The Corner House Girls Growing Up Part 20

She practically "ran the business." In some way Quigg had become possessed of the old _Nancy Hanks_ and the mules. He plodded back and forth from one end of the ca.n.a.l to the other, taking such freight as he could obtain. If there chanced to be no freight, as on this occasion, he was quite philosophical about it.

Louise worried. She was of a keen, anxious disposition, anyway. She showed it in her face--a hatchet-face at best behind the plentiful sprinkling of freckles that adorned it. But by no means was the face unattractive.

She had had little schooling--only such as she had obtained in winter when the _Nancy Hanks_ was frozen up near a schoolhouse. Then she studied with avidity. Had she ever remained long enough for the teachers really to get acquainted with the shy, odd child, she might have made good friends. As it was, she knew few people well and was as ignorant of life as it was lived by comfortably situated people as a civilized human being could be.

She had begun to scheme and plan for daily existence, and to keep the wolf of hunger away from the door of the ca.n.a.lboat cabin, when she was a very little girl--no older than Dot Kenway herself, in fact. Now she seemed quite grown up when one talked with her, despite her cra.s.s ignorance upon most subjects.

This afternoon she paddled on in her bare feet through the mire of the towpath, while the thunder storm pa.s.sed over and the sun came out again.

As she urged on the mules she was planning for a delight that had never yet entered into her crippled life.

She had not urged her father to stop for the farmer's potatoes, whereas on any other occasion she would have insisted upon doing so. A dollar to be earned was an important thing to Louise Quigg.

But she had two half dollars saved and hidden away in the cabin. She had squeezed the sum out of her bits of housekeeping money during the past two months. For all that time the dead walls and h.o.a.rdings about Durginville had been plastered with announcements of a happening the thought of which thrilled little Louise Quigg to the very tips of her fingers and toes.

When they reached the b.u.mstead Lock this afternoon there was a chance for the girl to leave the mules grazing beside the towpath while the water rose slowly in the basin, and she could board the boat and talk with Cap'n Bill.

The hound, awakened by her approach, began sniffing around the edge of the forward hatch cover.

"Wonder what Beauty smells there?" Louise said idly. But her mind was on something else. The captain shook his head without much reflection and, now more thoroughly awakened, lit his pipe again.

"I say, Pap!"

"Wal, Lowise?" he drawled.

"We're going to lay up to-night short of the soapworks at Durginville."

"Heh?" he demanded, somewhat surprised, but still drawling. "What for, Lowise?"

"I want to hitch there by the Lawton Pike."

"Lawsy, Lowise! you don't wanter do no sech thing," said Cap'n Bill.

"Yes I do, Pap."

"Too many folks goin' to be there. A slather of folks, Lowise. Why! the circus grounds is right there. This is the day, ain't it?"

"That's it, Pap. I want to see the circus."

"Lawsy, Lowise!" the man stammered. "Circuses ain't for we folks."

"Yes they are, Pap."

"Ain't never been to one in all my life, Lowise," Cap'n Bill said reflectively.

"No more ain't I," agreed the girl. "But I'm goin' to this one."

"You goin'?" he demanded, his amazement growing.

"Yes. And you're goin' too, Pap."

"Git out!" gasped Cap'n Bill, actually forgetting to pull on his pipe.

"Yes, you are," declared Louise Quigg, nodding her head. "I've got the two half dollars. Beauty will stay and mind the boat. I jest got a taste in my mouth for that circus. Seems to me, Pap, I'd jest _die_ if I didn't see it."

"Lawsy, Lowise!" murmured Captain Bill Quigg, and was too amazed to say anything more for an hour.

The _Nancy Hanks_ got through the lock and the mules picked up the slack of the towrope again at Louise's vigorous suggestion. Inside the hold Sammy and Dot both wondered about the stopping of the boat. Dot was awakened by this.

"Sammy," she murmured, "is it morning? Have we been here all night?"

"I--I guess not, Dot. It can't be morning. Are you hungry?"

"No-o. I guess not," confessed the little girl.

"Then it can't be morning," Sammy declared, for what better time-keeper can there be than a child's stomach?

"But aren't they going to let us out--not ever, Sammy?" wailed the little girl.

"Pshaw! Of course they will. Some time they'll want to load up this old boat. And then they'll have to open the door up there in the deck. So we'll get out."

"But--but suppose it should be a long, long time?" breathed Dot, thrilled with the awfulness of the thought.

"We got plenty to eat," Sammy said stoutly.

"Not now we haven't, Sammy," Dot reminded him. "We ate a lot."

"But there's all the potatoes--"

"I wouldn't like 'em raw," put in Dot, with decision. "And you can't catch any fish as you were going to with your hook and line, Sammy. I heard that girl that's with the other pirates," she added, "tell their dog that he couldn't even catch rabbits along the ca.n.a.l. And what do you think, Sammy Pinkney!"

"What?" he asked, drearily enough.

"Why, Sadie Goronofsky said last spring that she had an uncle that was a rabbit. What do you think of that? I never heard of such a thing, did you?"

"He was a rabbit, Dot?" gasped Sammy, brought to life by this strange statement.

"That's just what she said. She said he was a rabbit, and he wore a round black cap and had long whiskers--like our goat, I guess. And he prayed--"

"Je-ru-sa-_lem_!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Sammy.

"And the rabbit, Sadie's uncle, prayed," went on Dot, uninfluenced by Sammy's e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n. "Now what do you think of that?"

Master Sammy was as ignorant of the Jewish ritual and synagogue officers as was Dot Kenway. He burst out with disgust:

"I think Sadie Goronofsky was telling a fib, that's what _I_ think!"

"I'm afraid so," Dot concluded with a sigh. "But I don't like to think so. I meant to ask Ruthie about it," and she shook her head again, still much puzzled over Sadie's uncle who was a rabbi.