Madge Morton, Captain of the Merry Maid Part 3

"We call those boats shanty boats down in Virginia," Eleanor said; "I suppose because the little cabin on the deck of the ca.n.a.l boat looks so like a shanty."

"People live on those shanty boats," announced Madge.

"Yes, we have noticed it, my dear girl," Phil responded dryly. But there was a question in her eyes as she looked at Madge.

"Shanty boats do not look exactly like house-boats," went on Madge speculatively.

"I should say not," returned Phil. "There is considerable difference."

"But they might be made to look more like them. Don't you believe so?"

Phil nodded.

"They are awfully dirty," was dainty Lillian's sole comment.

"Soap and water, child, is a sure cure for dirt," replied Madge, still in a brown study. Then she sprang to tier feet and almost ran out of the little park, nearly to the edge of the ca.n.a.l. Her friends followed her. There was no doubt that Madge had an idea.

"Girls!" exclaimed Madge fervently, pointing toward one of the shanty boats, "first look there; then shut your eyes. With your eyes open you see only an ugly ca.n.a.l boat; with them closed, can't you see our houseboat?"

"Not very well," replied Lillian without enthusiasm.

"Well, I can," a.s.serted Madge with emphasis.

Then her quick eyes wandered toward a man who was coming slowly up the path along the ca.n.a.l.

"Please," she asked breathlessly, stepping directly in front of him, "do you know whether any of the people along here would be willing to rent me a ca.n.a.l boat?"

The man stared in amazement at this strange request. "Can't say as I knows of any one," he answered, "but I kin find out fer ye. It may be some of the water folks goes inland for the summer. If they does, they'd like as not rent you their boat."

"Then I will come down here to-morrow at nine o'clock to find out,"

arranged Madge. "Please be sure to be here."

"What did I tell you!" exulted Madge as they left the little park a few minutes later and made their way to the street car. "I am going to draw a plan to-night to show how easy it will be to turn one of these old ca.n.a.l boats into our beautiful 'Ship of Dreams.' By this time next week we'll know something about the 'vicissitudes' of a sailor's life or my name is not Madge Morton."

CHAPTER IV

THE FAIRY'S WAND

"You are a direct gift of Providence, Jack Bolling," declared Madge the next morning, shaking hands with her cousin, in the parlor of Miss Rice's boarding house. "How did you happen to turn up here?"

"Well, I unexpectedly had a day off from college," explained Jack. "So I just telephoned to Miss Tolliver to ask whether I might come to see you, like the well-behaved cousin I am. She replied that you were in town and that I might come to see you. So here I am! What luck have you had?"

"None at all at the old places you recommended," Madge returned scornfully and in a most ungrateful fashion.

"Oh, I knew a girl couldn't find the right sort of boat without a fellow to help her," Jack teased, knowing Madge's aversion to the idea that a girl couldn't do anything she liked, unless with the help of a boy.

"Just you come along with us, Jack, and we will show you what we have found," invited Madge. "I think the girls are ready. We are. Here come Eleanor and Lillian. Miss Lillian Seldon, I wish to present my cousin, Mr. Jack Bolling. Where is Phil?"

While Lillian, looking unusually lovely in her gown of pale lavender organdie, with a cream-colored hat covered with violets, was shaking hands with Jack, Phyllis Alden came down the hall with a slight frown on her face.

Hadn't she and Madge vowed within themselves and to each other never to ask a man's help in anything they planned to do? And here was Madge introducing her cousin into their plan the very first chance she had.

But in this Phil was mistaken.

Madge had made no explanations to Jack, and her cousin asked her no questions as the party started on their walk. When they came to the line of ca.n.a.l boats that the girls had seen the afternoon before a halt was made.

"There is our houseboat!" cried Madge, waving her hand toward the half dozen disreputable looking ca.n.a.l boats huddled close together.

"Where?" asked Jack in amazement.

"Oh, I don't know just exactly where," returned Madge with twinkling eyes. "Everyone look here, please." She took two large squares of white paper out of her bag. "You see, it is this way, Jack: We found that to rent a houseboat takes such a lot of money that we decided yesterday, to try to turn one of these old ca.n.a.l boats into a houseboat, and I have drawn the plans of what I think ought to be done."

Madge, who had a decided talent for drawing, had sat up late into the night to make her two sketches. One pictured the shanty boat as it was, dingy and dirty, with a broken-down cabin of two rooms at the stern. In the second drawing Madge's fairy wand, which was her gift of imagination, had quite transformed the ugly boat. The deck of the ca.n.a.l boat was about forty feet long, with a twelve-foot beam. To the two rooms, which the ordinary shanty boat contains, she had added another two, forming an oblong cabin, with four windows on each side and a flat roof. The flat roof formed the second deck of the prospective houseboat. It had a small railing around it, and a pair of steps that led up from the outside to the upper deck. Madge had decorated her fairy ship with garlands of flowers that hung far over the sides of the deck.

Jack Bolling looked at the drawing a long time without saying a word.

"Don't you think it can be done, Jack?" inquired Madge eagerly. "You see, this old boat could be cleaned and painted, and any good carpenter could put up the extra rooms."

"Right you are, Madge," Jack answered at last, making a low bow. "Hats off to the ladies, as usual. Who is that queer-looking customer coming this way?"

"He is the man who is to see about our ca.n.a.l boat," answered Phil, as though they were already in possession.

Madge had gone forward. "Have you found the boat for us?" she inquired. "I simply can't wait to find out."

The man grinned. "There is one towed alongside of mine that you might be able to git. I had a hard time finding it."

"That is all right," declared Jack, stepping forward, "you will be paid for your work. Will you please take us out to look at the boat?"

"Got to cross my shanty to git to it," the man replied, leading the way across a rickety gang-plank.

There were three or four dirty children playing on the deck of his boat and a thin, yellow dog. At the open door of the shanty kitchen stood the figure of a girl. She had on the faded calico dress of the day before; she was barefooted and her hair was ragged and unkempt. But as Jack Bolling and the four girls glanced idly at her a start of surprise ran through each one of these. Jack stopped for an instant, and instinctively took off his hat. Phil Alden whispered in Madge's ear, "I never saw any one so beautiful in my life," and Madge mutely agreed.

The girl was smiling a wistful, far-away smile that was very touching.

Her hair was the color of copper that has been burnished by the sun, and her eyes were the deep blue of the midsummer sky. The wind and sun had tanned the girl's cheeks, but her skin was still fine and delicate.

There was a strange, vacant expression in her eyes and a pathetic droop to her whole figure.

"Git you back in there, Moll," the owner of the shanty boat called out roughly. The girl started and quivered, as though she expected a blow.

Jack's face turned hot with anger. But what could he do? The man was talking to his own daughter.

"Why did you speak to the poor girl like that?" asked Madge sharply.

"She ain't all right in the top story," the man answered. "She is kind of foolish. I have to keep a close watch on her."

Madge turned pitying eyes on the demented girl, then as they stepped aboard the other ca.n.a.l boat, for the time she forgot the lovely apparition she had just seen.

"How much will the owner rent this boat for?" Madge asked at last, trying hard to conceal her enthusiasm. The boat was dirty and needed renovating, but it was well built of good, strong timbers.