, he wiped the dishes with a cloth he had dried at the fire, and set the table on the broad bench at the end of the kitchen. The meat and the potatoes were "done to a turn,"

but the coffee had a suspicious look, owing to the absence of the fish-skin, or other ingredient, for settling it. The contents of the basket brought from home were tastily disposed in dishes on the table, and breakfast was ready. We will venture to say that, in spite of the disadvantages under which this meal was prepared, many steamboat men have sat down to a less satisfactory banquet.