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+Project Gutenberg's The Knights of the White Shield, by Edward A. Rand
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Knights of the White Shield
+       Up-the-Ladder Club Series, Round One Play
+
+Author: Edward A. Rand
+
+Release Date: February 4, 2005 [EBook #14903]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE KNIGHTS OF THE WHITE SHIELD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bill Tozier, Barbara Tozier, and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+UP-THE-LADDER CLUB SERIES.
+
+ROUND ONE PLAY.
+
+
+
+THE KNIGHTS OF THE WHITE SHIELD.
+
+
+BY
+
+
+EDWARD A. RAND
+
+
+AUTHOR OF "SCHOOL AND CAMP SERIES:" "PUSHING AHEAD; OR, BIG BROTHER DAVE,"
+"ROY'S DORY AT THE SEA-SHORE," AND "LITTLE BROWN-TOP;" "BARK CABIN ON
+KEARSARGE," "SCHOONER ON THE BEACH," "NELLIE'S NEW YEAR," "CHRISTMAS JACK,"
+"KINDLING-WOOD JIMMY," ETC.
+
+
+1886.
+
+New York.
+
+
+
+
+DEDICATED
+
+TO KEN AND THE OTHER BOYS.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+      I. MAKING A CLUB
+     II. THE GRAND MARCH
+    III. FOR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCHOLARS, AN OFFER
+     IV. THE "PAMMERRAMMER"
+      V. THE NATION'S BIRTHDAY
+     VI. A SICK PATRIOT
+    VII. THE NAILED DOOR AND WINDOW
+   VIII. THE ENTERTAINMENT
+     IX. THE CUPOLA
+      X. AUNT STANSHY'S BOARDER
+     XI. THE CLUB IN SPLINTERS
+    XII. THE CLUB MENDED
+   XIII. A KNIGHT GOES TO SEA
+    XIV. SETTING A TRAP
+     XV. THE FAIR
+    XVI. THE FIRE
+   XVII. TWO MUD-TURTLES
+  XVIII. A NEW DEPARTURE
+    XIX. THE WRECK
+     XX. THE ROUND HIGHER UP
+
+
+
+
+UP-THE-LADDER CLUB.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+MAKING A CLUB.
+
+
+There was a clattering of feet on the stairs leading to the chamber of
+Aunt Stanshy's barn. First there popped up one head and a pair of curious
+eyes. Then there popped up a second head and two more eyes. Then there
+popped up a third head and two more eyes.
+
+"Jolly! Don't she beat all?"
+
+It was Sid Waters who said this.
+
+"It's de best barn in de lane," said Juggie Jones, a little colored boy,
+his dark eyes lighting up with true interest.
+
+"Well, I think it is a pretty good barn," rejoined Charlie Macomber, with
+apparent unconcern. At the same time a secret pride was dwelling in his
+bosom, that suddenly made his jacket too tight for him. If Seamont, in
+which the barn was located, was one of the best of towns in the opinion of
+its inhabitants, this particular barn, in Charlie's estimate, was one of
+the best structures of that sort in the place. Below, on the first floor,
+there was a chance of a stall for Brindle, now grazing in a little pasture
+adjoining the garden. There was, also, a stall for a horse, and an extra
+stall, though empty, always gives dignity to a barn, suggesting what has
+been, and, while speaking of a glory departed, hints of that which may be
+another day.
+
+But the chamber! What palace of gold ever had a room equal to that
+chamber? It had a row of barrels, behind which or in which you could
+safely hide. It had a ladder that would let you smartly bump your head
+against the highest rafter in the roof, a cross-beam, too, from which you
+could suspend a swing, and a window in the rear from which you could look
+upon the Missigatchee River (supposed to have been christened by the
+Indians). This river-view you could have had, if the window had not been
+boarded up, but there was a front window, whose big square shutter was
+generally open. This gave a boy a view of the lane and, if maliciously
+disposed, a chance to safely let drive an apple or a snow-ball at any
+"down-townie" that might rashly invade the neighborhood. There was also a
+window high up, at one end, well latticed with cobwebs. Then there was a
+closet, which was splendid for "Hy-spy," and--notice!--honor upon
+honor--there was a "cupelo," as Charlie called it, on top of the barn.
+Through the slats of the "cupelo," one could look upon the river shining
+gloriously at sunset, as if the sun were a Chinese mandarin that at this
+hour spread his yellow silk robe upon the river in a vain attempt to warm
+up the cold waters just from the sea. Besides this there were various
+attractions, such as oars in the corner, nets hanging from nails, and let
+it not be forgotten that a big strip of dried halibut dangled from a spike
+in the wall. To a hungry boy what is there better than such a halibut,
+unless it be two halibuts? Already there had been sly, toothsome pickings
+of this.
+
+It is no wonder, then, that the soul of Sid Waters, to say nothing of his
+stomach in view of the halibut, was powerfully affected, and again he
+cried out, "Jolly!" Then he clapped his hands, shouting, "Just the place
+for a club!"
+
+"A club" said Juggie Jones. "Got nuff dose on my wood-pile."
+
+"He means an or-gorgan-gangor--" Charlie spoke very hesitatingly. It was
+a long word and threatened to catch crosswise in his windpipe and choke
+him.
+
+"Organization?" inquired Sid. "O I will show you. We had plenty of 'em in
+Boston."
+
+As Sid had just moved from the city, and especially a city so full of
+knowledge as Boston, Charlie and Juggie received this piece of news with
+all possible respect.
+
+"We can make one right here," suggested Charlie.
+
+"Yes, straight off," said the late citizen of Boston.
+
+"But whar's de boys?" asked Juggie.
+
+"O three will do," said Sid Waters, "for you don't want many to start
+with. I know the club will be popular after she has been started. And
+then, fellers," he said, in a quiet tone, "there's a better chance for
+offices in a small club, you know. We can fill 'em all now and get good
+berths."
+
+It was a great temptation, but a conviction of the importance of numbers
+finally prevailed. The three pioneers in this great club movement saw also
+it would look better to defer all elections until others had joined, as it
+would give these a chance for position. The magnanimity native to the
+three conquered, and it was decided to accumulate more material before
+making the club.
+
+"We might adjourn and meet in an hour," suggested Sid. "That would give us
+more opportunity to invite other fellers in."
+
+How Charlie did admire Sid for his easy flow of language! The "lane," as
+Seamont called the narrow street before the barn, was now searched for
+recruits, and the barn-chamber was deserted a whole hour. The big
+horse-flies sawed on their bass-viols at their leisure. The warm gold of
+the sunshine undisturbed continued to decorate the floor of the chamber.
+Hark! There's a noise in the yard! It grows to a harried, breathless
+scramble on the stairs. Finally eight boys appeared, the future members of
+the club, save one or two later additions. There was Sid or Sidney Waters,
+aged eleven. He was the oldest boy present, and the brains really of the
+enterprise. He was a bit vain, rather selfish, and liked to have his own
+way, a very rare failing among boys. Still, he was a bright boy, and he
+had his generous impulses as well as his selfish ones. Rick Grimes, aged
+ten, was a stout, Dutchy kind of lad, rather slow and heavy, but
+well-meaning and pretty resolute. There was also Billy Grimes, Rick's
+cousin, and a year younger. You would have said that these two boys came
+from the same ancestral stock when you saw their cheeks. These had a
+well-filled look, as if padded for Thanksgiving.
+
+This peculiarity of feature gave the cousins special titles in whose
+selection the boy-instinct for nicknames had shown its unerring accuracy
+of aim. One was "Choppy," and the other, Billy, was "Cousin Choppy." Their
+playmates were generally considerate and did not apply these titles unless
+they "got mad." Forgetting themselves, these titles might be sent flying
+about freely as snow-balls in a January thaw. There was Worthington
+Wentworth. It takes a long breath and a very straight throat to say that,
+and we will not repeat it, but will call him Wort Wentworth, as the boys
+did. His hair was twisted all over his head, like a brush fence, and his
+black eyes were very lively. He was one of the rogues of the club, and at
+school took more rattannings, as a mark of his teacher's affection, than
+any other boy. Juggie Jones--full name Jugurtha Bonaparte Jones--was a
+little colored fellow lately from the South, now living with his granny, a
+washer-woman, in a little yellow house at the head of the lane. He was
+always laughing and showing his white teeth. He was a great favorite with
+the boys. Wort and Juggie were of the same age as Charlie,--nine. Pip or
+Piper Peckham, aged eight, was a big-eyed, black-haired, little fellow
+with a peaked face. Timid, sensitive to neglect, very fond of notice, he
+was sometimes a subject for the tricks of his playmates. Then there was
+Tony or Antonio Blanco, a late arrival at Seamont. He was an olive-faced,
+black-haired, shy little fellow. When he spoke, he used English, but his
+accent was Italian. He was rarely heard from. An air of mystery encircled
+him. Whether his father was a count in Italy or a seller of pea-nuts in
+New York, no one at Seamont had been able to say for a month, and that was
+a long time in circles of gossip. It was finally asserted that his father
+lived in Italy. Tony was of the same age as Pip.
+
+Concerning Charlie we shall find out farther along.
+
+"Will the gentlemen please come to order," shouted Sid Waters, pompously,"
+and sit--sit--on the floor?"
+
+The meeting obeyed at once.
+
+"Ahem--I 'spose we had better fill the offices first. Who will be
+president?"
+
+This magnanimous tender of the office to any one present was received in
+silence. The meeting was overawed by the thought of this mighty honor so
+nigh at hand. All recovered in a short time, and several, including Pip
+Peckham, were about to sacrifice themselves for the common good, when Sid
+dexterously presented himself as an offering ahead of them all, and said:
+"Well, if nobody wants it, as I don't like to see an office go a-beggin',
+I'll--I'll take it!"
+
+"Three cheers for our president!" said Charlie, magnanimously, and the
+three were given, though it must be confessed that several disappointed
+souls cheered faintly.
+
+"We ought to have a governor," said Charlie.
+
+"What! besides a president?" inquired Sid, a slight sneer noticeable in
+his tones.
+
+"Don't they have a governor in Massachusetts?" inquired Charlie,
+triumphantly.
+
+"Well, ye--ye--yes."
+
+That settled it, for Massachusetts custom was plainly authority in this
+matter.
+
+Rick Grimes was made governor.
+
+"Treasurer now!" called out Sid.
+
+"Charlie, would you like to be that?" he whispered. Charlie was about to
+say "Yes," when the fruit hanging before his thirsty lips was suddenly
+snatched away.
+
+"I'd like that," piped a voice. It was Pip Peckham.
+
+"Ahem!" said the president, "I think the office ought to be given to
+experience," and here he looked in the direction of Charlie.
+
+"Who's he?" inquired Billy. "Who's Sperience?"
+
+"Silence!" ordered the president. "Little boys must speak only when they
+are spoken to."
+
+Billy pouted.
+
+"Why couldn't we have two treasuries?" inquired Gov. Grimes, putting the
+thing for its keeper. This happy solution of a difficult problem was at
+once accepted. Charlie was named as the first official of this grade, and
+Pip as the second.
+
+"We ought to have a keeper of the great seal," said the president.
+
+"What is that?" asked the inquisitive Billy. The president was puzzled to
+say just what it did mean, "But," he affirmed, "I think we ought to have
+it. It is something, I know, and they put it on things."
+
+"I know what it is," said Gov. Grimes, eagerly. "My uncle has two down on
+the wharf, in a tank, a great one and a little one, and I guess we could
+have the great one up here, and some one be keeper of it."
+
+The contempt of the president was undisguised. "That isn't it! If I could
+only think, but there is so much noise! Order, gentlemen!"
+
+Whatever noise had been made, the president was the author of the most of
+it, though he did not seem to know it.
+
+"Perhaps we'd better 'journ that," said Gov. Grimes. "That's what they do
+to things in meetings, when they want to put them off, my father says."
+
+"Well, we can do that, only I think we'd better have a--"
+
+"I will!" shouted Wort, fearful that he might lose his chance for an
+office, and eagerly assenting beforehand to any thing that was coming.
+
+"You be janitor, and take care of the--the--hall?" said Sid, looking round
+on the barn-chamber. "That's what I meant."
+
+"Yes, yes!"
+
+"There ought to be a sentinel," said Sid; "one, you know, to look after
+the door and not let any down-townies up. Will you, Juggie?"
+
+"Yes," replied that man of war, Jugurtha Bonaparte Jones.
+
+"Billy's got nothing," said Juggie.
+
+"So he hasn't," said Gov. Grimes. "We ought to have a secretary, to put up
+notices and soon."
+
+"Billy shall be that," declared the president. As Billy was backward in
+his studies and could not write, his office promised to be one of great
+honor and no duties. Every body had been pat into office except one, shy,
+silent, little olive-face, Tony. He was contented to be an unnoticed
+flower in the field. Charlie was the first to detect it, and whispered to
+Sid, "Tony hasn't got nothing."
+
+It was felt to be a very small kind of a club that had not an office for
+every member, and Tony was made assistant-sentinel. The club was in
+raptures, every body in office!
+
+"What shall be the name of the club?" asked the president. This was
+followed by a long discussion. Earth and sky were searched for a name.
+
+"Call it Star Club," said Billy.
+
+"No, that aint bright enough," replied the governor. The titles "Sun,"
+"Moon," and "Comet" were successively rejected. "Let's ask teacher,"
+chirped little Pip. The idea took, and it was resolved to visit "teacher"
+as soon as the club had been manufactured.
+
+"I think we ought to pay something," suggested Charlie. The club resolved
+that each member should pay a cent a month.
+
+"And what do with the money?" asked the governor.
+
+"Buy swords," replied the martial Jugurtha.
+
+The idea spread like wild-fire, and, not stopping to count how long at the
+above rate it would take to accumulate money sufficient to buy a sword for
+every one, the club voted Juggie's proposition a wise and patriotic one.
+
+"I think," said the self-forgetful Sid, "that the president ought to have
+the first sword."
+
+"And the governor next," said Rick.
+
+"And the treasury next," said Charlie.
+
+"I'm that, Charlie, too, and I want one," clamored Pip.
+
+"A sentinel ought to have one fust, 'cause he's at de door, and might hab
+to dribe away down-townies," said Juggie.
+
+"No, me first," said the governor.
+
+"No, me," said the president.
+
+"No, me," said the secretary.
+
+It was "me!" "me!" "me!" all over the barn chamber, and the members of
+that swordless club were almost at swords' points.
+
+"Sposin' we 'journ this," said Charlie the peace-maker, remembering the
+rule for "doing things" in meetings.
+
+"Yes," exclaimed Sid, "and until we get a real sword each one can chalk a
+sword on his pants."
+
+"Hurrah!" sang out Gov. Grimes, and each one, happy in the thought that he
+could have a sword as speedily as his neighbor, cheered lustily.
+
+"Now, boys, let's go and see 'teacher' about our name," suggested the
+president. The barn was vacated at once, and the members of the club went
+down stairs as if a fire were after them, and then rushed along the lane,
+all heading for a cozy story-and-a-half house where "teacher" lived. "The
+Sunday-school teacher" was Miss Bertha Barry, brown-haired, brown-eyed,
+vivacious Bertha Barry. All the boys were in her class, save Tony.
+
+"O, she won't do for a teacher," said old Mrs. Jones, when the pastor
+invited Bertha to enter the Sunday-school as a worker. "Too flighty!"
+
+"She wont stick," growled Timothy Scriggins, a venerable male gossip, who
+scolded every body and every thing, satisfied only with Timothy Scriggins.
+
+However, she _did do_ and she did _stick_. The boys took a very positive
+fancy to this young, sprightly, energetic teacher, and their liking
+lasted. She compelled their respect and she won their hearts. They looked
+upon her as an older sister, and promptly confided to her their troubles
+and solicited her advice. In a troop, running, panting, they came into her
+yard and presented themselves at her door.
+
+"Come into the sitting-room, boys. Glad to see you. Well!"
+
+Her air said: "I wonder what brought my class in a body to me," something
+was evidently on the minds of all. The president quickly dissipated the
+mystery.
+
+"We--we--" said Sid, trying to catch his breath, "have--formed
+a--club--and--want--you--to name it."
+
+"Yes! yes! yes!" was the chorus coming from the eager faces turned up to
+Miss Bertha.
+
+"Name a club? Dear me! What shall I tell you? Where is your club?"
+
+"Here!" said Sid, looking round in pride.
+
+"No; I mean, where do you hold your meetings?"
+
+"In my barn," said Charlie. "You go in from the street and go up some
+stairs. It's up stairs."
+
+"You might go up higher," added the governor. "There's a ladder there, so
+you can get up--up in the cupelo, but you wont want to go up there."
+
+"Why, that suggests a name. It's a little odd, but you'll think of it
+every time you go up stairs and see the ladder. Call it 'Up-the-Ladder
+Club,' and then it will have a meaning that you are boys who mean to do
+your best, climbing up always, up, up, up!"
+
+Miss Bertha here reached as high as she could, and her admirers, with
+sparkling eyes, stretched upward their small arms, also, shouting,
+"Up-the-Ladder Club! Up-the-Ladder Club!"
+
+"I'll put it to vote, teacher," said the president, with dignity. "Those
+in favor of it, say 'Aye.'"
+
+A ringing "Aye" was now given, and after it, came a sharp-featured,
+wrinkled face at the door.
+
+"Land's sake, Bertha, what's the matter?"
+
+"O it's only my class, grandmother."
+
+"It scat me dreadfully. I thought it was fire," and, saying this, the old
+lady, with a sigh of relief, withdrew.
+
+"And now, teacher, we want a badge; something to wear, you know,"
+exclaimed Sid.
+
+"What's that you have on?" Miss Bertha asked of Juggie.
+
+"A sword," replied that warrior, displaying his right leg, on which he had
+already chalked a sword.
+
+"That's for the down-townies," said the governor, in a martial tone.
+
+"I'm--afraid--the 'down-townies' will laugh at that; are not you?"
+
+The club had only thought of what they might do to the "down-townies," not
+at all of what the latter would do to them. They certainly had not given a
+thought to any ridicule these old enemies might heap upon them. A sadden
+chill now struck the sword-plan and it went down in the boys' estimation
+like the mercury in the glass on a cold day.
+
+"Now, I don't want my class to be sword-boys. I can't say I fancy the
+idea. I will tell you something that I think will be nice, and I will make
+the badge."
+
+Here the mercury began to climb the glass again, and that chilled look in
+the boys' faces began to thaw out.
+
+"I will make you--each one of you--a pretty white shield, to be worn on
+the left arm, make it of pasteboard, so it will be stiff, and then cover
+it nicely with white silk."
+
+The boys began to hurrah. The mercury was away up the glass now.
+
+"A white shield, that will mean something. That means purity, honesty,
+every thing good and fair, and that your beautiful white shield will be
+your defense against harm. You are my knights of the white shield."
+
+The applause following this was almost tumultuous.
+
+"You are the Up-the-Ladder Club, that is, boys who are always going ahead
+in every thing good; climbing up, not lazy or bad, but boys, with an
+ambition--a true Up-the-Ladder Club--"
+
+"Or," suggested Sid, impressively, "the Knights of the White Shield."
+
+How Charlie did admire the ready wit of the president! The enthusiasm of
+the club increased. As in that reputed story of Maria Theresa, where her
+nobles are said to have surrounded her, and, waving their swords
+enthusiastically, pledged her their support, so the Up-the-Ladder Club
+waved their caps around this their young queen. The excitement became so
+intense it was necessary to open the door to give it suitable vent, and
+out into the open air went these newly-dubbed knights.
+
+"There go Bertha Barry's boys, I know," growled Timothy Scriggins, who
+chanced to meet this band of knights issuing from the yard of their queen.
+"I never saw sich a teacher."
+
+Well, the boys loved her. There was now a rush for the barn. When they
+had all safely arrived in the chamber, Charlie suddenly and soberly
+exclaimed, "There!"
+
+"What's the matter?" inquired Sid. "You look pale. Has any one put his
+sword--I mean his shield into--I mean on you?"
+
+Charlie did not feel like joking. A dark thought had overshadowed him and
+changed a peaceful to a threatening sky.
+
+"What is it?" asked Gov. Grimes.
+
+"I did not," replied Charlie, "ask Aunt Stanshy if we might have the
+barn!"
+
+That was an omission indeed, and the club appreciated it, as "Aunt
+Stanshy" was well known by the boys. All the sunshine seemed to disappear
+suddenly and a cloud was on every thing.
+
+Aunt Stanshy's name in full was Constantia, but, like the crown-jewels of
+England, it was only used on very important occasions. The house and barn
+both belonged to Aunt Stanshy, property that had been willed her by her
+father, Solomon Macomber, whose body slept under the wings of a blue-stone
+cherub in the cemetery. Her nephew, Charles, on the death of his wife,
+came to live with Aunt Stanshy, bringing his infant heir. When the father
+died, little Charlie was left in Aunt Stanshy's care. She was a tall,
+resolute woman, so tall that Simes Badger told Charlie that when he wanted
+to put colors on a flag-staff, he needn't go out of the house. That made
+Charlie mad. Aunt Stanshy had sharp, black eyes, and spectacles made them
+look all the sharper. As Charlie said, "Aunt Stanshy's eyes sometimes look
+as if they had snappin' crackers in 'em." Aunt Stanshy was really kind at
+heart and really loved Charlie, and he had all the comforts of home; but
+she would sometimes speak quick, and she was always sure to "speak her
+mind," be the rate of speech slow or quick. Simes Badger was a retired old
+salt and kept the light-house; not that scanty funds compelled him, but
+mostly because he must do something about the sea to keep him at all
+contented. Simes once remarked, "I'll allow that Stanshy is a leetle tart
+at times, and I've knowed her since she was a gal. But then if you take a
+good sour apple and stew it and sugar it, it makes a first-class
+apple-pie. Howsomever, it must be well stewed and well sugared." The boys
+now trembled lest this vigorous, resolute soul might not favor their
+plans, and denying it a place of meeting might end the days of the infant
+club.
+
+"There," said Sid, mournfully, "we've made a club, but we've got no place
+to stick it in! How would it do to make Aunt Stanshy an honorary member of
+the club?"
+
+The faces of all brightened at this happy thought.
+
+"And not athk her to pay a thent a month, but ektheuth her," suggested
+Pip, who had a lisping style of speech.
+
+This was another happy thought and acceptable to the club.
+
+"I'll go and ask her," said Charlie. As he went down stairs, the members
+of the club gathered around the open window, anxiously looking out and
+awaiting the return of their embassador to her majesty in the kitchen,
+Constantia the first. Aunt Stanshy was washing clothes when Charlie
+entered. With a drooping head and faltering tongue he told about the club
+and asked for the barn, having announced her honorary membership, and also
+the remission of the monthly due. Aunt Stanshy had a streak of fun in her
+nature and a big one. When she looked out into the yard, and glancing up
+saw the seven sober, anxious faces at the barn window, she laughed and
+said, "Well, Charlie, have I got to lug a big, heavy white shield around?"
+
+"O it's a beautiful one of pasteboard and silk."
+
+"Well, well, say yes."
+
+When he had gone, Aunt Stanshy took her hands out of the suds, sat down in
+a flag-bottomed chair by the store, and laughed till her sides ached. She
+was washing again when the granny of the "Sentinel" came in to help her.
+Granny took the flag-bottomed chair and asked, "What's de news, Stanshy?"
+
+Aunt Stanshy burst out laughing, and the big ribbon-ends of her cap
+fluttered like a pennant at the mast-head.
+
+"Why, I'm an honorary member and sha'n't have to pay a cent; ha, ha, ha!"
+
+"A what?"
+
+But Aunt Stanshy made no explanation. She only pounded her clothes and
+roared, so tickled was she. Subsiding, she soon broke out again.
+
+"Why, chile, what's de matter?" asked granny. "You done gone crazy and
+sure for't."
+
+"I'm an honorary member, and have got to wear a silk shield, I tell you."
+
+Granny went home, shaking her head and saying, "I do b'lieve she's losin'
+her mind sure, and dat am mournfu' in one so young an' lubly."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE GRAND MARCH.
+
+
+"Please, aunty, lend me your wash-stick."
+
+As he spoke Charlie was all excitement, running eagerly from the barn into
+the house. Obtaining the coveted treasure, he as eagerly ran back. Two
+minutes passed.
+
+"May I have the curtain-stick up in your chamber that you don't want?"
+
+"How do you know I don't want it?"
+
+"'Cause it's doing nothing, standing up in the corner."
+
+"O what eyes! Yes, you may have it."
+
+Three minutes went.
+
+"Aunty, couldn't I have the broom-handle out in the entry? Some of the
+boys knew you wouldn't let me, but I said you would. I knew you would let
+a feller take it," said the ingenious Charlie.
+
+"For pity's sake, Charles Pitt Macomber, what next?"
+
+This was Charlie's real name and used for greater impressiveness.
+
+"That broom-handle is what I fasten the back window with, and if any
+bugglars get in tonight, I must blame you."
+
+However, Charlie carried his point. In a few minutes he appeared again,
+and pointed at his shoulder.
+
+"Aunty, see here!"
+
+"Why, Charles Pitt, what have you done to your shoulder?"
+
+Charlie grinned. There, on the left shoulder, was a chalk shield.
+"Teacher, of course, must have time to make our silk shields, and so we
+got up these."
+
+Aunt Stanshy's eyes let out some funny, bright sparks.
+
+"O, no, it's only the grand march."
+
+"The grand march!"
+
+"Yes, and see here, aunty. I have only this chalk shield, and you don't
+want your boy to go that way. Please let me take that old sword above the
+sitting-room mantel-piece," pleaded Charlie, with beseeching eyes.
+
+"Grandsir's sword? O that wont do. Why, that sword was at the battles of
+Quebec and Banker Hill and Waterloo and--"
+
+Constantia! In her loyalty to grandsir's memory, she was unconsciously
+mentioning places he had never been in! All this array of names only fired
+Charlie's ardor. At last Aunt Stanshy said, "There, take it! The next
+thing, I spose, you'll want me."
+
+"We may; but you'd have to dress up in man's clothes, you know."
+
+"Never!" said Aunt Stanshy, firmly. "Don't go out of the lane with
+grandsir's sword!"
+
+"We'll be along soon."
+
+"How will I know it? I may be up stairs."
+
+"We will give three cheers under the window."
+
+There was an increasing commotion in the barn chamber.
+
+"Now, fellers!" exclaimed Sid Waters. "You won't be ready for the grand
+march."
+
+"Yes, yes, yes," they shouted back.
+
+"Is the chariot ready for the president?" inquired Sid.
+
+"Yes," said Charlie, who purposed to furnish his go-cart for the occasion.
+"It's down in the yard."
+
+"I have the first ride, you know."
+
+"And I the second," said the governor.
+
+"Yes, but the governor must go behind while the president rides."
+
+Rick's heart sank within him, but all had promised to obey orders and
+there was no appeal.
+
+"Every feller's--I mean knight's--uniform ready?" asked the president.
+
+Charlie's certainly was. Every moment he could spare out of school that
+day, he had been sewing in his snug little bedroom. Such stitches! They
+looked like pairs of bars trying to straddle a brush fence. For epaulets
+he arranged pieces of black cloth, the center of each being brightened
+with a strip of red. His belt was made of white flannel dotted with a
+flaming row of red stars, and with these were interspersed various sizes
+of mild chocolate suns. Each of the other warriors sported a chalk shield,
+as did Charlie. This was the only thing in common. Other insignia varied
+in character, color, and size, as much as would those of Chinese,
+Anglo-Saxon and Zulu troops. Pip Peckham, in his anxiety for distinction,
+had chalked a shield on each shoulder! The cheapness of the material used
+would readily permit this, but Pip's appearance was insignificant beside
+Charlie's, who strode forward to the march, flourishing grandsir's sword.
+Not even Alexander, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, or General Grant, ever had a
+sword to be compared with Charlie's that day. The warriors moved out from
+their "armory" into the yard. Aunt Stanshy was up stairs making a bed.
+Suddenly under her window, arose a wild, semi-civilized, semi-barbarous
+shout.
+
+"What is to pay?" she screamed. "O those little boobies!" and she sprang
+to the window. The "Grand March" had been inaugurated with full pomp. Sid
+Waters, as president, was sitting in the go-cart, his head ornamented with
+a huge smothering three-cornered hat, made out of a New York daily. Rick
+Grimes, as governor, was walking behind the go-cart, now and then giving
+the "chariot" an obsequious push, but impatiently awaiting his turn for a
+ride. Billy Grimes and Pip Peckham were serving as horses, and soldiers
+also, pulling along the president and sharing the broom-handle between
+them. Whether that handle might be a "musket" or a "spear," no one could
+say. Charlie served as a body-guard, now looking at Aunt Stanshy's window
+and then glancing in pride at grandsir's sword. Juggie was a color-bearer,
+and at the same time a color-guard of one appeared in the shape of Tony,
+flourishing Aunt Stanshy's clothes-stick. The colors were a very small
+American flag on a very long bean-pole. Twenty feet ahead of the whole
+procession, in solitary glory, walked Wort. He was a kind of "chief
+marshal," Sid had said, but Wort could not forget that he had also been
+made "keeper of the great seal" that very day, and in token of it he took
+along the borrowed curtain-stick.
+
+"Halt!"
+
+This summons came not from the chief marshal but the president, and was
+promptly obeyed by all. Wort retreated from his advanced position and
+assumed command. "The grand review will now begin," he shouted. "The whole
+of you may get into line. Now forward! For--_ward_!"
+
+"Say wheel, first!" called out Sid, not intending Aunt Stanshy or any
+other spectator should hear the advice be thought it necessary to give the
+chief marshal.
+
+"Wheel first!" shouted Wort, but the only "wheel" that started was one on
+the go-cart, which concluded to leave its axle, much to the disgust of the
+president and the confusion of the company. Sid sprang from the cart.
+"Here, let me do it, Wort."
+
+"Form in line!" Wort shouted majestically.
+
+"Form in line!" Sid was whispering to several old veterans. "Where's
+Juggie?"
+
+"Here, cap'n."
+
+"Keep your bugle handy and sound it when Wort says, 'Charge!'"
+
+Juggie proudly brandished a fish-horn which he had borrowed of Simes
+Badger.
+
+"Shoulder arms!" screamed Wort.
+
+"Ground arms!"
+
+"Ow, my teeth!" squeaked Pip, whose foot had been vigorously rammed by
+Billy Grimes.
+
+"Order arms! Present arms! March! Charge!"
+
+These directions followed one another so rapidly that only the oldest
+veterans, and they wildly, could attempt obedience.
+
+"Blow your bugle!" shouted Sid to Juggie.
+
+"Charge! Cavalry, forward!" Wort was shrieking.
+
+It was a wild melee. The cavalry (go-cart) was shoved forward by Gov.
+Grimes, running it against Pip and Billy, while the "infantry" rushed
+ahead, each on his own hook, the color-bearer and the color-guard trying
+to get into place somewhere. Wort vainly endeavored to keep at the head of
+something or somebody. All this time Juggie was swelling his cheeks and
+sounding his horn, and this was the only thing that was successfully done.
+Fortunately the ground to be charged across was not a long stretch, and in
+a moment they were all shoving against the fence.
+
+"Wort, you didn't do that right," claimed the president.
+
+"Yes, I did."
+
+"No, you're wrong," asserted Sid.
+
+"Let me try?" asked Rick.
+
+"No, this will do," said Sid. "You may march us, Rick."
+
+This compromise was accepted. Away they all went, Rick strutting forward
+with great dignity, but Juggie waved his flag cautiously, for the
+flourishing of such a long pole might lead to his capsizing. Tony followed
+Juggie. Billy and Pip still tugged at the go-cart that the president
+continued to monopolize. Charlie solemnly guarded the precious freight in
+the "chariot." Wort, who had been at the head of the column, had now
+wandered to the rear, and his face wore a puzzled look, as if he did not
+know where to put the chief marshal.
+
+"You ought to have two policemen in front," squeaked a little voice from
+the sidewalk. It was Tommy Keys, a small boy, who had seen a procession in
+Boston, and thought he knew how such things ought to be managed.
+
+"Shet up," shouted the governor, indignant at even the faintest suggestion
+of weakness, and he rushed upon Tommy with a drawn clothes-stick. Away
+went the terrified Tommy.
+
+"So may all our foes be routed!" said the president, and to this sentiment
+there was a response of three cheers. Alas, how soon all that pride was to
+be humiliated! The column was now nearing the head of the lane which ran
+into Water Street, the leading business avenue of the town. Sid, who
+always had an eye out to the course that was prudent, was exclaiming, in
+low tones, "Don't--don't go too near Water Street! Look out for
+down-townies, fellers!" It is often the case in a village of any size that
+there will be among the boys two parties representing two different
+sections and supposed to represent two different ideas and civilizations.
+Seamont had its boy-clans, those at the lower end of the village being the
+down-townies, and those at the upper end were designated as up-townies.
+The club belonged to the up-townies, "the only fit class for gentlemen,"
+Sid had declared The down-townies delighted to hurl all kinds of epithets
+at the other boys, and these "gentlemen" up-townies could sling titles
+almost as successfully, and both sides would sometimes give additional
+flavor to their epithets by means of missiles, even as mothers sometimes
+season their injunctions to boys with a twig from the old apple-tree in
+the yard. The club had had no hand in these intestine feuds, but
+sympathized with the warriors in their neighborhood, the up-townies. There
+had been war recently between the two hostile sections, so that the boys
+did not venture far from their homes, and what did our valiant column now
+run into but a band of six belligerent down-townies! The club, at Sid's
+suggestion, had already passed a vote to give no quarter to down-townies,
+and that in case of trouble it should be "war to the last drop!" They
+prudently did not say what that drop might be, blood or only perspiration.
+Here was a grand test-hour close at hand. One of the down-townies raised a
+provoking cry, "Ho, fellers; see those little ragamuffins!"
+
+He pointed toward the column, whose advance Juggie was enthusiastically
+stimulating by loud and prolonged blasts on the fish-horn.
+
+"Boys, let's go for 'em," said one of the down-townies. Raising the
+war-whoop of the down-townies, which was a savage, senseless yell, and
+lacking the fine martial tones of the up-townies' battle-cry, the enemy
+made their charge. Sid Waters stepped, or leaped rather, from the
+"chariot" and ran toward the barn. Away went the "colors" in the hands of
+Juggie, almost capsizing him, as the tall standard swayed violently. Away
+went Wort, and away went Tony. Away rattled the go-cart, Billy and Pip
+making excellent time as they dragged it along. An engine rushing to a
+fire could not have gone much faster.
+
+"Don't run!" shouted Gov. Grimes. "Stand your ground, my men! Rally!"
+
+"No, sir," said Charlie, replying to the first appeal, and then, in
+response to the second, said, quickly, "Yes, sir."
+
+Charlie was the only one among "my men" willing to "rally." But the
+governor was not discouraged. He was resolute, even at times to
+stubbornness.
+
+He waved his clothes-stick and shrieked, "Come on! I defy you!"
+
+Charlie also looked defiant; but he was so intent on facing the enemy that
+he did not pay proper attention to his armor, and the sword that had been
+so loyal to grandsir now turned into a rebel to Charlie. It did what
+swords will sometimes do; it insisted on mixing up with his chubby legs as
+he changed his position, and over he went! Rick had grappled the enemy,
+but it was a hopeless struggle, and things looked ominous for that
+fragment of the club now in the battle.
+
+Suddenly a sharp, penetrating, commanding voice was heard. "Don't you
+touch 'em, you rascals," and a tall, resolute figure rose above the
+prostrate Charlie, flourishing a broom. It was Aunt Stanshy, who, from her
+window, had watched the boys, and, seeing the approach of that down-town
+thunder-cloud, rushed out to meet the storm. Her prowess was witnessed by
+Simes Badger, who, as a leading village gossip, was loafing away an hour
+of leisure in a flag-bottomed chair before Silas Trefethen's grocery. He
+told the story to all the village gossips of the masculine sex who
+gathered at the grocery as soon as they had swallowed their tea and had
+done as few chores at home as possible.
+
+"Well!" said Simes, laughing.
+
+He was a gaunt, long-drawn-out man, owning a straggling, gray beard, a
+pair of brown, twinkling eyes, and a nasal voice.
+
+"I saw something, to-day, that beat the Dutch. It was Aunt Stanshy, and
+she did beat the Dutch; yes, she did, yaw, yaw, yaw! You see a parcel of
+young ones went up the lane in fine feather, colors flying and drums
+beat-in'." (This, to mildly put it, was a misstatement, as not a drum was
+there to be beaten; but Simes had a weakness for "misstatements.") "Well,
+they neared Water Street, and just then the enemy appeared, a lot of
+down-townies, yaw, yawl My, didn't those sojers scatter, all but two! I
+expected them two would be cut up like meat in a sausage-machine, but,
+turnin' to look down the lane, I saw a sight! It was Stanshy! She had left
+the house, broom in hand, and rushed up to the battle-ground, and there
+she stood among them down-townie chaps, and she fetched that broom
+backward an forward in grand style, as if sweepin' out of the way a lot of
+dirt!"
+
+Here Simes, who always fancied that he was gifted with dramatic powers
+unusually fine, pulled a broom out of the stock in a neighboring barrel,
+and began to sway it backward and forward.
+
+"My! didn't Stanshy sweep the battle-field? The enemy went down like
+leaves before a November gale!"
+
+Simes, who was bound to act out the narrative, gave an unlucky sweep with
+his broom above the heads of his grinning and gaping auditors, and whacked
+Silas Trefethen, who was behind the counter putting up codfish.
+
+"Mind, Simes, there! What are you up to, man?" shouted Silas, tartly,
+trying to make a stand against the staggering blow dealt amid the laughter
+of Simes's auditors.
+
+"O, O! 'Scuse me, Silas! I was only 'lustratin'."
+
+"'Lustrate next time on that post behind you. If Stanshy Macomber had such
+rigor in her arm as that, I pity those down-townies!"
+
+Was not Aunt Stanshy indignant when she heard how Simes Badger had taken
+her off at the store! "I'll try my broom on him next time," she told
+Juggie's granny.
+
+Aunt Stanshy was very popular with the club, who passed a vote of thanks
+to their honorary member. The down-townies, though, christened her "the
+dragon of the lane," and did not venture near her. Knowing that this fear
+existed, Sid Waters and other members of the club, especially the
+runaways, now ventured several times as far as Water Street, shouting
+defiance to imaginary enemies behind corners and trees. Sid was
+exceedingly daring with his tongue. It was noticed that he never again
+_rode_ on such occasions. He evidently wished to have his legs handy, as
+he could rely on these better than the go-cart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+FOR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCHOLARS, AN OFFER.
+
+
+Charlie and Aunt Stanshy worshiped at St. John's. Dear old St. John's! It
+was a brick edifice, homely in its style, but glorious in its
+associations. It had two tiers of arched windows, the upper row letting
+light into a long, lofty gallery, that generally had for its occupants
+perhaps a dozen very shy auditors. If a "coaster" were in port over
+Sunday, then the heavy, shuffling tread of several men of the sea might be
+heard on the gallery stairs. This might happen when the service was a
+third through, and by the time it was two thirds through the shuffling
+tread might be heard on the stairs again, and this time echoing toward the
+door. The gallery was plain and old-fashioned in its finish, but it was
+supported by twisted wooden pillars considered to be marvels of
+architectural ingenuity in their day. The pews were old-fashioned in their
+form and decoration; but then they were surrounded by so many dear
+associations of the past, that when Aunt Stanshy entered one of those box
+pews she seemed to have stepped aboard a ship and it drifted her at once
+far, far away among old friends. On a rainy day, especially, did Aunt
+Stanshy enjoy the old church. True, not many would come out, and their
+heads above the backs of the pews looked like scattered turtle heads
+lifted above the surface of a pond in the woods. Aunt Stanshy was sure to
+be there, and, while she heard the rain beating upon the windows, there
+was the minister's voice reverently echoing in prayer, and Aunt Stanshy
+had such a sense of protection from this world's many storms. On
+fair-weather Sundays there would be quite a rush for the old church. The
+Browns, Pauls, Randalls, Jamesons, Tapieys, would turn up, smiling,
+radiant and self-assured as if they had never been absent from church a
+single service. Their manner almost seemed to declare that they had been
+there day and night. O, young people, do dare to be rainy-weather
+Christians!
+
+Aunt Stanshy and Charlie were walking away from the church the noon of the
+Sunday after the grand march. At St. John's, the Sunday-school followed
+the morning service.
+
+"Aunty," said Charlie, nudging his companion, "here comes somebody."
+
+That somebody was Mr. Walton, to whom were intrusted the spiritual
+interests of the congregation. He was tall, stalwart, owned a fair
+complexion, and wore his hair rather long; hair, too, that would curl, no
+matter how patiently the brush and comb coaxed it to be straight and
+dignified. His blue eyes had a rather sharp look at first when turned
+toward you, but you soon felt that they were kindly, sympathetic, and
+magnetic. Mr. Walton was very friendly toward the boys, and for that
+reason he had a strong hold on the affections of many little fellows.
+
+"Well, Miss Macomber, I am glad to see you out, and as for my boy here, I
+should miss him ever so much if he were not in my school."
+
+"I should miss _you_, if you wasn't there," replied Charlie, anxious to
+return the compliment.
+
+"Don't you know of some boy you could get into the school, Charlie?" asked
+Mr. Walton.
+
+"I know of one who belongs to my club."
+
+"You belong to a club! What is the name of it?"
+
+"The U. T. L. Club."
+
+"U. T. L.! What does that mean?"
+
+"It is Miss Bertha Barry's notion, sir," explained Aunt Stanshy, with an
+air that was somewhat critical. Then she had noticed, or fancied that she
+had detected, that Mr. Walton, who was single, rather liked Miss Bertha
+and her ideas. He did not seem to notice Aunt Stanshy's tone, but
+remarked,
+
+"U. T. L.! That means 'Up Too Late!'"
+
+"Ha, ha, guess again," replied the delighted Charlie.
+
+"Useful To Learn!"
+
+"No sir."
+
+"Up With The Lark!"
+
+"You have got one word too many in there. 'Up The' is right."
+
+"Up The--Lane!"
+
+"That's where I live," said Aunt Stanshy, proudly.
+
+"Up The--"
+
+"It's 'Up The Ladder,' sir," said Charlie.
+
+"Well, Up-the-Ladder boys ought to be making advances and going ahead all
+the time."
+
+"That is what teacher says."
+
+"What do you do in the club?"
+
+"We had a grand march yesterday, and we have a pammerrammer next
+Saturday."
+
+"All the boys in your club go to Sunday-school?"
+
+"All except Tony."
+
+"Who is Tony?"
+
+"He's an Italian boy, and his father is away off."
+
+"Couldn't you get him into your class?"
+
+"I might try."
+
+"I will make the club an offer. If they will get five boys into school and
+keep them there two months, I will give them a banner."
+
+Charlie was delighted and promised to tell the boys in the club.
+
+Mr. Walton here left Charlie and Aunt Stanshy, and went to his home. Aunt
+Stanshy greatly reverenced any one who led the worship of the congregation
+in the old church and encompassed such with a dignity-fence that was about
+as high as the famous steeple of old St. John's, and that was a landmark
+for souls at sea.
+
+Then there was a family mystery about Mr. Walton that fascinated Aunt
+Stanshy. He lived with his old white-haired mother, and there were hints
+and whispers that the two mourned over a once wayward and now absent
+member of the family. It leaked out that this was a son younger than Mr.
+Walton, and he had married a beautiful foreign lady whom the clergyman
+loved also, but had relinquished to the younger brother. This younger son
+was off somewhere on the sea, it was whispered; but he had a child ashore.
+On stormy days, it was noticed that the white-haired mother would watch
+the steeple, which consisted of a series of diminutive houses rising one
+above the other, as if ambitious to fly, but finally relinquishing the
+task into the hands or wings rather of a gilded weather-cock. The mother
+would watch the pigeons flying into their hiding-places in the steeple,
+seeking a refuge from the wild storm, and then her eyes would be lifted
+higher to the weather-vane, as if seeking for news about the sea-wind.
+Still higher went her thoughts--to God.
+
+"She's thinking of _him_, that son," said the observant neighbors, who
+never knowingly gave up a chance to see something. To Aunt Stanshy this
+bit of mystery only made Mr. Walton all the more interesting.
+
+Mr. Walton thought the next day he would fish for scholars in the Grimes
+neighborhood, where Tony lived. Billy and Rick, or "the governor," as the
+club boys more generally called him now, lived in a long, low-roofed
+building that had two green doors. One door led into the home where lived
+Simes Badger when off duty at the light house. His wife took care of Tony.
+In the other part of the house lived Billy and the "governor" with Jotham
+and Ann Grimes. Billy was the child of Jotham and Ann. The "governor's"
+parents lived in Dakota, but kept him at the East for the sake of an
+education in its better schools. It was after dark when Mr. Walton chanced
+to reach the long, low-roofed house, and "rap-rap" went his vigorous
+knuckles against green door number one.
+
+"Who's there?" sang out a boyish voice within.
+
+"Tush, tush, Tony! Wait till I come," said Simes from his little bedroom
+at one side of the kitchen. He was off duty, Jotham Grimes having gone to
+the light-house. "It may be some sailor who wants me," added Simes. Mr.
+Walton, having heard a boy's voice, concluded its owner must still be at
+the door, and he announced his errand.
+
+"It's rather late to call, but I wanted to know if you wouldn't like to
+come into our Sunday-school?"
+
+"No, your old Sunday-school may go to the bottom of the sea," was the
+gruff reply of the disappointed Simes, who did not know his caller.
+
+Mr. Walton felt that it might be prudent at that hour to withdraw, but he
+did not relinquish his intention to secure Tony; and Tony finally came to
+school.
+
+The boy exceedingly interested the minister. "Where have I seen that
+face?" asked Mr. Walton, and with bowed head he sat in his study brooding
+over the problem, looking intently down as if trying to make out a pearl
+at the bottom of the sea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE PAMMERRAMMER.
+
+
+"Auntie, what do you think a couple of standing up collars would cost?"
+
+"A standing up collar, Charles Pitt! What do you want that for?"
+
+"Why, we have a pammerrammer to-morrow, and I am the one to 'splain it;
+that is, me or the governor."
+
+"He is gettin' to be a man!" thought Aunt Stanshy in sorrow. "A
+pammerrammer!" she inquired. "I most get into that. Do you have
+spectators?"
+
+"O, yes. It is only a cent a ticket, and that will get you a reserved
+seat."
+
+"Then I must take a reserved seat."
+
+Aunt Stanshy told the boys she would come whenever they notified her that
+the pammerrammer was ready. A lively shout of announcement soon came from
+half a dozen heralds up in the barn window, and Aunt Stanshy dropped her
+sewing.
+
+"All ready, aunty! Come now," shouted Charlie.
+
+Aunt Stanshy quickened her steps into a run.
+
+"There goes Stanshy," said Simes Badger, watching her from Silas
+Trefethen's grocery. "Runnin' t' a fire, I guess. She only needs an engine
+behind her t' make the thing complete."
+
+Flying through the yard, Aunt Stanshy rushed up the barn chamber stairs.
+Passing the "sentinel" with the powerful aid of a cent, she looked around
+upon the chamber. In its center there was a stout wooden post, and between
+this post and a closet, at one end of the chamber, there had been
+suspended a dirty, ragged sheet, which the governor's aunt had taken from
+the attic and given to the club. Across this sheet stretched a panoramic
+strip of paper which Aunt Stanshy at once recognized as Charlie's
+handiwork. It took two boys, Sid and Wort, to stand at the two ends of the
+curtain and manage the "pammerrammer." As Sid unrolled the glorious
+succession of artistic beauties that Charlie had sketched, Wort at the
+other end pulled them along and rolled them up. In front of the curtain
+was ranged a plank. A carpenter's bench that bordered a wall of the barn
+supported one end of the plank, and a barrel the other end. This elevated
+roost was denominated "reserved seats," and all cent admissions secured
+"one of the most eligible chances in the Hall," so Sid declared. There was
+a string of sweet little beauties on the bench, girls from the
+neighborhood, and among them was little May Waters, her face one of
+wonderful vivacity, a kind of panorama in itself, where the most varied
+emotions chased one another in rapid succession. Aunt Stanshy found a sled
+to sit on, and the performance began. Gov. Grimes wished to try his hand
+first at explaining the pictures. He began, grandiloquently,
+
+"This--this--is a building, no, Faneuil Hall. The next is a picture of a
+ship. That is a--"
+
+"Don't roll her so tight, Wort," whispered a voice behind the curtain.
+
+"Monkey!" said the governor, finishing his sentence, but unfortunately
+chancing to look toward that sensitive soul, Pip Peckham.
+
+"I aint," said Pip.
+
+"Who said you was?" inquired Wort.
+
+"You!" charged Pip, turning to the governor.
+
+"I didn't."
+
+"You looked at me."
+
+"Silence in the audience!" shrieked Sid to the now jolly spectators.
+
+"You've got your end all twisted up, Wort," said the governor.
+
+"O dear!" groaned the president.
+
+The straightening out of the last difficulty was effected after a while,
+and Gov. Grimes began again: "Here are some big, black dogs in a
+melon-patch."
+
+"Bears, bears!" eagerly whispered Charlie, alarmed for the reputation of a
+club that could not tell the difference between dogs and bears.
+
+"Well, bears, then," said the governor petulantly, "and I aint going to be
+it any more."
+
+The discomfited lecturer insisted on resigning, and Charlie took the
+floor. He knew his old and beloved "pammerrammer" by heart, and he began
+promptly where the governor left off.
+
+"Here are some bears in a melon-patch. There's a picture of Westminster
+Abbey, and here's a boy lifting a girl over a fence, and here's a flag
+from Europe, and here's one from some part of Asia or some other place."
+
+In the midst of Charlie's glib description there was a crash. The plank,
+_alias_ the reserved seats, did not have a firm support. Its weakness had
+been noticed, but not remedied.
+
+"Who's the one to fix the bench?" inquired Sid.
+
+"The governor," replied Wort.
+
+But the governor was not one who believed in Aunt Stanshy's motto, "Do
+to-day's things to-day." She was trying to impress it on Charlie, but she
+could not be expected to stamp every mind in the club with the necessity
+of the injunction.
+
+"One boy is enough for me," she would say.
+
+The plank had remained firm as long as it could, but several wriggling
+children were too much even for the patience of a plank, and--down it
+went! Little May Waters dropped at the feet of Charlie as he was busily
+"'splaining." He gallantly picked her up and tried to comfort her, and
+various members of the club rushed to the rescue of other ladies. It was
+concluded now to adjourn the "pammerrammer."
+
+"Man down in the yard!" called out Wort, who was "sentinel" when he had
+nothing else to do. Wort looked over the edge of the window-sill. About
+all he could see was an old hat, and a very bad hat at that.
+
+"Let's sprinkle him! We can say we only saw a hat," and immediately
+scraping up with his foot a quantity of hay-seed, he liberally sprinkled
+the seedy hat. It was like unto like.
+
+"Now look here," said Sid, "that was mean. If your father wore an old hat,
+how would you like to have a feller sprinkle hay-seed on it?"
+
+Sid had a good deal of the gentleman about him.
+
+"There he comes! There he comes! Put!" said Wort. A foot-step could be
+plainly heard on the stairs, and Wort started for the closet, again
+saying, "Put!"
+
+"I am not going to run," said the governor, with his usual resoluteness.
+
+"Nor I," said Sid.
+
+"Nor I," said Charlie.
+
+"Nor I," said Billy.
+
+Others declared the same. They all stood their ground, or floor, rather.
+The noise on the stairs was continued, and soon a seed-strewn hat appeared
+in sight, and then a big head of hair, and then a man's body. The boys
+clustered closely together, and when the man turned toward them, they saw
+that the roughly-dressed man had a roughly featured face, but its
+expression was kindly.
+
+"He will eat uth up," whispered Pip, trying to get behind Billy Grimes.
+The stranger was not a cannibal though. He took off his hat, shook it, and
+said, "If that was an accident, it's all right. If any one did it, meaning
+to do it, was it just the thing?"
+
+The boys felt the appeal and shook their heads.
+
+"We don't justify it, and I'm the president," said Sid, with a look of
+importance, "and no one of us that you see did it."
+
+"I hope not. Sometimes folks are not lucky, and if any of your fathers
+went trampin' round and couldn't get work, you wouldn't like to have any
+body throw hay-seed on him."
+
+"No, that's so," said Charlie. "It's too bad!"
+
+The man turned to go down stairs.
+
+"I--I guess my aunt could give you a job. She wanted somebody this morning
+to saw her wood."
+
+"Did she? Where is she?"
+
+"I'll show you," and Charlie's obliging drumsticks followed the man down
+stairs. Then he went into the kitchen and made an appeal for the stranger.
+
+"Well, I'll give him the job," replied Aunt Stanshy.
+
+In a minute more the man was at the wood-pile driving Aunt Stanshy's saw
+rapidly through a stick of pine.
+
+The club had been looking out of the window while Charlie interceded for
+the man. When he joined his clubmates some one exclaimed, "What's that?"
+
+It was a noise from the closet into which Wort had plunged, or, rather, a
+noise that started there, for it was continued down into the story below,
+even as the noise of a rushing snow-slide along a roof begins at the
+ridgepole, but ends on the ground beneath the eaves.
+
+"It's Wort!" said Charlie, excitedly. "O dear! he's gone."
+
+"Gone where?" inquired Sid. "Into the bowels of the earth?"
+
+Charlie's answer was to rush down stairs, followed by the club in a very
+hasty and undignified way. There, at the end of a long spout that
+terminated eight inches from the floor, was a couple of good-sized legs
+squirming to get out. Then Wort's voice was heard, coming from the
+interior of the box, "Let me out! Let me out!"
+
+"Can't you _get_ out?" asked the governor.
+
+"No, no! Let me out! Let me out--quick!"
+
+It was even so. Wort must be _let_ out.
+
+"O, Aunt Stanshy, Wort--Wort--is in the fodder-box, and can't get out!"
+shrieked Charlie at the open kitchen window.
+
+"What under the sun--" And, without a word more, Aunt Stanshy left the
+clothes she was washing and rushed into the yard.
+
+"Come here, mister, and bring your saw," she said to the man at the
+wood-pile, "and, Charlie, bring a hammer from the nail-box on the
+entry-shelf!"
+
+The man at the wood-pile rushed after Aunt Stanshy, saw in hand, while
+Charlie hurriedly brought the hammer.
+
+"Now saw into that box and knock away with the hammer, mister. You see,
+Silas Trefethen wanted to hire my barn last winter, and thought he would
+put in what he called a fodder-box running down from the closet above to
+this floor, and then intended to knock the closet away when he had carried
+the box down here, thinking he might save some steps that way, but he was
+taken sick and the closet was left there; and that closet floor, I
+suppose, wasn't left just right."
+
+Aunt Stanshy was talking while the man was sawing and hammering away. He
+plied his tools vigorously, and soon let Wort out into the full light of
+day once more. The boys shouted and laughed also as Wort wriggled forward
+into liberty. He looked up, but seeing that his liberator was the man he
+had seeded, he dropped his head, and, refusing to look again, slunk away
+with an air that indicated a strong desire to find another box where he
+could shut himself up for the present.
+
+The man concluded who his enemy was, and he said, "I guess we are even
+now."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE NATION'S BIRTHDAY.
+
+
+"The great thing on the Fourth is to have a good time," said the
+president.
+
+"No, the great thing," said the practical governor, "is to be sure and
+wake up in season."
+
+"That's so," chimed several voices in chorus.
+
+"How shall we fix it?" asked Pip.
+
+"Tie your toe to the bed-post," said some one.
+
+"Put a lot of stones in your bed," said Sid, "and then you can't sleep
+easy."
+
+"Two sleep together and tie their toes to one another," said the governor.
+
+Objections were found against all these plans, as they had been
+ineffectually tried by various members of the club.
+
+"Go and holler under every boy's window," said Billy Grimes, with the air
+of one who had made an important discovery. "I will holler under your's,
+Pip," was his magnificent offer.
+
+"But who will be the feller to go to your window?" asked Sid.
+
+"Why--why--_you_."
+
+"Well, who will holler under my window?" said Sid.
+
+"I," said Wort.
+
+"And under yours?" continued the president.
+
+"I," said Juggie.
+
+"And who under Juggle's?"
+
+"I," said Tony.
+
+"And who under Tony's?"
+
+"I," said Charlie.
+
+"And who under Charlie's?"
+
+That was a problem.
+
+"Aunt Thanthy," suggested Pip.
+
+"Aunt Stanshy is going out visiting," remarked Charlie.
+
+There was a very sad pause. Despair was on the faces of the club. A happy
+thought came to Charlie. "Some one has got to sit up and wake the next
+one, and I will. I can take a nap the next forenoon, you know."
+
+"Three cheers for Charlie!" called out Wort, and they were cordially
+given. It was arranged on the spot that Charlie should sit up. If Aunt
+Stanshy had been at home she would have vetoed the plan, but, purposing to
+be absent the night before the Fourth she had engaged Silas Junkins to
+stay with Charlie and guard the premises. Charlie had no difficulty in
+obtaining Silas's consent to the plan, and not only his consent, but also
+his co-operation. In the main entry of Aunt Stanshy's house was a tall,
+old-fashioned clock. It was an aged household servant, and had done duty
+in the entry many years. It always stood in one place, one particular
+corner in the rear of the entry. It is a wonder its voice did not show any
+sign of collapse, as it had called off the hours so many years. It would
+not have been strange if it had lost its patience. But uncomplainingly,
+even cheerily and without any sign of weakness, it told you what time it
+was. Charlie sometimes heard it in the night, and then it sounded like,
+"Cheer up! cheer up!" its pleasant voice halting on the "cheer," and then
+emphasizing the "up." It divided all its peals into two such notes, and
+when Charlie heard it strike one o'clock the effect was quite enlivening
+as be lay there in his dark little chamber. At an hour earlier, when it
+sounded twelve "Cheer ups," what a joyous procession of notes that was! It
+was like a watchman's voice ringing out "All's well!" twelve times. It
+occurred to Charlie that he might occupy a chair in the entry, and, if at
+all inclined to go to sleep, the striking of the clock would keep him
+awake. Silas Junking moved a table into the entry for Charlie, and set a
+lamp on it. At nine Silas, who enjoyed very much a large quantity of
+sleep, went to his rest in a little bedroom on the same floor with the
+entry.
+
+"You can step into my room and wake me, Charlie, if any thing happens."
+
+"O, I sha'n't need to," was the watchboy's very emphatic reply.
+
+"Well, good-night!"
+
+"Good-night!"
+
+"Now all I've got to do," soliloquized Charlie, "is just to keep awake,
+and it is a great deal better than to go to sleep with a string tying your
+big toe to the bed-post. Hark, there is some one firing off a gun! Wont I
+wake 'em with a blow on my horn!" Here he saw himself, as he visited house
+after house, arousing boy after boy. It would be like the falling of a row
+of bricks, where the only need is to push over the first one and the whole
+set will follow. Every thing, though, depended on the fall of the first
+brick. Would Charlie do his part?
+
+"I'll take this story-book about Indians, giants, and fairies," he said,
+"into the entry, and that will keep me awake splendid."
+
+It was a book startling enough, and the trouble was that it was too
+startling.
+
+After looking at the book a while, Charlie's mind was so peopled with
+ferocious giants, Indians on the war-path, fire-breathing dragons, and
+ghostly genii, that he transferred them to all the corners of the room,
+and especially to that receptacle of shadows, the space under the table,
+the very place where his legs were--ugh! Charlie did not like to look at
+the book, and, dared not, at the forms under the table! He shut the book
+and he shut his eyes. Hark, the clock was saying "Cheer up!" and somebody
+in the lane fired a pistol that seemed to say, "Wake up!" Yes, yes, that
+was all right, Charlie thought, but--but--he guessed he would close his
+eyes just this once--and close them just this once--and close them just
+this once--and in a few minutes the champion watchman was fast asleep! In
+an hour the clock struck again, and its voice seemed harsh, as if saying,
+"Young man, young man, wake up!" The notes had no startling effect on
+Charlie. Indeed, he heard them only as a very sweet, musical voice. The
+pistols and cannons going off in Water Street reached his ear as mild
+little pops. Things went on in this way till morning. About five Charlie
+dropped on the floor the book of Indians and dragons, that patiently had
+been resting in his lap all night. It roused him. He partially opened his
+eyes. Before him was an opened door that led into the parlor, and, sitting
+in his chair, he could see the parlor windows, whose curtains were up and
+whose panes were brightened by the light in the eastern sky. What did he
+see at those windows? Had some of the Indians, imagined to be under
+Charlie's table, gone to the outside of the windows, there to look in,
+grinning at him and shaking their head-feathers at a boy stupidly sitting
+near a table on which was a lighted lamp? Charlie rubbed his eyes for a
+better look, then rubbed again and again, and--and--were those Indians
+shouting, "Charlie, how are you?" He now sprang to his feet, fully awake,
+and there were several members of the club, their faces streaked with red
+chalk, their caps ornamented with all kinds of feathers, their--Charlie
+did not take another look at their decorations! He only glanced at the
+clock, exclaimed, "Five o'clock! Whew!" seized his cap, and rushed
+out-doors.
+
+"Wake up, Charlie! Wake up, Charlie!" was the greeting of his comrades.
+
+"Whew, fellers, aint this cheeky?" inquired Charlie.
+
+"I should think it was--in you. Did your nap refresh you?" asked Sid.
+
+"Why didn't you come round and wake me up?" said the governor.
+
+"And me?" said Billy.
+
+"And me?" said Pip.
+
+"And me?" said Tony.
+
+"You see--you see," replied Charlie, "I overslept."
+
+"That is," said Sid, "you slept _over_ the table. Three cheers for
+Charlie, our faithful watchman! I nominate Charlie for _honorary_
+sentinel."
+
+The cheers were delivered, and Charlie was declared by the president to
+have been unanimously chosen honorary sentinel.
+
+"You see, boys," said Sid, patronizingly, "I don't know what would have
+become of you if it hadn't been for _me_. My big brother Nehemiah was out
+banging away all night, and he got tired and came home about three, and
+said to me, 'You in bed now? I thought you were going to get up several
+hours earlier than the lark.' Well--after a while--I dressed quick, I tell
+you, and then I went and woke our governor, and Billy, and so on."
+
+Sid omitted to say how long that "after a while" might be, and that his
+brother aroused him several times, and finally he got into his clothes.
+Nobody, however, was disposed to ask questions, as every one had slept
+later than he intended.
+
+"Knights of the White Shield!" suddenly shouted Sid, "three good ringers
+on your bugles for our honorary member, Miss Stanshy Macomber? Here she
+comes!"
+
+Aunt Stanshy was now returning from her visit, having concluded to make an
+early start for home, feeling somewhat anxious for its safety on "the
+glorious Fourth." The club separated into two ranks, and, as Aunt Stanshy
+passed along, each one of the "knights" touched his feathery head-gear,
+while every horn sent out as ringing a blast as possible.
+
+"Massy!" cried Aunt Stanshy. "My ears!" Then she retreated to her home as
+quickly as possible lest another salute be tendered her.
+
+What a day that was! What liberty! It seemed as if those patriots in the
+Up-the-Ladder Club had been oppressed by a terrible yoke of bondage,
+domestic especially, but it was all lifted and thrown off that day. There
+was freedom--to blow horns, freedom to fire crackers, freedom to "holler,"
+freedom to crack torpedoes, freedom to buy pea-nuts, buns, ancient figs
+and dates and abominable cheap candy, freedom to make one's self as dirty,
+tired--and cross the next day--as possible! O, blessed liberty to boys who
+had patiently borne the yoke three hundred and sixty-four days, ever since
+the last Fourth! After a forenoon of miscellaneous and multiplied joys,
+the club planned to spend an afternoon in the woods. Emptying their
+pockets, they found that, altogether, they could raise eleven cents, and
+this was laid out in the judicious expenditure of as many buns as
+possible.
+
+"It is proposed, White Shields," said Sid, "this afternoon that we spend a
+little time playing, a little time in bun-lunching, and then we will have
+a raft-race on the water near the railroad track."
+
+This programme was carried out in part successfully. The games concluded
+with success, there was a successful time in eating, as far as the number
+of buns would permit. Then there was a little speech-making.
+
+"I understand," said the president, as he concluded his remarks, "that the
+rights of one of our number have been interfered with. He has been
+forbidden to fire off any more crackers, and must confine himself to
+caps."
+
+This announcement was followed by groans and hisses, even as thunder and
+lightning come after the black summer cloud. The person who had lost his
+freedom and been compelled to return to slavery was Charlie.
+
+Aunt Stanshy had said to him at the dinner-table, "I don't want you to
+fire any more crackers to-day."
+
+Charlie's chin went down.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because there is danger of setting fire to something. The wind is warm
+and dry."
+
+Charlie's chin now went up.
+
+"It was warm and dry, but the wind has just changed, and it is coming in
+from the sea, and it is damp and misty."
+
+"But, that wont put out fires."
+
+Charlie's chin now dropped again and dropped to stay. He went up stairs
+and, having a knack at rhyming, wrote a string of lines and put them in
+his pocket. Sid had found out the contents of Charlie's pocket when it had
+been emptied in behalf of the bun fund, and at the "collation" in the
+woods, he concluded his speech with these words: "I learn that the Hon.
+Charles Pitt Macomber, who has been forbidden to fire off crackers, has
+some poetry, and I will ask him to read it I would only add that freemen
+must stand for their rights." Cheers were now given for "the poet of the
+day." Charlie stood up and read these lines, which were subsequently found
+by Aunt Stanshy in the pocket of his pants, for these needed the help of
+her needle after the great and fatiguing duties of the Fourth. The name
+and age of the author, Charlie had been particular to place over the
+poetry. We give the lines exactly as they appear in the original now in
+our possession.
+
+
+THE GLORIOUS FOURTH.
+
+By C.P. MACOMBER, (nine years.)
+
+  "Hurrah for the Glorious Fourth of July,
+  When sky-rockets mount to the sky,
+  When fire-crackers are whizzing so fine,
+  And all is Majesty Grandeur an' sublime.
+
+  "If I could have the whole day to myself,
+  I would fire off crackers all day like an elf,
+  The Giant Torpedoes would fall to the ground,
+  And all would come down with a terrible sound.
+
+  "What good are little paper caps?
+  I would not give two ginger snaps,
+  They do not make a noise worth hearing,
+  But fire-crackers, the ladies are fearing."
+
+
+If Charlie should write this again, he would change the above, but it is
+too late to alter now, and we give it as preserved in our note-book.
+Furious applause followed this ebullition of poetic genius.
+
+The collation was followed by the raft-race. The ditch that ran beside the
+railroad embankment widened in one place to forty feet. Half a dozen logs
+were here floating. The keeper of the great seal had brought with him a
+hammer and a handful of nails, and seeing on his way several strips of
+board, he had picked them up and now nailed the six logs together in
+pairs, making three rafts.
+
+"There will now be a race between our first treasurer, our sentinel, and
+the keeper of the great seal," pompously announced Sid. "This will be the
+first race. I expected Tony and the governor would compete, but they have
+gone home. The Fourth was too much for them."
+
+They both began to be sick after the collation. Rick, with his usual
+pertinacity, wanted to "stick it out," but his feelings overcame him, and
+he adjourned. He and Tony had eaten too much green-tinted candy. The
+participants in the raft-race were preparing for the contest, Charlie
+having already boarded his craft and pushed off into position, when a cry
+from Pip arrested the attention of all and made them think of something
+besides rafting.
+
+"Down-townieth!" he shrieked, and pointed up the railroad embankment.
+There stood a stout boy whom Charlie recognized immediately as one of the
+evil force that raided on the club the day of the grand march! It was Tim
+Tyler, one of the hardest boys in Seamont, aged fifteen. Back of him was a
+smaller boy, but a competitor in vice, Bobby Landers. How many others
+might soon show themselves, no one could say, but the down-townies were
+clannish and loved to turn out in crowds, and to the club the probability
+appeared to be, that others would speedily rise up and charge along the
+railroad track. Sid Waters, who had urged freemen to stand for their
+rights, was now turning on his heel. He headed for a fence that separated
+the railroad lot from the woods. It was evident that the first club race
+would be, not on the water, but the land, and that Sid Waters's legs would
+take an unexpected but active part in it. Other legs followed his, and
+this race of freemen for their rights became a general one. At first, it
+was not positively certain who would reach the fence first and so beat in
+the race, but Sid's alacrity in starting was so great that he gained the
+prize, or would have taken it, had any been offered. The others though
+made very good time, and showed what freemen could do when hard pushed by
+their oppressors. Charlie, alas! was too far from shore to share in their
+good fortune, and, besides, Tim Tyler was on hand to object to any such
+movement.
+
+"Don't be in too much of a hurry to leave," he said provokingly to
+Charlie, and seizing a pole left by one of the retreating club, pushed off
+the raft that Charlie had shoved near the shore.
+
+"Leave me alone," growled Charlie.
+
+"I have, haven't I? I don't see how any one could be much more aloner than
+you are off there."
+
+Charlie looked like a jar of pickles, a keg of gunpowder, and a small
+thunder-cloud combined. He was so angry that he could now say nothing.
+When Tim had repeatedly pushed Charlie's vessel back from the shore,
+Charlie as obstinately pushing toward it again, Tim cried out, "Say, I
+will make you an offer. Do you see that?"
+
+He pulled out of his pocket a dirty bottle and held it up.
+
+"There, some of the best beer made anywhere is in that. If you will take a
+swaller, I'll let you come ashore."
+
+Charlie could hardly contain himself now. He was scarcely able to sputter
+out this defiance, "When you catch me tasting that stuff, you'll know it!"
+
+"O jest hear him, Bob!" said Tim, mockingly. "I s'pose this young sailor,
+who don't know enough about sailin' to get his craft ashore, has jined a
+temperance society."
+
+"Yes," said Charlie, "I belong to Mr. Walton's at St. John's."
+
+"What saint is that?"
+
+The wrathful Charlie gave Tim a look of contempt and turned away.
+
+"O, so he wont turn his pretty face this way, wont he?"
+
+Having said this, Tim changed his tone and shouted fiercely, "You've got
+to look this way, sir. Bob, you get on that other raft and I will take
+this one here, and we will catch that young saint."
+
+The two unoccupied rafts were immediately brought into service. Never did
+an innocent merchantman fleeing from two pirates make a harder exertion
+than did Charlie to get away from Tim and Bob. They gained on him, though,
+rapidly.
+
+"There they come," thought Charlie, giving one look back at the dirty,
+saucy buccaneers. Tim had now reached the middle of the little pond when a
+thing greatly in his favor proved to be a serious thing against him, and
+that was the strength of his push. The fastenings of the log-raft were not
+equal to any violent pressure upon them, and suddenly they gave way and
+the logs separated. Tim's legs separated with them till they could part no
+farther, and then he tried to spring from one log to the other. Alas for
+him, he put his foot in the wrong place, and that wrong place was the
+water! Down he went into as thorough a bath as ever a young rascal got in
+this world. The water was not over his head, and he was soon on his feet,
+but the dip had been complete enough to satisfy the most vindictive
+members of the Up-the-Ladder Club, and Tim was spitting and sputtering,
+then spitting and sputtering again, trying to clear month, eyes, nose,
+ears, of the unwelcome, dirty ditch-water.
+
+"Give--us--a--hand, Bob," he gasped.
+
+Charlie did not stay to see any further developments, but pushed for the
+shore, safely reaching it, and then made his way to the fence, climbing it
+and gaining the wood-lot. In the meantime, the other members of the club
+had halted and were consulting together. It was Juggie who arrested their
+flight. "It is too bad," he said, "to leave Charlie."
+
+That remark detained Billy, and then Sid, Wort, and Pip stopped.
+
+Sid laughed and said, "My father has been in the army and he would call
+this the flying artillery. So you see it is all right."
+
+"I'm afraid it's all wrong," said Billy, "to leave Charlie behind."
+
+"Yes," said Wort, "to run away from a member of the club."
+
+There was now a general feeling of indignation toward any member of the
+club that had deserted Charlie, if that member could be found, as each
+one's motive had not been to desert another, but the prudent impulse to
+save himself.
+
+Sid was among the fiercest to shout and the most furious to propose.
+"Charlie deserted!" he said. "Who's deserted Charlie? That wont do! Back,
+fellers, to the rescue!"
+
+A brave, sympathetic shout arose. A few minutes ago Sid would have been
+afraid of it as something that might attract the enemy's attention, but he
+calculated that they must now be at a safe distance from the down-townies.
+
+"Let's make a flank movement on the enemy," said the president.
+
+"What ith that?" asked Pip.
+
+"Why, not so much to go _at_ them as to go about them and take them
+unawares in the rear."
+
+This mode of attack, which did not necessitate the actual facing of the
+enemy, was very popular and took wonderfully with the club. To Sid, in
+particular, it was a very agreeable mode. He boldly headed this movement.
+He intended to go off in a direction where no enemy would ever be met, but
+in his ignorance of the woods, he took a course that would have led the
+club back to the pond, and it was an agreeable thing for Charlie that he
+did, as that fugitive from the pirates soon was met.
+
+"Hullo, there he is!" shouted Wort.
+
+"Who?" asked Sid, trembling, and fearful that it might be Tim Taylor.
+
+"Here I am, boys," shouted Charlie.
+
+"Ho, to the rescue!" cried Sid, now taking long leaps forward. "Charlie, I
+rescue thee!"
+
+"We are coming to fank de enemy," said Juggie, anxious to have a hand in
+winning the laurels now coming so rapidly to the Knights of the White
+Shield.
+
+"Going to surround the enemy," exclaimed the warlike Sid, "and also rescue
+Charlie, but--but--we might as well go back now. Did you have a hard time,
+Charlie?"
+
+"I did have a time, I tell you," and Charlie eagerly told the story of his
+adventures.
+
+"How we will go back, boys," said the president, "and go round home
+through the woods."
+
+"No, sir," declared Billy, who had somewhat of his cousin's resoluteness;
+"I'm going home the way we came, and if any body stops me, it is his
+lookout."
+
+The heroic sentiment was loudly applauded, and the club returning
+valiantly stormed the railroad fence and carried it--a remarkable feat
+considering that there was nobody on it to oppose them.
+
+Billy Grimes in his earnestness even brought down the top-rail with him.
+
+"Stop, fellers!" warned Sid. "The enemy!" Lifting their eyes to the top of
+the high railroad embankment, they saw Tim in the act of chastising Bob.
+It was afterward ascertained that Tim was rewarding Bob for not helping
+him more efficiently at the time of the raft accident. Tim completed the
+bestowal of this reward, and then noticing the club, he shook his fist at
+them. He did not linger, but followed sullenly by Bob, passed down the
+other side of the embankment. The club did not find out whether this was
+an intended retreat, or simply the taking of a convenient route to reach
+home. They put their own construction on it, and the movement was judged
+to be "a shameful retreat by the enemy." Billy led off in a brave,
+determined charge up the embankment--Sid shouting, "Hurrah! Glory for us!
+Those getting the battle-field are victors, you know!"
+
+Nobody disputed this, and the valiant knights continued their triumphant
+advance to their very homes.
+
+The Fourth was drawing to a close. The sun was breaking out through the
+clouds that had covered the heavens, and so brilliant was the outburst of
+colors, it seemed as if the folds of an immense star-spangled banner had
+been suddenly let loose in the western sky. It very soon paled though. The
+clouds thickened everywhere and the easterly wind that had been blowing
+all the afternoon, bringing occasional mist, now drove to land a blinding
+fog. Finally it began to rain, and yet gently, as if reluctant to spoil
+any festivities of the Fourth. Gathering up all their pyrotechnic
+resources, it was found that the club boys could muster a few pin-wheels,
+five Roman candles, and a "flower-pot." Most of these had been stored in
+the barn, but were now moved out-doors and taken to the shelter of a stout
+leafy maple by the side of the lane.
+
+"The rain wont trouble us here," said the president. "Where is Charlie?"
+
+"He has gone to get his fire-works," replied Billy Grimes. "He left them
+in the house and it is locked, for his Aunt Stanshy has gone out, and he's
+waiting for her, I guess."
+
+"We had better begin, fellers, and he will come soon. The rain is coming,"
+said Sid, warned by a big drop that glancing through the branches smote
+him on the nose. Pin-wheels, candles, and the other attraction were
+pronounced a success, though their discharge was hastened on account of
+the thickening rain.
+
+The boys separated, tired and sleepy, sorry to part with the Fourth, and
+yet secretly glad that there was such a thing as "bed."
+
+"Whar's Charlie," asked Juggie, as the boys separated. No one knew.
+"Good-bye, Charlie!" shouted one after the other, and all hastened to
+their homes.
+
+Charlie was where he had been the last twenty minutes, occupying a seat
+out in the porch at the back door and waiting for Aunt Stanshy. He had
+fallen asleep, so thoroughly tired was this patriotic young American, and
+the day for him was ending as it began--in a chair. Aunt Stanshy came at
+last, feeling her way through the shadows in the porch and striving to
+reach the back door, whose key she carried.
+
+"What's this?" she said, running against the sleeper. "If it isn't that
+boy! And here the rain has been working round into the porch and it is
+coming on him! If you don't take cold, Charles Pitt Macomber, then I am
+mistaken! Wake up, wake up!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+A SICK PATRIOT.
+
+
+The next morning, Aunt Stanshy was stirring at the usual hour, and her
+usual hour in summer was five. She did not generally expect to see Charlie
+down stairs until half past six. This morning, Aunt Stanshy; looked up at
+the clock on the high mantel-piece and saw that it was seven, then half
+after seven, then eight, and half after eight; but all this time there was
+neither sound nor sight of Charlie.
+
+"Massy, where is that boy? I thought I would let him sleep, he was so
+tired, but he ought to be around now," reflected Aunt Stanshy.
+
+She opened the door that led up to his chamber and slowly mounted the
+steep, narrow, yellow stairs, turning to the right into Charlie's sanctum.
+A turn to the left would have taken her to her own room. Peeping into
+Charlie's room, she saw the boy fast asleep on the bed. Stealing softly
+across the bare floor and reaching the red and yellow home-braided rug
+before his bed, she looked down on the sleeping Charlie. A smile parted
+his lips, and be murmured something unintelligible to Aunt Stanshy. Then
+she laid her hand on his head, giving a little start.
+
+"That boy took cold last night, and is a bit feverish. I'll let him lie
+here a spell longer."
+
+Saying this, she was about to turn away, when Charlie's eyes opened.
+
+"That you--you, aunty?"
+
+"Yes; why?"
+
+"I thought it was a dream. I had a dream, and thought we gave the
+down-townies an awful scare."
+
+"You did? Was that what you were smiling at? I mean just now."
+
+"I guess so. And then I believe we were going to give three cheers."
+
+"Well, do you feel like getting up?"
+
+"Y-e-s."
+
+He rose on his elbows, but sank back again.
+
+"I guess, if you have no objection, aunty, I will lie a little longer."
+
+"I guess you had better, for you took cold last night out in the porch.
+Would you like to take your breakfast in bed, and have my little table
+that I lend to people who are sick in bed?"
+
+"O, yes."
+
+"And would you like to have a piece of toast, a little tea, and an
+orange?"
+
+"O, yes. You are the best aunty in the world."
+
+"Am I, dear?"
+
+Aunt Stanshy was not very demonstrative, so that this "dear" was
+exceedingly precious to the warm-hearted Charlie, as was also a small hug
+that she gave him. While she was preparing his breakfast Charlie lay
+quietly in bed, and heard the sound of the rain on the slanting roof. To a
+tired boy in bed, and longing to have some excuse for absence from school,
+what music is sweeter than the sound of rain on the roof? Let it be a real
+north-easter sweeping in from the sea, pushing along a fleet of many
+clouds packed with a heavy cargo of rain, and, as it advances, let this
+wind sound many big, hoarse trumpets all about the houses and barns, up
+and down the streets! An organ in church played by Prof. Jump-up-and-down
+is nothing compared with such a north-easter; Charlie heard the grand
+music of the wind. By and by he heard Aunt Stanshy's step on the stairs.
+She came slowly up, up, and then Charlie saw her turning from the entry
+into his room, bringing the sick-table and Charlie's breakfast She
+bolstered him up in bed, putting two or three fat pillows behind his back.
+Then she put the little sick-table before him. One side had been hollowed
+in, so that an invalid could draw it close about his body. Charlie was now
+the invalid to do that thing. What tea! what toast! what an orange!
+
+"Now that you have some strength, do you want to dress and then come down
+and sit with me in the sitting-room and see me iron?" asked Aunt Stanshy,
+after breakfast.
+
+"O, yes, and not go to school?"
+
+"No school to-day, when that cold is on you."
+
+Charlie crawled into his clothes and went down stairs to the sitting-room.
+Aunt Stanshy was ironing. She generally did her ironing in the
+sitting-room, as the kitchen was very small, and, on a hot day, it was so
+hot there that one felt like sizzling at the touch of water.
+
+"Here are some picture-books for you."
+
+"O, thanks, thanks, aunty!"
+
+"One of those picture-books is about Indian wars."
+
+"Did you ever see an Injun?"
+
+"Not the raving, tearing, tomahawk kind."
+
+"I shouldn't want to see that one."
+
+"Several years ago sort of tame ones used to come round and have baskets
+to sell. My great-great-grandmother had quite an adventure with the real
+kind once."
+
+"O, tell it to me!"
+
+Opening his eyes to that peculiar width appropriate to the hearing of an
+Indian story, Charlie intently listened.
+
+"My great-great-grandmother was all alone one day in the house, for the
+men-folks had gone to market or somewhere. She happened to be looking out
+of the window, when she saw an Indian looking over the fence. What a
+customer! He was an ugly-looking crittur, I don't doubt. What could she
+do, for he might be tomahawking her in less than no time? Wimmin folks, in
+them days, were not like Miss Persnips, that keeps the little
+thread-and-needle store on the corner, without any snap to 'em. My
+great-great-grandmother just tore round that room at a lively rate. She
+slammed the shutters, she banged about the chairs. Then she pretended that
+there were lots of men-folks in the house, and she kept calling to Tom,
+Bill, Jerry, Nehemiah. O, she had a string of 'em, all on her tongue's
+end! I don't know but she pointed a gun out of the winder, man-fashion.
+What did that crittur do but gather up his traps and walk off as harmless
+as a bumble-bee when his sting is gone. I've heard with my own eyes my
+grandmother tell that story about her grandmother."
+
+"Heard her with your eyes?"
+
+"Of course not! With my ears, ears. Where are yours, for pity's sake?
+There is an old garrison-house on the other side of the river, and I will
+show it to you some time, or I will show you what is left. They have built
+over the garrison-house and back of it, making a farm-house of it, but
+there is something still to be seen."
+
+"What a blessed old aunty!" thought Charlie. And the wind, what grand
+music it made! The chimney seemed to be a big bass-viol that this
+north-easter played on.
+
+At noon Aunt Stanshy said, "What will you have for dinner?"
+
+"May I order it, the way I did at a saloon in Boston last summer? May I
+write what I want on paper, and put it on the table?"
+
+"Yes, if orderin' will make it taste better, and it seems to affect some
+folks' vittles that way."
+
+So Charlie and Aunt Stanshy "played saloon." He wrote his order on a slip
+of paper, and left it on the table for her inspection while he went up
+stairs. Directing her spectacles toward it, she read, with some amazement,
+this request:
+
+"Please bring me for dinner, a pickle Aunt Stanshy, would be what you know
+nice to toast."
+
+"Toasted pickle!" exclaimed Aunt Stanshy, in alarm.
+
+Charlie had now returned to the sitting-room.
+
+"You don't mean, Charles Pitt, a toasted pickle!"
+
+"Why, no; ha! ha! There are two things on that paper. I said, 'Please
+bring me for dinner, Aunt Stanshy, what you know to toast.' That is on one
+side, and on the other, 'A pickle would be nice,' and I see now that you
+could read the words straight across, and it would mean what you say; ha!
+ha! I don't expect a pickle, of course, for I am sick, you know."
+
+"O!"
+
+She did not laugh. She was rather mortified to think she had not read the
+order aright. The noblest natures have their infirmities. Afterward, being
+ashamed of herself because she did not take pleasantly this unintended
+joke, she manifested her penitence by getting up an extra dinner for
+Charlie. There was more toast, and even of a finer quality. There was
+another orange, and there was some jelly that Aunt Stanshy took the pains
+to buy at Miss Persnips's store. This was a sweet but thin-voiced little
+woman, who sold a variety of things in a store on the corner of the lane
+and Water Street.
+
+"It is nice to be sick, Aunt Stanshy."
+
+"Do you think so?"
+
+"Yes, just a grain sick."
+
+It was so pleasant to be in the warm, comfortable sitting-room and watch
+the dreary weather out in the lane. The back side of the house butted on
+the lane, no fence intervening. Aunt Stanshy had no objection to such a
+close contact, but rather liked it, declaring it to be "social." She did
+not favor, though, the sociability that drunken sailors manifested several
+times when going from the saloons on Water Street down to their vessels at
+the wharf in which the lane ended. They would stagger against the house,
+pushing one another and bombarding it. Aunt Stanshy was on hand, though. A
+pail of freshly-drawn water, Arctic cold, and from an upper window,
+administered freely to the offenders, had been known to produce a healthy
+effect. Aunt Stanshy's remedies for various troubles might be vigorous,
+but they were generally effective. There was not much passing in the lane,
+that stormy day. A fisherman, in an oil-skin suit, went by, trundling a
+wheel-barrow of fish to a store in town. At noon, somebody else appeared.
+
+"There's Mr. Walton," said Aunt Stanshy.
+
+"And there's Tony with him," said Charlie.
+
+"Where's his father?"
+
+"Tony says he is in Europe."
+
+"He the one that people say is an Italian, and--and--nobody knows what he
+is up to?"
+
+"That's the one, aunty."
+
+The minister and Tony, hand in hand, passed out of sight.
+
+"This is the kind of day when Mr. Walton's mother will be watching the
+weather, looking up at the vane. People say that she has a great deal to
+say about the sea, and takes a great interest in sailors."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Because they say she has a son somewhere at sea."
+
+"And don't any one know where he is really?"
+
+"No; and they have hinted and suspected and guessed and done every thing,
+except ask old Miss Walton right out, but they can't find out a thing.
+She's close as a clam in this matter."
+
+By and by there appeared in the lane a drunken man. As he staggered along
+he was exposed to all the pitiless pelting of the wild north east rain,
+and moved away like a dark, forlorn shadow.
+
+"Poor fellow!" the sympathizing Charlie exclaimed. "Who's that, I wonder?"
+
+"Where?"
+
+"A drunken man in the lane."
+
+"If people would only take the water inside and the rum outside, sort of
+turnin' things round, it would be much better, better," said Aunt Stanshy,
+going to the window. She gave one look and came back to her ironing.
+Charlie thought he heard her sigh. He had already noticed that Aunt
+Stanshy never made fun of drunken people.
+
+"Who is it?" he asked.
+
+She did not answer, but taking up her flat-iron again, pounded the clothes
+with it vigorously, as if trying to call attention from herself to her
+work.
+
+"Is she crying?" thought Charlie.
+
+As if wet with her tears, her spectacles gleamed sharply. The muscles of
+her arms swelled as she pounded the innocent sheet before her, and Charlie
+was reluctant to ask again. For some time there was silence, the only
+interrupting sound being Aunt Stanshy's pound--pound--pound. Charlie sat
+in his chair, looking steadily out upon the somber, dripping rain.
+
+"Don't you want to play something?"
+
+It was Aunt Stanshy speaking. A troubled look on her face had passed away
+and she was ironing quietly again.
+
+"Yes;" said Charlie, "you--you sick?"
+
+Aunt Stanshy gave no answer to this, but asked again, "Don't you want to
+play?"
+
+"Play what?"
+
+"Boat."
+
+"Boat! how!"
+
+"O make believe, you know."
+
+Charlie thought in silence.
+
+"You lend me a box, aunty?"
+
+"Yes, certainly."
+
+"And that little broom you sweep with?"
+
+The amateur ship-carpenter went to work.
+
+"There is my mast," said Charlie, securing the broom to the bottom of the
+box which he had turned over. "Now I must have sails. It is going to be a
+monitor, too, like what I read about in a book the other day."
+
+After some effort, and more tribulation, there appeared a splendid piece
+of naval architecture, a monitor with a turret, the deck bordered with a
+twine-railing, two sails hanging down from Aunt Stanshy's small broom.
+
+"That broom makes me think of what I learned at school when I was a girl."
+
+"What was that?"
+
+"I am not much of a scholar, but I remember this. Admiral Tromp was a
+Dutchman, and commanded a fleet that went against the English. Tromp was
+so successful that he tied a broom to his mast-head and went sailing over
+the waters, and that meant he had swept his enemy from the sea, and if he
+hadn't, he would certainly do it and make clean work of it. Over the blue
+waters he went skipping along, feeling dreadful big, with that broom at
+the mast-head. The English boys, though, came at him again and whipped
+him, and poor Tromp was finally killed in a sea-fight. I don't know what
+became of his broom. You had better call that an English and not a Dutch
+broom."
+
+When Charlie went up stairs that night, the _Neponset_ as he called the
+monitor, was still sailing in the sitting-room, its sails all set, its
+broom at the mast-head. He thought it was splendid to be sick.
+
+"How long do you think this sickness may go on?" was the last question he
+asked Aunt Stanshy that night.
+
+"O, if it is a slow fever, it might last several weeks, but I don't want
+to discourage you."
+
+"Discourage!" It was magnificent. Two or three weeks of toast and jelly
+and oranges and many soft words, and not a few hugs! That night he was
+dreaming of boxes of oranges he was emptying, and of glasses of jelly big
+as hogsheads, out of which he was taking jelly by the shovelful! The next
+morning he felt--though unwilling to confess it--much better. At noon keen
+old Dr. Pillipot happened to come along, and Aunt Stanshy referred
+Charlie's case to him. Old Dr. Pillipot bent his sharp, gray eyes down
+toward Charlie and made up a horrid face as he growled, "Let me see your
+tongue, young man. Hem! Looks quite well. Let me feel your pulse. So!
+Quite good. The weather has changed, and as it is mild and sunny, he might
+walk down to school this--afternoon.
+
+"O dear!" groaned Charlie, when the doctor had left. "I wish I had scared
+his horse off when I saw him coming down the lane. You and I, aunty, did
+have such a nice time!"
+
+O, the trials of this life!
+
+Charlie, though, had a dose of comfort from Aunt Stanshy. She told him he
+need not go to school until the next day, and when the morning came, she
+said:
+
+"I believe the _Neponset_ took a cargo on board in the night."
+
+There in the shadow of the mast-head was a column of doughnuts!
+
+"You may take them all to school with you, Charlie."
+
+Now he was glad that he was not sick. He disposed of six doughnuts that
+forenoon, and as these, if tied together, would have made good chain-shot
+for the monitor, and yet did not affect him unfavorably, it was proof that
+Charlie was restored to health.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE NAILED DOOR AND WINDOW.
+
+
+Charlie made a discovery in the barn. In that side toward the river there
+was a door on the first floor, and there was also a window in the chamber
+above. Not only was the door closed, and closed also was the wooden
+shutter of the window, but over each iron hook dropped in its staple and
+securing the door and window were two nails stoutly driven. All this
+Charlie had noticed before. He now traced these half-obliterated words in
+chalk on the door: "This is not to be opened." He was standing before this
+prohibition, wondering who put it there, and for what purpose, thinking
+how nice it would be to have the door open that the club might have a
+chance to get down that way into the dock. Then he thought how pleasant it
+would be, also, to have the window open that the club might have a lookout
+upon the river and off toward the sea, on whose blue rim, a mile away,
+could be seen the white tower of the light-house, where Simes Badger and
+his assistant served their country alternate days. Suddenly, Charlie heard
+a thick, hoarse voice behind him: "Your Aunt Stanshy in, sonny?"
+
+Charlie turned, somewhat startled, and there was Simes Badger himself.
+
+"She has gone out, I guess, sir."
+
+"What are you looking at that door for? I don't believe your Aunt Stanshy
+wants you to open it."
+
+"O, I was not going to open it."
+
+If, after the half-effaced chalk-marks, Charlie had seen a written threat,
+"On pain of death," he could not have been more determined to let that
+window alone.
+
+"Do you know, Mr. Badger, who shut and nailed that window?"
+
+"Aunt Stanshy herself. I saw her with my own eyes."
+
+"You did?"
+
+"Yes. You see--there, I don't know but I'm telling a secret--but then you
+won't say any thing."
+
+Having made this prudent remark, and not waiting for any promise from
+Charlie, Simes, who dearly loved to tell a thing, and especially any thing
+that might astonish a hearer, began his story.
+
+"You see, Tim Tyler is your Aunt Stanshy's second cousin."
+
+"Tim's father?" said Charlie, in astonishment.
+
+"You mean young Tim Tyler's father? Ginerally old Tim is young Tim's
+father, sartin as the sea is father of our river. But this old Tim is
+young Tim's uncle. Then you didn't know it? Well, you are young, and I
+spose nobody told you. Well, Stanshy and old Tim were brought up side by
+side in this neighborhood and were good as chickens to one another. Some
+folks say they'd been better friends still, if their parents hadn't set
+their faces agin it, and so they were never married to one another. They
+were never married at all. Did you ever see old Tim?"
+
+"I don't know as ever I saw old Tim, but then I've seen _that_ boy, and he
+is rough," said Charlie, recalling the afternoon of the Fourth.
+
+"Tim Tyler don't live in this part of the town, and it's no wonder you
+never saw him. He hardly ever comes down this way now, though he often did
+once. Well, the wust lookin' old drunkard you ever see about town, spot
+him for Tim."
+
+"Then I guess I have seen him," remarked Charlie, recalling the drunkard
+he had watched the afternoon of his severe sickness, and remembering, too,
+Aunt Stanshy's singular conduct.
+
+"Tim looks poorly enough now, but it wasn't so once. Straight and smart,
+and bright as the blades of a new jack-knife, was Tim. His face was
+blushin' like a posy, and his beard was long and handsome, like Moses the
+prophet's. He was nice as a pictur till rum got the better of him, and
+then he changed, I tell ye. For many years he had the privilege of fishin'
+from this barn. From the stairs on the 'tother side of that door, he would
+get down into his fishin' boat in the dock. He would bring his fish in
+here, split 'em and prepare 'em for market. Sometimes Stanshy kept a horse
+and cow below, and then Tim would hist his fare into the upper window and
+clean his fish there. But one day Aunt Stanshy cleaned him out, and when
+Stanshy starts on a cleanin' tour, she makes thorough work of it, and puts
+things through promptly. And she did clean out old Tim! But I must go back
+and hitch the horse into the cart, and say what you know as well as I,
+that your Aunt Stanshy is a great teetotaler, a leetle too much I think."
+[Simes liked his nip.] "But seein' how her minister's in favor of it, she
+is wuss than ever. Now to go on. Your father, boy, let me say, had a hand
+in this trouble, though not meaningly, and it was this way. Tour father
+came to live with your Aunt Stanshy, and one day Tim took him out
+a-fishin', and not only tipped a jug to his own lips, but sot it to your
+father's also. When they came back home, it was plain they had been up to
+suthin' besides fishin'. Well, Tim might as well have touched a lion's
+whip--what do you call it?"
+
+"Whelp. I was reading about lions to-day."
+
+"Yes, touched a lion's whelp as touched your father; for didn't Aunt
+Stanshy pitch into him! I heard it all. It was when he was a-splittin'
+fish, and Aunt Stanshy came out, and didn't she walk into Tim! I never see
+an eel skinned more purtily than she dressed Tim for temptin' a poor,
+motherless boy, as she called your father. 'Don't!' your father would go,
+tryin' to pacify her; 'don't!' It had no more effect than tryin' to fan
+out of the way a tornader. Indeed, jest because she and Tim had been on
+good terms with one another and understood one another so well, I think
+for that reason she was all the hotter. You know when brothers do quarrel,
+they go it wuss than other folks. Well, Tim at fust would say nothing but
+he was orful mad. He was that kind of mad that you see in the sky when a
+thunder-storm is brewin', and yet no rain has fallen; only the flash is
+there, and the thunder is there a-rumblin', and the lightnin' is there a
+sawin' up and down, but nary a drop of rain! At last Tim spoke, and he
+declared it was the last he'd ever have to do with her, and afore he'd ask
+a favor of her, he took a horrid oath, he'd see hisself a-drownin' in that
+dock fust. I hated to hear him swear that way, for, sez I, 'Young man, you
+may get there yet, and you may be glad to have Stanshy's help.' Then he
+took a barrel of fish he was fillin', and he was so mad he rolled the
+whole mess into the water, sayin' he would have nothin' to do with any
+thing that had touched Aunt Stanshy's barn. I asked him why he didn't then
+throw himself over! That touched him up, and he grabbed his knives and
+pitched them into the dock. It was a queer sight to see them fish in that
+barrel floatin' away. But then the rum was in him and maddened him. When
+he had left, it was Aunt Stanshy's turn to do suthin'. I heard it all, for
+I was in the yard doin' a few chores for Stanshy. Fust, there was a slam
+in the barn chamber. I jest slipped up them stairs and peeked over the
+edge of the floor. Stanshy had pulled the shutter in with a vengeance.
+Then she hooked it and drove the nails over the hook as tight as bricks. O
+she is a woman of 'mazin' vigor, Stanshy is, when she gets agoin'. She
+came down stairs and she fastened up this door, and then I seed her
+fumblin' in her pocket, and, pullin' out a piece of chalk, she began to
+write. When Stanshy had finished, of course, I was at my chores agin very
+busily engaged. Well, since that day, there has been silence between
+Stanshy and Tim like that round the old tombstones in the church-yard. I
+hope some day it will be different."
+
+With this benevolent wish, Simes closed.
+
+"A bad scrape," remarked Charlie.
+
+"Yes, people ought not to drink so much," said the abstemious and ascetic
+Simes. "They ought to stop this side of a drop too much."
+
+"They ought to stop this side of any drop at all," stoutly affirmed the
+young member of Mr. Walton's temperance society.
+
+"Pre--pre--haps so," replied Simes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE ENTERTAINMENT.
+
+
+Aunt Stanshy, as she looked down upon the sitting-room table, saw
+Charlie's curly head bending over pen, ink, and card-board. He had cut the
+card-board into strips three inches long and two inches wide.
+
+"What have you there?"
+
+Charlie was too much occupied to notice this remark.
+
+"What are you doing?"
+
+"Making tickets."
+
+"Tickets?"
+
+"Yes, will you buy one?"
+
+"I want to see first what I am going to buy."
+
+"You may."
+
+Aunt Stanshy then read these lines on a slip of card-board:
+
+     -------------------------------------------
+    |     Ticket to the Up-the-Ladder Boys'     |
+    |             ENTERTAINMENT.                |
+    |    Admission, 2 nails. Seat, 10 nails.    |
+    | Elders' admission, 1 cent. Seat, 2 cents. |
+     -------------------------------------------
+
+"O, that is it I Could I go in for nails, or a cent?"
+
+"For a cent."
+
+"Then I'm an 'elder.'"
+
+"Yes, aunty."
+
+"Well, I'll engage a seat."
+
+"Goody! That will be two cents. We did think of breaking up the club, but
+this will cheer them up. Wouldn't it be too bad to give up? Our new silk
+badges that our teacher promised, we have this week."
+
+"The shields?"
+
+"Yes, spick and span new."
+
+"I hope my two cents will encourage them to be good knights."
+
+"O it will. You will be on hand this afternoon, after school?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+After school, Aunt Stanshy was on hand promptly, and she judged by the
+noises issuing from the barn that all the others were on hand also. She
+climbed the, stairs and was about stepping into the chamber, when Pip, the
+assistant sentinel, came forward. He looked very formidable. A scarlet cap
+was on his head, a white belt tied round his body, and red flannel
+epaulets decorated his shoulders. He bore a terrible broom, and Aunt
+Stanshy recalled the fact that it had served as mast for the _Neponset_.
+
+"Who goeth there?" cried the valorous Pip.
+
+"Aunt Stanshy," said a feeble voice.
+
+"Advanth and give the counterthign?"
+
+"I can't."
+
+Pip leveled his broom at once. Poor Stanshy, how she wished she had made
+her will.
+
+"Bang!" he shouted.
+
+Could she survive this?
+
+"Thay pertatoeth!" he whispered.
+
+"Pertatoes," she fortunately shrieked.
+
+"All right," said Pip, and she was spared a second shot.
+
+"I'm thankful to get through safe, and now I have not to pay, after all
+that risk?"
+
+"Certainly, madam," politely replied Charlie, the treasurer, who now met
+her. "I'll take your ticket and punch it."
+
+Having punched her ticket, he retired. Aunt Stanshy looked about the
+chamber. She noticed that an old thin sheet served for curtain, as before,
+and another was strung across a corner and separated it from the rest of
+the chamber. This second curtain not being long enough to reach the
+desired distance, was pieced out by a strip of wire netting in one corner.
+Looking over this corner curtain, Aunt Stanshy saw eight pieces of
+carpeting on the floor, each member of the club having furnished a piece.
+Inside this sanctuary were a barrel and a saw-horse.
+
+"What is this for?" asked Aunt Stanshy.
+
+"O for meetings," said Charlie. "Only the four principals can go in
+there."
+
+"Who are they?"
+
+"The president, the governor, the first treasury, and the keeper of the
+great seal. We stand on the barrel and saw-horse, and make laws to the
+other members of the club, who stand outside."
+
+Aunt Stanshy now turned to inspect the other parts of the chamber.
+
+"This is our whipping-post," said Charlie, calling attention to a post
+against which leaned the ladder that sloped up to the cupola.
+
+"Have you whipped any one?"
+
+"Yes; Pip deserted once."
+
+Aunt Stanshy read three notices nailed to the post: "First, no cross
+words; no swearing and vulgar words; nobody but the treasurer to climb
+this ladder to go up into the cupola, unless the club say so."
+
+This was in Charlie's handwriting.
+
+"Why not go?" asked Aunt Stanshy.
+
+"O we keep our funds up there in a dipper."
+
+"It looks unsafe to me, for somebody climbing up there might reach into
+the cup and steal the money."
+
+"O no, I guess not."
+
+Sid Waters now stepped forward. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "two more
+individuals having arrived"--these were nail patrons--"we will begin our
+entertainment. First is the dialogue called 'The Spy.'"
+
+The curtain rose and there stood the inheritor of the warlike name of
+Jugurtha. He was rather sober and melancholy, and was dressed in a
+semi-military style that betrayed not in the least the fact to what flag
+he might possibly be attached. Sid was crouching down, hiding behind a
+barrel.
+
+"What am I?" Juggie now asked in low tones, "American or British?"
+
+"Of course," Sid was heard to say, "you are an American, or ought to be.
+Hush up!"
+
+Juggie now strode over the floor, an exiled broom-handle resting on his
+shoulder. Suddenly a step was heard. From the rear of a box crept out the
+governor. He wore a farmer's dress, and was half smothered under his
+father's tall hat.
+
+"Advance!" shouted Juggie, "and gib de count--count--"
+
+"Countersign!" whispered the prompter behind the barrel.
+
+"Count-de-sign!" shouted Juggie, pompously, at the same time presenting
+the broom-handle threateningly.
+
+"George Washington!" answered the farmer.
+
+"All right. Go 'long dar!"
+
+"No, no!" whispered Sid. "Let me see your papers, friend!"
+
+"Let me see your papers, friend!"
+
+The farmer reads his pass.
+
+"Is dat all?"
+
+"All."
+
+"Knock off his hat," whispered Sid.
+
+"What's de matter wid your hat?" and as Juggie shouted this, he fetched
+the governor's hat a merciless rap, one that would have been serious had
+not the governors head luckily been in the first story of the hat. As the
+hat dropped, Juggie seized a paper that fell out, and exclaimed, "A spy, a
+spy! A note to de British commander!"
+
+"Seize him! That is the next thing," suggested Sid, in smothered tones.
+But the British spy was too much for Juggie, and the defender of the
+continental name was obliged to resort to severe measures. Presenting the
+broom-handle, he shouted, "Aim! Fire! Bang!" but the spy was not
+considerate enough to fall.
+
+"Drop! drop, why don't you?" whispered Juggie. "You've been shot."
+
+The spy, _alias_ the governor, showed his usual firmness, and continued to
+stand.
+
+"Drop!" besought Sid, in a suppressed voice. "Shoot him again, Juggie!"
+
+But the spy did not care to be riddled again and he prudently fell.
+
+"Drag him out, Juggie!" was the prompting of an unknown voice. Juggie
+seized one of the spy's fat legs, but pulled in vain. It was an impossible
+_feet_. Sid and Charlie now appeared as continentals, supposed to be armed
+with guns, and were helping Juggie, when the cry was raised, "The British
+army is coming!" At the head of the stairs appeared Wort Wentworth, his
+head decorated with a red paper helmet, and carrying on his body various
+insignia of war. He now made a fierce charge across the floor.
+
+"Into the fort!" shouted Sid, rushing toward the closet, and, as usual,
+striving after the first chance to retreat. "Into the fort, my men!"
+
+After him scrambled Charlie and Juggie, the dead "spy" manifesting an
+unusual energy and scrambling after them, forgetting that his friends were
+in his rear and not in the closet. The next moment all heard an ominous
+descent from the second to the first story.
+
+"Massy!" shouted Aunt Stanshy. "Somebody has gone down that fodder-box
+agin!"
+
+She rushed down stairs, followed by the "British army," and all the
+members of the Up-the Ladder Club that could move one leg before the
+other.
+
+"I know those legs! I guess they will stand it," said Aunt Stanshy, as she
+reached the lower floor and caught a glimpse of the fodder-box. It was the
+British spy, whose stout pedestals were sticking out, and he only needed
+to be once more seized and dragged forward by Juggie and the other
+"continentals" to give proof of his vigorous, embalmed condition.
+
+"Sakes, boy!" said Aunt Stanshy. "I thought you were shot, but you
+manifest an immense amount of vitality for a dead man."
+
+"I came down rather sudden," said the governor.
+
+"Yes, and it's the last time," exclaimed Aunt Stanshy, "that thing is
+going to happen. I will go up myself and fix that floor, and do it
+thoroughly."
+
+In a few moments her hammer was heard vigorously pounding in the closet
+and securing the club against future harm.
+
+"We didn't do all we intended," said Charlie. "We were going to have a
+reconciliation, aunty."
+
+"Between whom?"
+
+"The British and Americans. We were going to have the President of the
+United States and Queen Victoria walk arm in arm up and down the floor,
+and never have war any more."
+
+In the confusion attendant upon the fall of the "spy," the programme was
+not carried out as planned, and the shadows of those two eminent rulers
+never darkened the floor of the barn chamber.
+
+"May war never happen, just the same!" said Aunt Stanshy.
+
+Amen! so say we all of us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE CUPOLA.
+
+
+Aunt Stanshy was reading one day the list of prohibitions posted up
+against the post in the barn chamber.
+
+"Charlie," she said "I like what is said here, that no cross words and no
+bad words must be spoken here; but what does it mean when it says _no one_
+but the 'treasury' must climb the ladder and go up into the cupola? Does
+that apply to honorary members? and did you think that I might want to go
+there?"
+
+Charlie's mouth opened into a crack from ear to ear. "Why--why, the money
+is up in the cupola!"
+
+"The money is up there in the cupola? Yes, I knew that; you told me that
+before. What holds your money?"
+
+"A tin dipper."
+
+"Well, now, if you don't look out, somebody will steal your money. You may
+be assured that honorary members won't trouble it."
+
+"Ho!" shouted Charlie. "There goes a man and a hand organ and a monkey."
+
+The dignity of the club was not sufficient to restrain Charlie and several
+others from an almost headlong rush for the out-door attraction, and they
+quickly surrounded the organ-grinder. He owned a remarkable monkey, the
+boys thought, especially when he mounted by a spout to the window of Aunt
+Stanshy's chamber, and, entering it, soon re-appeared shaking in his hand
+Aunt Stanshy's spectacles!
+
+"Put 'em on!" cried Sid.
+
+"He can, he can!" said his master. "Me taught him."
+
+The next moment the spectacles appeared on the monkey's nose!
+
+"He look like _her_," said the organ-grinder.
+
+But the monkey did not have time to continue his resemblance to the fair
+owner any longer, for the shadow of a broom fell over him, and if he had
+not made a very nimble spring for the spout, something besides a shadow
+would have fallen upon him, even the broom itself. This was now seen at
+the window, and Aunt Stanshy behind it. It was Tony who gallantly ran
+forward and rescued Aunt Stanshy's spectacles as their wearer was about
+quitting the spout for the ground.
+
+"We think that monkey is very smart, Aunt Stanshy," said Sid.
+
+"I expect you will make him an honorary member the next thing."
+
+"He's bright enough," said Sid.
+
+"I wonder how bright one must be to be an honorary member if--if--a
+monkey is the standard?" thought Aunt Stanshy.
+
+This visit from the monkey was not the only unusual thing happening that
+day. The club heard with sorrow of the unexpected and total loss of their
+money! Charlie, as "treasury," had gone up the ladder, but returning, he
+reported that the dipper, the safe of the club, was missing.
+
+"How much money was in it?" inquired Aunt Stanshy.
+
+"Ten cents."
+
+"I said you might lose your money."
+
+This was entirely true, but it was poor consolation. Indeed, it was quite
+aggravating.
+
+"Did you have any mark on the dipper?"
+
+"Yes; a shield on the bottom, though--though--'twas not a very good one."
+
+No, to that day it remained uncertain what the device really was, and its
+character had been hotly discussed in the club.
+
+Charlie had discovered the theft on his return from school at noon.
+Swallowing a potato and a few mouthfuls of steak, he then rushed from the
+house to report the loss to the club. In a short time all the white
+shields had heard the news, and quickly gathered.
+
+"Well, boys, what is to be done?" asked the president.
+
+Nobody knew.
+
+"Let's climb the ladder and all take a look," suggested the secretary.
+
+Exceedingly nimble were the legs that went wriggling up the ladder, and
+very curious eyes were directed toward the depths of the "cupelo," but the
+only result was a succession of "My!" and "That's so!" and "Too bad!"
+
+"I've got it!" shouted Sid.
+
+"He'th found it," said Pip.
+
+Every sad face brightened.
+
+"No, I haven't, Pip!" exclaimed Sid.
+
+"But you thaid tho."
+
+"No, I meant that I knew what had become of it."
+
+"O! O!" said Pip. "But what hath become of it?"
+
+Sid here looked about him, to make sure that no one outside of the club
+was listening.
+
+"Well, boys, I think Tim Tyler took it"
+
+"What makes-you think so?" inquired the governor.
+
+"It has just come to me that I saw Tim Tyler go down the lane after
+school, and a tin dipper stuck out of his pocket."
+
+"You did?" asked several.
+
+All eyes opened wide in wonder and indignation.
+
+"With my eyes I saw him. That's where the dipper has gone."
+
+It did not occur to the club that there were more dippers than one in the
+world, and then they did not care to think of it. They had not forgotten
+the Fourth, and they wanted to believe something bad of Tim.
+
+Another point for discussion came up at once, and Charlie suggested it.
+
+"How shall we get the dipper away from Tim?" he asked.
+
+"I move the president go," said Wort.
+
+"I thecond the mothion," cried Pip.
+
+"Aint you good," was Sid's scornful notice of the intended honor.
+"Presidents don't do that, but the police of the club. I preside."
+
+"The sentinel is the police, and that is Juggie, but he is not here now;
+he went home a moment ago. Then, of course, his assistant must do it;" and
+he here turned toward Pip.
+
+"Yes, Pip," said boy after boy.
+
+Poor, trembling Pip! Didn't he wish he had been born in the previous
+century! No amount of coaxing could prevail upon, him to approach the
+dreadful dragon that had carried off the tin dipper, and every body else
+declined the same honor.
+
+Finally Wort made this offer:
+
+"I'll go down to-Old Tim's boat, and Tim may be hanging round, and I'll
+see what I can see."
+
+This was a relief to the club, and entirely safe for Wort.
+
+"I'll go at once," he said, and away he went.
+
+Charlie went up to a store on "Water Street at the same time, and chanced
+to meet Miss Bertha Barry.
+
+"We've met with a loss," said Charlie, with a sober face.
+
+"Any one dead?"
+
+"O no; but the club has lost its tin dipper."
+
+"Tin dipper?"
+
+"Yes, teacher, where we kept our money."
+
+"O!"
+
+"All our money has gone."
+
+"How much!"
+
+"Ten cents."
+
+"Hem, hem; sorry."
+
+"We think we know who did it."
+
+"You know certainly."
+
+"No, but we think we do, and the feller is just bad enough to do it."
+
+"It's pretty hard to have people think you are bad; and then, if you are
+thought to have done something you were never guilty of, that is worse
+still. I don't think it fair to charge a wrong thing on any body unless we
+know pretty certainly. It is not just."
+
+Charlie had not thought of it _that_ way before.
+
+"I guess you are right, teacher."
+
+Bidding her good-bye, he was moving off, when she said: "Stop one moment.
+Whoever that boy is, I wish you'd get him out to Sunday-school."
+
+"What an idea!" thought Charlie. "Tim Tyler's going to Sunday-school!"
+
+In the meantime Wort had been prosecuting his bold investigations. He
+strolled down the lane, passing several cottages, and then a fish-house,
+where several men were splitting and salting fish. All these were on the
+left side of the lane. On the right was a long dock, and in it were
+several boats.
+
+"There is Tim Tyler," exclaimed Wort, "and there is his boat. There is
+young Tim, the thief!"
+
+It was an old boat that Wort looked into as he stood upon the stairs
+leading down into the dock. It was a boat badly battered, like its owner.
+
+"If the red paint could be got off Tim's nose and put on his boat, it
+would be better for both," thought Wort.
+
+Old Tim was fixing a net in the stem of his boat. Young Tim was in another
+part of the dock, hunting amid the muddy flats for relics.
+
+"There she is!" said Wort to himself. He had detected a dipper in the
+bottom of the boat. "Now is my chance," thought Wort. He reached down to
+the coveted dipper. It was a venerable piece of tinware.
+
+"That's too old to be ours," reflected the daring Wort. "Let me turn it
+over and see if there is a mark on the bottom. Bah, an old worm! That is
+not our dipper."
+
+"Here, you thief! what are you meddlin' with that property for?" roared a
+voice.
+
+It was Old Tim. His face was red as a boiled lobster, and as he crooked
+his bare arms and rested them on his hips, they looked like the claws of a
+mammoth lobster ready to crawl out and seize any offender.
+
+"Guess I'll go," thought Wort, and off he hurried to tell the club his
+ill-success, and that their detective in search of a thief had been called
+one.
+
+A few minutes later Juggie exclaimed to the disconsolate circle, "Dar's de
+organ-grinder."
+
+It was indeed he hurrying along the lane and turning a troubled face
+toward the barn, for no monkey came with him. Had he lost his friend from
+the far South?
+
+"He gone!" said the grinder, as he reached the boys. "You sheen him?"
+
+"Seen your monkey?" asked Sid.
+
+"Yes, yes! You sheen my leetle mun-kee?"
+
+"Why, no."
+
+"You--you--you," and the grinder swept the circle to find out if any one
+had seen the lost favorite. No one had seen him.
+
+"O, O dear!" lamented the grinder excitedly.
+
+Poor organ-grinder! his face was wrinkled as badly as that of his missing
+assistant when attempting to pick a very bad nut.
+
+"You go--find--my--mun-kee?"
+
+"O, yes," said the president, "we will hunt. Come on."
+
+They scattered, tumbling over fences, climbing shed roofs, diving into
+corners, shouting, yelling, and stirring up the neighborhood thoroughly.
+It did no good. "My munkee" refused to be found.
+
+The boys went to school and returned, meeting in the barn chamber once
+more.
+
+"There's some business to be done, Mr. President," said the "securtary,"
+in a very formal way. But where was the president? He was no more to be
+found than the monkey. A little later, Wort Wentworth was looking out of
+the window.
+
+"Here comes Sid," he shouted.
+
+Sid was running through the yard, when, seeing the boys at the window, he
+stopped, and shouted excitedly:
+
+"O, fellers, I have made a discovery! It's all out now. Come!"
+
+What was out he did not say, but turned and speedily was out himself in
+the lane.
+
+"Come on, boys," called the governor, and down the stairs they went,
+rushing, shoving, tumbling, just in time to see the last of Sid's legs
+disappearing round the corner of the house. They hurried after him, down
+the lane, then up a little passage-way between two buildings on the left.
+Then they turned aside to the rear of a barn, and there the panting,
+confused group halted.
+
+"There!" said Sid, solemnly, pointing as he spoke. "The mystery is over.
+Poor feller!"
+
+Dangling from the roof by a cord that was twisted round his neck, swung
+the dead monkey! In the grasp of his rigid paw was the missing dipper.
+
+"I see the shield!" sang out Wort. Yes, there was the mark identifying the
+stolen property. Poor little child of the tropics, swinging in his leafy,
+native haunts from bough to bough, gripping the branches with paw and
+tail, he little anticipated that his last swing would be by the neck, like
+that of a murderer from the black, unsightly gallows! He had strayed away,
+carrying with him the cord binding him to his master's wrist. In his
+peregrinations over various roofs, he had examined the cupola, and
+reaching a paw through an opening where a slat chanced to have been
+removed, he had abstracted the property of the club. Whatever money was in
+the dipper had been spilled hopelessly as marbles in the sea. Attempting
+to come down by a spout from the last barn-roof visited, he was entangled
+in the cord that had caught about a nail in the roof. Finally, the cord
+was twisted about his neck and twisted the life out of him. The thief was
+holding out the dipper as if asking for more, and showing that the ruling
+passion was strong in death. There were many sighs from the
+tender-hearted, sympathetic boys. All were ready to pity and forgive, but
+pity and forgiveness could not bring the little creature back to life.
+
+"Let's bury him!" said a tearful voice. It was Tony, who said little
+generally, but he was now moved to speak in his secret sympathy for this
+wandering child of the sun. The organ-grinder was notified, and then a
+grave was dug for his dead property under the leafiest apple-tree. Charlie
+furnished a box, and Wort brought fresh straw from his stable. The box
+with its occupant was laid in the grave, and the pitiful face of the
+monkey was then covered up forever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+AUNT STANSHY'S BOARDER.
+
+
+Aunt Stanshy had often said she would never have boarders, and she would
+"go to the almshouse first," yes, she "would." One day, though, there came
+to the house a frank, lively, irrepressible young man of nineteen.
+
+"I am a stranger here," he said, "but my name is Somers, Will Somers, and
+I have come here to be a clerk in Tilton's apothecary-store; been in
+Boston, you know, with Tompkins & Thomas, Tilton, when he was up the other
+day at our store, said that he wanted a clerk and offered me the chance,
+which I concluded to accept. I want a boarding-place, marm; but what a
+town this is? Do I look like a tramp, and if I don't, what is the matter
+that I cant get a boarding-house? Do I look like one?"
+
+Here he looked at Aunt Stanshy, making such an appeal with his frank, blue
+eyes, that Aunt Stanshy could not well do otherwise than say, "Why, no!"
+
+"Then wont you take me?"
+
+"O--I--I--said I never would take boarders,--and--and--I am
+unprepared,--and--and--"
+
+"O this room will do first-rate. I shouldn't want one any better, really.
+I know"--here he gave a very approving glance about the room. "Now come,
+do! It would please mother very much."
+
+"Have you a mother living?"
+
+"O yes, and she is one of the best mothers, too, and I think you look like
+her. There are four of us brothers. How much your little boy looks like my
+little brother Willie at home! Come here," he said to Charlie, who had
+opened the door to ask Aunt Stanshy a question, "come here and see what
+apothecaries carry in their pockets. Some folks think they only carry
+drugs and such things, but you see if it is so?" Here he put into
+Charlie's fat hand a long and toothsome piece of checkerberry pipe stem!
+
+"He is not my little boy really," explained Aunt Stanshy, and then she
+went on to say who Charlie was, and also told about other things, finally
+saying so much concerning the Macomber family that he ceased to be a
+stranger and seemed to become a relative, a species of long-absent son,
+and consistently what could Aunt Stanshy do but let Will Somers--an
+arrival in Seamont only a few hours old--have that sacred apartment--her
+front room?
+
+"What a fool I am!" soliloquized Aunt Stanshy. She watched Will Somers go
+down the street after the interview, and heard him whistling "The girl I
+left behind me." Did he mean Aunt Stanshy? "I'm a nat'ral-born fool, I do
+believe," she exclaimed, "letting a perfect stranger have that room; but
+there, it will be sort of nice having him round. I s'pose he will want to
+stick a lot of things into that room." And didn't he stick up "things" and
+make changes? Down came the two yellow crockery crow-biddies that had
+roosted on the mantelpiece the last twenty years, never having paid for
+the privilege with a single crow. Down came two vases of dried grasses.
+Down came a flaming red, yellow, orange, and green print of an American
+farm-yard. Up went various things. Over the mantel-piece was suspended a
+picture of Abraham Lincoln, garnished with American flags, and along the
+mantel-piece was ranged a row of photographs, principally of young ladies,
+several fans coming at intervals, while about the room, on various
+brackets, stood more photographs, mostly feminine, and more flags, all
+American. It ought to be said in fairness that, while several of the young
+ladies did not have at all a family look, others did, and were introduced
+to Aunt Stanshy as Will's sisters. He had a flag over his mother's
+picture. Then there was a red-hot chromo of a fire-engine, and a cool one
+of two white bears on a cake of ice.
+
+"O dear, what a boarder!" said Aunt Stanshy, going into the room
+twenty-four hours after it had been very orderly arranged by her. "Things
+are stirred up now. It looks like a tornader."
+
+That was the way it generally appeared, and yet Will Somers, impulsive,
+careless, thoughtless, but frank, enthusiastic, generous, dashing, and
+honorable always, was very popular with Aunt Stanshy and Charlie. In
+Charlie's eyes he was a marvelous being. Such wonderful fires in the city
+as he told Charlie about! And then, what did Aunt Stanshy's boarder do but
+join the "Cataract" engine company in Seamont! He made a stir generally in
+the old place, starting a gymnasium and organizing a "reading circle," and
+putting things generally in a whirl. He had a "voice," and he had a
+guitar, so that his "serenades" were famous; and he set Aunt Stanshy's
+heart all in a flutter one night when, awaking about twelve, she heard his
+well-known voice leading off in a serenade, while he twanged his guitar to
+the tune, "O dearest love, do you remember?" Will Somers was popular in a
+very short time with every body. In the club-circle he was the object of
+an open, undisguised admiration. They quickly made him an honorary member,
+and he quickly set them up a "pair of bars," put in proper position the
+ladder, and suspended swings, that they might practice gymnastics every
+day. Every mother who had a boy in that club expected almost any day that
+her idol might be brought home stretched on a shutter or bundled up in a
+wheelbarrow. No limb though was broken, and there were some wonderful
+developments of "muscle" (so the club thought). One day the new honorary
+member made an offer.
+
+"Boys, I can have the next Saturday afternoon that comes along, and Aunt
+Stanshy says there is a garrison-house on the other side of the river.
+Come, I'll hire a boat and take you over."
+
+"O good!" "Yes, we'll go!" "Three cheers!" "Hurrah for Will Somers!" were
+some of the outcries greeting the proposition.
+
+"I think, boys, all the honorary members ought to be invited."
+
+"Certainly," said Sid, and Aunt Stanshy was invited.
+
+"See me going! The idea!" she exclaimed.
+
+"What if the minister should see me going off with a parcel of boys!"
+
+"He would say you were a very sensible woman," said Charlie, and Aunt
+Stanshy went.
+
+The club admired the rowing of Will Somers as he performed with bare arms
+and showed a "fearful muscle." The boat was a very large one accommodating
+all-the party, but the oars-man refused to have any help, and progress was
+slow. At last the other side of the river was reached in safety. They
+walked through a ship-yard, and then, turned into a country road, sweet
+with wild flowers, nodding on either side. Beyond this they came to a
+piece of road, bordered with stiff, stout pines.
+
+"There it is!" said Aunt Stanshy. "It is that block-house."
+
+"What! the garrison-house?" inquired Sid. "Big as that? I thought they
+were smaller."
+
+"The real garrison-house is in the corner, this way, and makes one room on
+the first floor. People that came to live in the garrison-house built
+above it and built beyond it, turning the garrison-house into a single
+room in a big, old-fashioned building. Mr. Parlin, may we take a look at
+the garrison-house?"
+
+"Sartin, sartin. Step in. I guess Amanda is there, washin' the baby; but
+she's used to children, and wont mind you more than flies," said a stout,
+broad-shouldered farmer, passing through the yard, a hoe resting on his
+shoulder. "Let me go with you."
+
+Amanda, who was washing the baby, and at the same time trying to keep in
+decent order six other children, gave them a hearty welcome, and showed
+that she did not mind them more than "flies."
+
+"Aunt Stanshy, how d'ye do? Are these all your children?" asked Amanda,
+laughing.
+
+"Yes," said Sid; "she is our mother to-day, and we are proud of her."
+
+The white shields all smiled their approbation of Sid's ready gallantry.
+
+"And this is the garrison-house?" inquired Will Somers.
+
+"Yes," replied Mr. Parlin; "we are between its walls, and solid walls,
+too, they are. See that feller overhead stickin' out from the ceilin'.
+There is a beam for you, all of oak, too, and it measures eleven inches by
+thirteen. Now step outside. There, boys, in that corner, the clapboards
+are broken, and you can see what was the original style of the walls. They
+were laid in this way: big, square sticks of oak were laid one upon the
+other, the ends dovetailed and secured by pins, the cracks being filled
+with mortar. You see, no Injun bullet could go through that wall, and
+there would be little satisfaction in building a fire against it, unless
+an immense one."
+
+Will Somers was here striding over the ground, pacing the length of the
+garrison wall.
+
+"About twenty feet," he said.
+
+"Yes, twenty feet hits the mark," replied Mr. Parlin. "The sticks are a
+foot wide, and measure six inches through. It makes a pretty good wall.
+Step in and I'll show you where they went in and out. There, it was that
+narrow door over in that side, and that openin' up there, about two feet
+square, they say, was the winder, and they used to fire out of it. At
+night they fitted a block into it and fastened up the door-way with logs."
+
+"Did they have any Indians about here, any real ones?" asked Charlie.
+
+"There is only one kind, sonny, when you talk about full-blooded Injuns,
+and I guess our fathers found it out. Injuns! Thick as pizen any day. Why,
+down in that place just beyond here a woman was goin' along one day, and
+she was carryin' an earthen pot. The Injuns just whooped out on her, and
+it was the last time the poor thing was seen alive. The pot was found
+afterward, and is kept by one of our families in town to-day. Injuns! I
+guess so. Of course, when they were about here the alarm was given, and
+the people came flockin' to the garrison-house, and they were safe enough
+here."
+
+How the eyes of the club projected! The governor informed Pip that his
+orbs stuck out far enough to hang a mug on.
+
+The party slowly made its way back to the boat.
+
+"How foggy it is!" said Aunt Stanshy.
+
+"It has all come up while we were gone."
+
+"Don't worry," said Will. "I'll row you across."
+
+"I hope you wont row us anywhere else, I'm sure."
+
+"Don't worry," again remarked the young apothecary, and in a very
+confident tone.
+
+"Let me pint you first right for Peleg Wherren's fish-house, for there's a
+good landin' place at his wharf," said Aunt Stanshy.
+
+Standing on the pebbly shore, she bowed to the level of the boat's rail,
+and then aimed her as if an enemy directing a columbiad at Peleg's
+fish-flakes, eel-pots, and other articles, promising to let a cold shot
+drop in their midst.
+
+"There, I've pinted her; now go right across."
+
+"All right," sang out Will, cheerfully.
+
+Like a great, gray, woolly blanket, the fog rested on the river, and
+Seamont was as effectually hid as if fifty miles away.
+
+"Look--out!" screamed Aunt Stanshy. Something big was now looming up
+directly before the bow of the boys' boat.
+
+"Don't run that ship down," said the president.
+
+"I wont," replied the apothecary, "if they'll get out of the way."
+
+"Ship ahoy!" he shouted.
+
+"Aye, aye!" came from the vessel.
+
+"What ship is that, and how many days out?"
+
+"The Dolphin, and one day out from--"
+
+The remaining words were lost.
+
+"This is the 'Magnificent,' ten minutes out from t'other side of the
+river!" shouted Will.
+
+The coaster disappeared as if smothered under the gray woolly blanket that
+had settled down on every thing.
+
+"Why don't we come to the wharf?" inquired Pip.
+
+"Because we haven't got there."
+
+Will's reason was received with laughter, but Pip persisted in his
+questioning. "What if we thouldn't get there at all?"
+
+"O we will."
+
+Gov. Grimes and Wort had been very anxious to pull an oar, and Will
+gratified them. But the governor could not row. Will had urged him to
+stop. The governor's resoluteness sometimes ran into obstinacy, and it did
+now.
+
+"Just see me row--away," cried the governor, refusing to stop, but as he
+was about to say "away," his oar slipped out of the rowlock, and he
+finished the sentence, his feet going up into the air and his head going
+down into the bottom of the boat!
+
+"Caught a crab, governor?" shouted the president.
+
+The boat stopped in the midst of the commotion that followed the
+governor's tumble, and when Will started his craft again, he did not
+appreciate the fact that its bow had shifted its aim.
+
+"Where _are_ we goin'?" inquired Aunt Stanshy.
+
+"Home," answered Will. "I'm all right. A few more strokes must fetch us
+all right to the wharf," and he pulled lustily on his oars.
+
+"It is my fear that we are all wrong," said Aunt Stanshy. "I know
+something about this river, and about fogs, and about people rowing round
+like fools and getting nowhere."
+
+The members of the club now looked serious, and Will was provoked at Aunt
+Stanshy's remark.
+
+"Halloo there!"
+
+This was an unexpected shout from the heart of the fog, and after the
+shout came a black boat, and in it was a man dressed like a fisherman. He
+wore a "sou'wester" and a striped woolen shirt, also big cow-hide boots
+that came above the knees of his pants.
+
+"Where are we?" asked Will. "Anywhere near Wherren's wharf?"
+
+"Where are you? Wal, it is safe to say in a gin'ral way that you are in
+the river."
+
+"I know that, friend," said Will, "but are we headed for the shore?"
+
+"That depends on the shore you want to find. It's my opinion that if you
+young folks keep on just as your boat is headed, you'll strike Europe if
+you have good luck."
+
+"Pshaw!" exclaimed the apothecary, "we can't be that much out of the way."
+
+"Try it and see."
+
+"Well, just where are we and which way ought we to go to reach Wherren's
+wharf?"
+
+"We are now down near Forbes's Island, and--"
+
+"Forbes's Island!" screamed Aunt Stanshy. "Did you ever!"
+
+"And my compass says if one wants to get up river, he must go in a
+direction directly opposite to that which you are now taking!"
+
+The apothecary's face fell several inches, Charlie thought.
+
+"When you are out on the river, you are always safer to have a compass,
+for fogs may come up and you don't know where you are. I'm goin' up the
+river and I should be happy to show you where Wherren's wharf is, for you
+might as well hunt for a clam inside of an iceberg as to hunt for the
+wharf down here."
+
+"Thank you," said Aunt Stanshy.
+
+"Haven't I seen you before, marm?"
+
+"I dare say."
+
+"I was at your place and you gave me a job, sawing wood, this summer."
+
+"O, is it you, mister? I see now."
+
+"The same one. One good turn deserves another; so let's go along
+together."
+
+All in the club were glad to see the man, excepting Wort.
+
+Up the river they slowly but safely went, the fisherman guiding his party
+through the fog to the place of landing. A part of the way he had towed
+them along, throwing them the painter of his boat.
+
+"Whenever John Fisher can do you a favor, marm, let me know it," said the
+man.
+
+"Three cheers for John Fisher!" shouted the club. Wort joined in this, and
+he also said to himself, "I wish I had told him not to mind my seeding
+him. I will, the next time; see if I don't."
+
+Peleg Wherren's fish-house was a neighbor of the lane, and from the boat
+the party passed to Aunt Stanshy's. As Charlie went along, he noticed a
+woman in the lane.
+
+She wore a rusty black hood, a faded red shawl, and an old calico dress.
+Her general look was that of poverty. She turned as she heard the sound of
+steps, and, turning, chanced to face Aunt Stanshy. Thereupon the two women
+both swung round and looked away, like neighboring vanes struck by
+opposite currents of wind. Aunt Stanshy started and went ahead rapidly. In
+a moment Charlie heard some one crying. Looking back he saw it was Pip,
+who had fallen and hurt himself. The woman in faded clothes was quite
+nigh, and immediately running to Pip, helped him up, saying, in a pitying,
+motherly way, "You poor little fellow!"
+
+"She has a pleasant face," thought Charlie. "Who is it?"
+
+He asked Simes Badger, who came down the lane.
+
+"That? that is Jane."
+
+"Who is Jane?"
+
+"Tim Tyler's sister."
+
+"Old Tim's?"
+
+"Yes, and young Tim's mother."
+
+"Where does she live?"
+
+"O the Tylers all live in the same nest."
+
+"Jane and Aunt Stanshy, then, do not speak to one another," reflected
+Charlie.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE CLUB IN SPLINTERS.
+
+
+There is such a thing as a club breaking, going to splinters even. This
+sad end of a club was experienced by the Up-the-Ladder Club. It was not a
+strange thing, as all human organizations have their ups and downs, and
+many have their downs especially.
+
+It happened in this way.
+
+"Boys," said the president one day, "let's play school. I'll be teacher.
+No; let's have a public declamation--pieces, you know, and so on. Then we
+can charge something and perhaps get a little money--nails, I mean."
+
+The real cash was scarce, and nails became a necessity.
+
+"And not play school?" asked the literary governor. "A school is real
+interestin', you know."
+
+"Yes, we might play that afterward as a sort of rest."
+
+"Agreed," was the general sentiment. The old sheet that had done service
+so many times was once more brought out and strung across one corner of
+the barn chamber. An audience of three was secured, the governor's
+youngest brother, Pip's little sister, and Sid Waters's young cousin from
+the country. The members of the club gathered behind the sheet for action,
+but the auditors, all of them plump children, were ranged in a row upon a
+window-blind supported by blocks of wood. The first piece was a song by
+Sid. He strutted out pompously and began, "How beau--" He stopped. He had
+forgotten his bow. Executing this, he started once more, "How beautiful
+the cow--"
+
+He was halting again.
+
+  "How beautiful the cow--"
+
+He hesitated once more.
+
+"O beautiful cow," sang out the roguish Wort behind the sheet.
+
+"Shut up!" shrieked the infuriated vocalist, rushing to the bed-sheet.
+"Don't interrupt me!"
+
+He resumed his recitation:
+
+  "How beautiful the cow-slip
+    Upon the verdant mead,
+  How diligent the sower
+    Who drops the tiny seed."
+
+He continued and finished the piece amid great enthusiasm on the part of
+the boys behind the sheet, who applauded tumultuously. There was little
+movement on the part of the butter-tubs. They opened their eyes and stared
+wonderingly. Then they opened their mouths and grinned.
+
+Charlie now appeared, announcing as his selection "Independence Bell," a
+subject which he commenced to treat vigorously. The reference was to the
+bell at Philadelphia, rung at the Declaration of Independence, and
+somebody behind the sheet now began to shake a cowbell, a device which it
+was thought would heighten the effect of the performance.
+
+"'Taint time!" called out Charlie, turning in despair to the curtain. Here
+Wort's round, beaming face appeared at a rent which was growing larger
+every few minutes.
+
+"Tell me when," he whispered.
+
+Charlie resumed his recitation. Soon he whispered, "Go it!" Didn't Wort do
+his duty! No bell-ringer in Philadelphia could have been more
+enthusiastic, and no cow astray seeking after home ever wagged her bell so
+continuously. It was afterward found out that every boy behind the curtain
+had a chance to swing that bell, a fact accounting for the popularity of
+the piece and for the tumultuous applause following it. The applause came
+from brother-performers, but was none the less gratifying to the speaker.
+
+The final piece was by Wort, "The Last Rose of Summer." If given, no one
+can say how successful it might have been, but while the subject implied a
+compliment to Wort and those preceding him, the adjective "last" was
+ominous. There were several boys struggling to look through the curtain,
+one through the old rent Wort had used, and the others through new rents
+that they had ingeniously made with their fingers. But what curtain could
+hold up against the continued pressure of three stout boys? There was
+nothing that such a curtain could do but come down; and this it did, the
+three boys sprawling at the base of the stem of the Last Rose of
+Summer--in other words, at Wort's feet! Wort, in turn, was ignominiously
+night-capped by the sheet, for it completely covered him. The butter-tubs
+now gave way to their sense of the ludicrous, and clapped and laughed
+merrily. This did not please the four boys in or on the floor, who angrily
+rubbed their shins. Sid declared that it was too bad to act as
+disgracefully. All this was poor preparation for the serious duties of
+school-keeping, to which the president now directed his attention. With
+how much pomp and dignity he took up the duties of school-teacher,
+confronting a row of uneasy boys occupying seats on a green blind, each
+one wearing his cap!
+
+"Hats off!" shouted Sid.
+
+"Where are my books?" asked Charlie.
+
+"They are probably where they ought to be, young man, in your desk."
+
+Each boy then proceeded to take an imaginary reader out of an imaginary
+desk. Wort, though, had a book.
+
+"All properly supplied with readers? Open them. Read, 'Merry Gentlemen,'
+read. Wort may begin."
+
+There was no response.
+
+"Read, I say."
+
+There was silence still.
+
+"Do you mean to disobey me?"
+
+"You haven't told us what to read," replied Wort.
+
+"Yes, I have."
+
+"You haven't," stoutly reaffirmed Wort. "You said, 'Merry gentlemen,
+read.'"
+
+"I mean the piece called 'Merry Gentlemen,' on page--well, you know. We
+have read it in school enough times to know it, and then scholars ought to
+know their readers well enough to be able to turn to any place and read
+without a book even. Who is that speaking? Tell me. Haven't I told you a
+thousand times that there must be no speaking in this school? I see the
+guilty scholar. Richard Grimes, come this way!"
+
+"I didn't."
+
+"No trifling, young man. Come this way," and collaring the refractory
+Rick, Sid led him into the closet. The governor was not to be wholly
+suppressed, and kept protruding a red pug-nose into very plain sight.
+
+"Teacher," called out Wort, "I see a red sugar-plum sticking out."
+
+"Richard, come this way. You're looking out."
+
+"No, sir; it was my nose."
+
+"Hold out your hand. If you flinch, sir, you will receive another."
+
+The punishment was moodily received, and the governor went back to the
+closet. Charlie and Wort were soon consigned to the same spot for
+disobedience. Pip was noisily moving about.
+
+"Say," whispered Sid, "Be good, and take your seat properly."
+
+"Take your seat properly!" he then roared.
+
+"Pip, you may read about the 'Caravan,' on the fifth page. Take Wort's
+book."
+
+"Jutht thee--" began Pip.
+
+"Juggie and Tony, you may both go into the closet for giggling," sharply
+interposed the teacher. "Go now!"
+
+There were now five boys inside the closet, five restless immortals with
+ten restless legs and ten restless arms.
+
+"Read, Pip, about the caravan."
+
+"Jutht thee, the wild beathth--"
+
+In harmony with this thought came a loud roar from the closet.
+
+"Now you've got to be better," said Sid, turning to the wild beasts, "or I
+will resign and I won't teach."
+
+"Let me be teacher," squeaked Pip.
+
+The principal, though, did not resign; but, advancing to the closet or
+cage door, was about to make an appeal to his infuriated caravan. They
+anticipated him.
+
+"Teacher, Charlie is pinching me."
+
+"Ow! somebody's on my foot."
+
+"There isn't room! I can't breathe!" declared a third.
+
+"It is disgraceful, boys, how you act," said their aged teacher. "You
+can't play school worth a cent. Pip, come here!"
+
+The only scholar now on duty had disgraced himself by making up faces
+behind his teacher's back, and as Sid suddenly turned, the culprit was
+detected.
+
+"Pip, hold out your hand. There, take that!"
+
+"Ow! you hit too hard."
+
+"He will cry. Don't hit too hard!" shouted a warning voice from the
+closet.
+
+"Booh-ooh-ooh!" went Pip.
+
+"I didn't hit you hard," explained the "principal of the academy," as he
+had several times called himself. "You mustn't be a-foolin' in school. If
+you were in a real school you would get worse whippings than that."
+
+Pip's only answer was, "Booh-ooh-ooh!"
+
+"Wort, come here. You are not presenting a respectful face to your
+teacher. I caught you, sir. Hold out your hand."
+
+"I don't want to."
+
+"Do you rebel?" and the principal swelled as if ambitious to puff himself
+into a giant.
+
+It is not pleasant to put it on record that Wort did rebel. He refused to
+hold out his hand, and when Sid seized him he resisted. Then a tussle set
+in, and it was doubtful whether the teacher would floor the scholar, or
+the scholar floor the teacher. But they drew off and scowled at one
+another like two thunder clouds.
+
+"There," said the principal of the academy finally, "I am not going to be
+teacher any more. Who wants my chance may have it."
+
+"And I won't belong to this old club any more," said Wort, smarting under
+the castigation he had received. "Who wants my chance may have it."
+
+"'Tith an old club," sobbed Pip, "and who wantth my chanth may have it."
+
+"O, fellers, let's not get mad," said the president.
+
+"Pooh!" exclaimed the governor. "You can say so, who gave all the
+lickin's."
+
+"And not had one yourself," said Charlie.
+
+"O, fellers, don't get mad," besought Sid once more. "You know it was for
+your good."
+
+This last remark was greeted with sneers, showing that Sid's labors for
+the welfare of youth were not appreciated. There was not only a
+determination to get mad, but to stay mad. Besides, the offended ones were
+moving toward the door, and this in a quarrel always looks bad.
+
+"Let it go," said Sid. "I did not mean to hurt you. Come, let's march down
+stairs. I was going to have you march down stairs properly, just as we do
+at school. Come, let's form a line."
+
+"Yes, and you be cap'n," sulked Wort.
+
+"You may be, then," said Sid.
+
+"I aint goin' to march," sobbed Pip.
+
+That feather was too much for the camel's back, especially as the camel in
+this case was a two-legged one, and a boy like Sid, and he made no further
+attempts at reconciliation.
+
+"Go it as you please, then," he said, angrily, and it was, indeed, a
+go-it-as-you-please column that rushed down stairs.
+
+"I'm going home," said Wort.
+
+"O, don't!" pleaded Charlie.
+
+"Let him go!" shouted Sid.
+
+"And me, too," squeaked Pip, and a second sullen knight passed out of the
+yard.
+
+"It's of no us staying here, and I guess I'll go off and find Billy,"
+observed the governor, and he left to hunt up his absent cousin.
+
+"My mother wants me, and I might as well go, for the club is broken up,"
+said Sid. He sauntered out of the yard with a reckless air, his hands in
+his pockets.
+
+Charlie, Juggie, and Tony were now the only ones left, and they looked at
+one another sorrowfully.
+
+"Charlie! Come!"
+
+It was Aunt Stanshy calling. Tony and Juggie now moved off, and Charlie
+went into the house with a heavy heart.
+
+"What _is_ the matter, Charles Pitt Macomber?"
+
+"Club has broken up," and Charlie's lips quivered.
+
+"Mad?"
+
+Charlie did not speak, but moved his head up and down like a saw.
+
+"Who? Sid, Rick, Wort, Pip?"
+
+Each time the saw went up and down.
+
+"Are you mad?"
+
+"I was, but I am not now."
+
+"I'm sorry. I guess it's a pretty bad case, and the club has all gone to
+splinters."
+
+The club in splinters! All that day the chamber was deserted. It was
+forsaken the next bright summer day. A mouse came out of his hole, and,
+looking timidly about, gave a faint, surprised squeak. The flies buzzed in
+the sunshine, and had all the time they wished to hum through their tunes.
+The only other noise was the wind that murmured about the door and the
+window that Aunt Stanshy had closed up so resolutely.
+
+Nobody came to climb the ladder, and it did have such a forsaken look.
+Nobody troubled the sheet, or the closet, or the various relics strewn
+about.
+
+Alas! alas!
+
+The club was in splinters!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE CLUB MENDED.
+
+
+"Then the club is all broken up?"
+
+"Yes," said Charlie, mournfully.
+
+"How did it happen?"
+
+"You see, Will"--every body called the apothecary's clerk Will--"we had a
+school and Sid kept it, and he licked the fellers, and they couldn't stand
+it."
+
+"I see."
+
+"But I think Sid wanted to make up."
+
+"And it was easier for him to make up than for the boys who had got the
+lickings, was it?"
+
+"I guess it was," said Charlie, laughing.
+
+"Too bad to be broken up!"
+
+"Yes," and Charlie's laugh was turning to a cry.
+
+"You didn't think of the notice stuck up on the post, 'No cross words?'"
+
+"Why, no! I know I forgot all about it."
+
+"I don't believe your teacher, Miss Barry, will be pleased to know of the
+quarrel, as she is a kind, good-natured lady, and makes folks kind to one
+another."
+
+"I 'spose she wont like it."
+
+"Wouldn't you like to have your broken club mended?"
+
+"Yes, yes," replied Charlie, excitedly. "How?"
+
+"There is one way to do it and fix all things right again." As Will spoke
+he also attended to his breakfast, interjecting his words amid sips of
+coffee and mouthfuls of Aunt Stanshy's flaky biscuit. He was hungry, as he
+had been out before breakfast in answer to a furious alarm of fire.
+
+"You see, when a club is in pieces, that it may be mended again, each
+piece must resolve to do what it can toward a coming together again. Will
+you?"
+
+"Yes, I will."
+
+"There's one. Who is the next one to bring round, the next piece of club
+to make willing to be joined to the rest?"
+
+"I guess Wort feels about as stuffy as any one. There he is out in the
+lane now."
+
+"Is he? Go, get him."
+
+The "stuffy" splinter of the club was brought in. Will had disappeared,
+but soon came back to the table, bringing from his room a neat, white
+package of--Charlie's curious eyes could not guess what.
+
+"Art you Wort Wentworth?" asked Will.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I have some candy for you."
+
+Here the apothecary displayed various long, dainty sticks of candy,
+exceedingly toothsome in their looks. There were checkerberry-pipe and
+licorice-pipe and sassafras-pipe, and--how Wort's eyes did glisten and his
+mouth water as he imagined the different kinds there!
+
+Will did not forget, to Charlie's joy, that another boy present had also
+several sweet teeth. Having sweetened up Wort's disposition, Will said,
+
+"You and Charlie will now do me a favor, won't you?"
+
+"I will," said Charlie, eagerly, who had great admiration for the
+apothecary, but might possibly have been moved also by great love for his
+candy.
+
+"And I will," said Wort, determined not to be outdone by Charlie.
+
+"Well, now, the club that has been broken is going to be mended, and you
+two will forgive and forget, wont you?"
+
+"I will," declared Charlie, promptly.
+
+Wort hesitated.
+
+"Take this while you are thinking," said Will, pressing into Wort's hands
+an extra large piece of rose-pipe.
+
+As he took it, Wort growled, "Sid began it."
+
+"But will you end it if Sid is willing to make up? You wont hold out?"
+
+"N--n--o."
+
+"There is Sid!" said Charlie.
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Going along the lane, that boy with a blue cap on."
+
+"You two stay here, and tell Aunt Stanshy, Charlie, that I'll be back soon
+to finish my breakfast," and away went Will, without a hat, a cake of
+bread in one hand and a piece of cheese in the other.
+
+"If that fellow isn't the greatest! He would leave a funeral in just that
+way if the impulse took him," declared Aunt Stanshy, watching him from the
+window, and secretly admiring him. "What a boy! He makes lots of trouble
+for me, O dear!"
+
+"Aint he funny?" asked Wort.
+
+"Funny?" replied Aunt Stanshy, who did not intend that any one else should
+depreciate her idol. "Funny? of course not."
+
+All this time Will was chasing Sid, who was heading up the lane and was
+about entering Water Street. Sid was in a hurry, and unaware that he was
+wanted by any one in the lane, had broken into a run; but Will had run to
+so many fires that he was equal to this emergency and overtook Sid, laying
+a hand on his shoulder.
+
+"What do you want?" asked Sid. "I want to catch that man ahead there and
+borrow his clam-digger."
+
+"Come back to the house with me a little while."
+
+Any of the club boys would do any thing for Will, and Sid turned.
+
+"Good-morning, Mr. Somers."
+
+Will turned his head, so covered with wilfully curly hair. In his hand
+were the bread and cheese still. He blushed as he said, "Good-morning,
+Miss Barry."
+
+"Whew," he said to himself, "the teacher has caught me now!"
+
+Several people indeed "caught" Will Somers, in that way, that morning, and
+wondered what he was doing, running bare-headed. He carried his point,
+though, captured Sid, and led him back to the house.
+
+"Now, Sid," exclaimed Will, on his way to Aunt Stanshy's "there has been
+trouble in the Up-the-Ladder Club, I learn, and I want to fix it up, and
+you will help me, will you not?"
+
+"O yes," replied Sid, whose nature was not a hard and implacable one.
+
+"Wort is at the house, and you are willing to say you are sorry you hurt
+him, and you want to make up and be good friends?"
+
+"O yes."
+
+When Will entered the house with his prize, the two met Wort face to face.
+
+"I want these two knights to make up and be good friends again, because it
+is all foolish and wrong, you know, holding out against one another," said
+Will.
+
+The two boys eyed one another, Sid grinning, Wort looking sulky and
+foolish.
+
+"Wort," said the late principal of the academy, "I am sorry I hurt you. I
+didn't mean to do it, but I suppose I was too anxious to keep up the
+discipline of the school, and I got agoing, you know. Let's shake hands
+and be friends."
+
+Wort hesitated.
+
+"You ought to do that," said Will. "Shake hands, Wort," and as he spoke he
+carelessly but effectively waved a stick of sassafras-pipe in Wort's
+sight. It is one of the most potent sticks that can be used for a boy's
+"_licking_."
+
+"Well, I will," said Wort, "and I didn't mean to hurt you;" unwilling that
+Sid should be the only one thought able to inflict an injury.
+
+"I now announce," said Will, "that soon as possible, I shall take every
+boy down to Sandy Beach for an afternoon's fun; that is, every knight who
+makes up."
+
+This had a magical effect. All the disaffected knights followed the
+example of Sid and Wort, "making up" and joining the beach-party. The
+excursionists had a capital time on that occasion, and returned in such a
+frame of mind that it could be considered as settled that the club, once
+in splinters, was now mended.
+
+The boys, on the subsequent Sunday, told Miss Barry that there had been a
+quarrel, but, added Sid, "It is all fixed now."
+
+"I am very glad there has been a reconciliation," replied Miss Barry. "If
+there had been none, I should have felt that you were going down and not
+up the ladder. In our play we can be moving up, and reconciliation is a
+round in the ladder."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+A KNIGHT GOES TO SEA.
+
+
+"And do you want to come to my launching?"
+
+"You going to be launched?" asked Charlie.
+
+"Not exactly," said Skipper Wentworth, Wort's father, "but my schooner is,
+and if you come to Raynes's ship-yard next Saturday, you will see her. You
+can tell any of the other boys to come if they like. Wort will be there."
+
+Charlie went down to the yard the day before the launching. The schooner
+seemed to be an ant-heap where all the ants were stirring, and all were on
+the outside, so many men were at work. The club boys were quite numerously
+represented through their friends. Sid's father was flourishing a
+paint-brush high up on a staging. Pip's father and also Juggie's cousin
+were swinging their hammers about the cook's quarters Pip's grandfather, a
+blacksmith, was inspecting some of the iron-work of the vessel. A tall
+cousin of the governor was driving oxen. The clanking chains of the oxen
+hauling timber for the building of another vessel, the pounding of
+hammers, the shouts of the bosses ordering the workmen, made a lively
+compound of sound. The next Saturday, every thing was ready for the
+launching.
+
+With eager eyes Charlie noticed all the movements of the workmen. He saw
+them drive the wedges under the schooner, and heard blow on blow as the
+wedges went in farther and farther. He saw them knock away the props
+holding the schooner in place, and along the ways, or planed timbers, well
+greased for the schooner's ride, he watched the vessel slowly then swiftly
+moving. Down, down she went, lower and lower, so deep into the waiting
+arms of the blue river, that the waters threatened to go over her, and
+then up she came gracefully, bringing a bridal-veil of snowy foam with
+her, and exciting the admiration of all the spectators, who vented their
+feelings in an uproarious "Hurrah!" One of the fortunate party that had
+permission to be in the vessel at its launching was Wort Wentworth, the
+skipper's boy.
+
+"I must see every thing that there is," thought the inquisitive boy, and
+he turned, finally, into the state-room which the skipper himself expected
+to occupy as his quarters in the cabin. "Nice place," he said, climbing
+into his father's berth, and there curling up into one corner.
+
+The day had been an exciting one, and yet tiresome, and Wort's next
+movement was to gape.
+
+"Sort of sleepy," he said. The wind murmuring at the open window of the
+state-room had a drowsy sound, and--and Wort's head gave a sudden fall. He
+opened his eyes, and said, "This won't do; I mustn't go to sleep," But the
+wind continued to hum its drowsy tune as if saying, "Go to sleep, go to
+sleep, tired boy, tired boy; there, there!" Wort's head rose and fell
+several times, and each time he made a remonstrance. But the remonstrances
+were feebler one after the other, his eyes refused to open, and there in
+the captain's state-room was a boy fast asleep!
+
+It was the latter part of the afternoon, and one of the men at work on the
+new vessel came to Wort's father, and said, "Cap'n, shall we let the
+schooner lie off in the stream to-night, or do you take her to her wharf?"
+
+"No chance for her at the wharf, and she must stay here till Monday, and I
+don't think any one need stay with her and watch. She is so heavily
+anchored she can't very well run away. We will all leave. But where is my
+boy?"
+
+"I think, cap'n, I see a boy like him going off with your brother."
+
+"All right. My brother Nathan was here, and he will look after Wort. Now
+we will go."
+
+When Skipper Wentworth reached home his wife told him that "Nathan" had
+said something about taking Wort home with him to spend a day or two at
+his farm, three miles away.
+
+"Then Wort has gone with Nathan, wife?"
+
+"I think he must have, as he has not come home."
+
+"He is with Nathan. All right."
+
+The good folks went to bed, and nobody told them where Wort was. The
+little waves rippling about the schooner may have known, and a bright,
+inquisitive star looking in at the cabin window may have known, but
+neither wave nor star told the secret. Toward morning Wort woke up. Where
+was he? He put out his hands expecting to feel the soft feather pillow
+that Mother Wentworth daily laid upon his bed. It was only a hard board
+that he felt above him and back of him. Where was he? He rubbed his eyes
+wide open, and little by little it came to him that he was in the cabin of
+the schooner. What if the vessel should break away from her moorings and
+drift off to sea? What if it had gone already, and this craft with a crew
+of one were actually on her voyage? His heart thumped hard in his fright.
+He crawled out of the cabin, making his way along as well as he could over
+pieces of board, running into a carpenter's saw-horse provokingly left in
+the door-way, and stroking his legs, he stepped outside. The wind from the
+water swept cool across the vessel. Where was he? Adrift? He turned toward
+the sea. The light at Simes Badger's lighthouse was still blazing, but far
+away above the dark, angry sea, there was a faint glow in the heavens.
+
+"Good!" thought Wort. "Father's vessel hasn't broke loose, for there is
+the light-house where it was yesterday, and that's morning over there.
+She's coming!"
+
+He turned toward the town. He saw one light shining from a house window,
+and thought it must signify a sick person or an early riser. Then he heard
+a cock crowing.
+
+"Never knew a rooster had such a pleasant voice before," he said. All that
+he could do was to wait until Simes Badger's light went out, and day
+filled the eastern sky, and not only roosters but human beings were
+stirring in Seamont.
+
+"Then some one will come and get me, I hope," thought Wort.
+
+He patiently waited, watching the dark gurgling river and the brightening
+sky.
+
+About six o'clock Simes Badger pushed off his boat from the light-house
+dock, leaving his assistant in charge.
+
+"I must get my breakfast," he said.
+
+He leisurely rowed up the river.
+
+"Ah," thought Simes, "there is Skipper Wentworth's new craft. She sets
+easy in the water. She will make as trim a fore and aft as ever left this
+harbor."
+
+He was now opposite the newly-painted black and green hull.
+
+"Massy!" he exclaimed, resting on his oars, "What's that on deck? A hen
+there? Somebody is wavin' suthin'. Something must be wrong there. Let me
+take a nearer look."
+
+He rowed close up to the vessel's side, and there detained his boat in the
+still, sparkling stream, raised his weather-tanned face, and saw a very
+fresh, boyish face looking down.
+
+"O, Mr. Badger, come and get me!"
+
+"Wort Wentworth, is that _you?_"
+
+Simes knew that Wort had a reputation for scrapes, but was not prepared
+for this appearance under the present circumstances.
+
+"What are you doin' there? You all alone?"
+
+"I got asleep in the cabin, and they left me here."
+
+"And you been here all night? It is a wonder the sharks didn't eat you,"
+said Simes, who had a very vivid imagination.
+
+"The sharks?"
+
+"Well, no matter about them things. I s'pose now you want to go home?"
+
+"Yes, if I can get down into your boat."
+
+"I'm willin' to take you if you can get down."
+
+"Couldn't I shin down the chain-cable?"
+
+"O no! Look round and find a piece of rope and make it fast to something
+up there, and then drop your rope down here and come that way."
+
+"What, drop myself down like the rope?" said Wort, grinning.
+
+"Tut, tut, boy! come down the rope! Didn't I say so plain as day? and if I
+didn't, I will now."
+
+Wort found a rope, made one end fast to the rail, and then, throwing the
+other end down to Simes, safely lowered himself into the stern of the
+light-keeper's boat. In fifteen minutes more Wort was at home, to the
+surprise and joy of his parents.
+
+The club boys heard about Wort's experience, and had a word to say
+concerning it.
+
+"I say, Wort," asked Charlie, "how do you like going to sea?"
+
+"Did you catch any waleths?" inquired Pip.
+
+"What did the mermaids say to you?" asked the governor.
+
+"It is the last of your going to sea, Wort. You will have to be a
+land-lubber," said Sid.
+
+This last remark touched Wort.
+
+"No, sir! See if I don't go to sea." And go he did. Skipper Wentworth
+thought it would be pleasant to have Wort's company the first voyage,
+which would terminate the latter part of the year.
+
+Mrs. Wentworth had every thing in readiness for her boy's comfort by the
+time the vessel sailed.
+
+"What is her name?" he asked his father.
+
+He only replied, "I want to surprise the club you belong to." One day, to
+the delight of the boys, he showed them the name painted in conspicuous
+letters on the stern, "White Shield." It was a mild autumn day when the
+"White Shield" went to sea. The club boys gathered on a wharf at the foot
+of the lane, and watched the vessel drifting down the river. They waved
+their handkerchiefs to Wort, who waved his in return. Then they stood and
+followed with their eyes the vessel in its flight. She passed Forbes'
+Island, passed the light-house, passed Rocky Reef, passed--out of sight.
+
+That day, at twilight, Charlie went to Mr. Walton's house. The clergyman's
+mother received a message which Charlie brought from Aunt Stanshy, and
+asked him to come in.
+
+"Sit down here," she said, and placed a chair before the open fire kindled
+on the edge of the autumn evening. "Sit down, and rest."
+
+"'The 'White Shield' has gone to sea," he remarked, anxious to give the
+latest news.
+
+"The 'White Shield'?"
+
+"Haven't you heard about her?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Why, I thought every body knew about the 'White Shield.'"
+
+And did she know that Wort Wentworth had gone to sea in the "White
+Shield?" No; she was ignorant of that important fact. How narrow the
+circle of her knowledge was!
+
+"I know one thing, though, little boy," said the old lady, "that the sea,
+which fascinates so many young people, may prove to be a very hard master.
+O, I don't like to hear it roar on stormy nights!"
+
+Then the old lady went to a picture of a ship at sea hanging on the wall.
+There she stood and sighed. Charlie wondered what it all meant.
+
+"But there is one thing we can do on stormy nights," she added. "We can
+pray. And I sometimes think, nights when the winds are roaring, how many
+souls all along the coast must be kneeling while the sailors at sea are up
+in the rigging, climbing, or furling the sails."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+SETTING A TRAP.
+
+
+Ring, ring, ring!
+
+The bell of St. John's was busily swinging, flinging notes of gold and
+silver down upon the town, and in response, how many people came out into
+the streets as if to pick up the gold and silver shower. The bell was
+ringing for a temperance meeting. Many were immediately interested in the
+subject of temperance; but whether all would go, was a question. It was a
+serious doubt whether those that the meeting wanted would feel that they
+needed the meeting. There were several very important cases.
+
+Case one--who?
+
+Tim Tyler? He needed the meeting, but that is not the case here intended,
+but Dr. Tilton, the apothecary. Dr. Tilton? Yes. For some time it had been
+known he was in the habit of indulging in a glass, "only a glass." As a
+result, he had been helped home drunk from his store. He did not feel
+desirous to attend the temperance meeting.
+
+Case number two, Tim Tyler? Not yet, but--Will Somers! Ah, that was sad.
+If you could have seen Aunt Stanshy, you would have thought it was the
+saddest thing in the world.
+
+"O, Miss Barry," said Aunt Stanshy, bursting into tears, "I'm awful afraid
+I made an idol of that young man--so nice, you know. I've seen my idols
+break one after the other. I shouldn't have said a word about it, but he
+was seen on the street, and it became town talk, and it's all out and
+round. Dreadful, dreadful!"
+
+"It is, and I'm afraid my uncle is responsible. It is bad every way. There
+is need of a temperance work here. We are all asleep," replied Miss Barry,
+who was calling at Aunt Stanshy's, the two women opening their hearts to
+one another during the call. Dr. Tilton was responsible for Will Somers's
+fall. One day, when Will was complaining of an ill feeling, the apothecary
+had proffered wine as a remedy, and had offered it several times when he
+was tired, and Will had fallen under the influence of a seemingly innocent
+ally. People began to talk about Dr. Tilton and his clerk. Then they began
+to shun the store. Not all, though, for a line of red noses and trembling
+hands and unsteady knees filed into the store, and not the sick people
+sent orders, but old topers frequented the place more and more. Dr. Tilton
+noticed the change, and was alarmed. Still he did not change that habit of
+taking "only a glass." Will Somers was unhappy. He saw his mistake, and
+knew that the community frowned upon him. He rarely whistled now. As for
+the musical instrument he once loved to perform upon, it was a silent
+piece of furniture. He had some fine qualities of character, and his
+vulnerable side was his susceptibility to outside influence. The enemy had
+found a weak wall on that side of his character, and there successfully
+assaulted him. Will knew that his misconduct grieved Aunt Stanshy. The
+club felt it, for by degrees the bad news reached them. It seemed as if
+each one was burdened by a load of guilt--as if having served in Dr.
+Tilton's store, Charlie, Sid, Tony, and the rest had there sinned, and, in
+consequence, each had been seen tipsy on the street, and each carried a
+load that bowed him.
+
+It was Charlie who happened to be at home when his teacher was calling on
+Aunt Stanshy, and he accidentally overheard a fragment of the
+conversation. When Miss Barry was fairly out of the house, and Aunt
+Stanshy was returning through the entry to her kitchen-work, sighing by
+the way, Charlie ran to her and excitedly said, "We--we--will get up a
+meeting!"
+
+"A meeting about what?"
+
+"Why, why, temperance."
+
+"Who get it up?"
+
+"We--we boys--our club."
+
+Aunt Stanshy guessed at once the occasion and object of Charlie's remarks,
+that he had heard the conversation between her and her caller, and that
+this proposition for a temperance meeting was to meet the grave
+necessities of the hour.
+
+"Yes, yes," he said, "let's go and see teacher about it"
+
+"What, go now?"
+
+"Yes, you and she can talk it over."
+
+In a few minutes Charlie and Aunt Stanshy were hurrying down the street as
+if suddenly summoned by the pressing sickness of a friend.
+
+"O, let's get Sid," suggested Charlie, as they neared Sid Waters's house.
+
+"Well," replied Aunt Stanshy.
+
+Sid, whose appetite never failed him, was eating a lunch, but he responded
+at once to Charlie's invitation to "Come out."
+
+"What's up, Charlie? I am the man for you," replied the president, who had
+an abundance of resources at his command, and was prepared--in his own
+opinion--for any emergency. "What is up? Down-townies round?"
+
+"We want to have a temperance meeting. Come down to teacher's."
+
+"All right. Temperance meeting? The club get it up?"
+
+"I don't just know, but we can talk it over."
+
+"If they want a meeting, we can give 'em one," said Sid, confidently.
+
+Thus re-enforced, Aunt Stanshy and Charlie presented themselves at Miss
+Barry's door.
+
+"Come in, come," said the teacher. "I have just got home myself."
+
+"We--we have come," exclaimed Aunt Stanshy, "to see if we couldn't have a
+temperance meeting! You know we need it."
+
+"O, I see; and the boys?"
+
+"The boys," said Sid, proudly, "think you could rely on them to--to--pull
+an oar."
+
+He felt it might be prudent not to propose to do the whole of the rowing,
+and offer the town a meeting managed wholly by the "Up-the-Ladder Club,"
+but modestly--to--pull an oar.
+
+"Splendid!" said the teacher, her enthusiasm charming the boys. "Among us
+all, I guess we can manage it."
+
+"I don't know as I can do any thing except to get people out," said Aunt
+Stanshy, fearful that she might be called upon to speak in the meeting.
+
+"Let us go and see Mr. Walton," suggested Miss Barry.
+
+"It would be the very thing," declared Aunt Stanshy.
+
+Very soon Aunt Stanshy, Miss Barry, Sid, and Charlie started for the
+minister's. On the way, Juggie and Tony were secured as new members of the
+column, and thus augmented, this eager temperance band appeared at Mr.
+Walton's door. Ushered into the study, Miss Barry told her errand.
+
+"We need a temperance meeting very much, and we will have it at St.
+John's, and I want you boys--the club, Miss Barry--to do the most of the
+singing," said Mr. Walton.
+
+"We will," said Sid. "I know I can speak for them."
+
+"And Miss Barry will teach them what to sing, perhaps?" asked Mr. Walton.
+
+"Yes sir," replied Miss Barry.
+
+"I'll have my choir to help, but I expect the 'Up-the-Ladder Club' to do
+the most."
+
+The boys were eager in their interest. To encourage them, Miss Barry said,
+"I'll make a little blue cross to go inside each white shield. A little
+blue cross--that is a temperance sign--will look pretty on the white
+silk."
+
+"There, there, won't they be proud of it?" said Aunt Stanshy.
+
+"Of course we will," declared Sid. "Knights, we must give three cheers for
+teacher when we get to her door."
+
+During this conversation they were passing down the street, and when Miss
+Barry's door was reached, be assured that three hearty cheers were given
+for her.
+
+"Now three for temperance!" cried Sid. Then they cheered for temperance.
+
+"I feel that my boys are, indeed, mounting the ladder of the true and
+noble," was Miss Barry's thought, as from her window she saw the ardent
+young knights pass away.
+
+The next day Aunt Stanshy met Miss Barry. "Miss--Miss--Barry," said Aunt
+Stanshy, nervously clutching her companion's shawl, "we must--pray for our
+meeting."
+
+"O, we will, we will!"
+
+There were earnest prayers going to God in behalf of that meeting. As step
+after step might be proposed, prayer went up from the altar of those two
+women's hearts especially, beseeching God to recognize and bless each step
+that might be taken. O in what a cloud of prayer that enterprise was
+enveloped!
+
+Aunt Stanshy and Miss Barry were talking about the meeting one day.
+
+"I wish, Miss Barry, we could make sure that every body would go to the
+meeting. Will Dr. Tilton go?"
+
+"That's what I am wondering about, and Will Somers?"
+
+Aunt Stanshy shook her head sadly: "He says, No."
+
+"They must be there," said Miss Barry, "and--and--we must set a trap for
+them."
+
+"A trap?"
+
+"I'll ask my uncle to help the choir sing, and--of course, he wont refuse.
+I don't suppose he cares to come to the meeting because he needs it, but
+if others go he won't want to be left out, and if he can sing, that will
+give him a chance to attend. He is my uncle, you know."
+
+The "trap" for Dr. Tilton worked successfully. He scorned the idea that he
+might need the meeting. This he said to himself. However, he would help
+the choir sing, he said, to his niece. But a trap for Will Somers! Who
+could make that?
+
+"Won't you come to the meeting to hear us sing?" asked Charlie, with a sad
+face.
+
+"O, you don't want me, Charlie," replied Will. "O, I can't go."
+
+Aunt Stanshy made no remark. She sat silently, busily thinking, while
+Charlie and Will talked about the meeting. Aunt Stanshy was making a
+"trap."
+
+The day before that appointed for the temperance meeting, she went to her
+pastor.
+
+"Mr. Walton, the meeting will begin at half past seven. If--if--say about
+quarter after seven--you should let Charlie and the other boys go down to
+the church door and sing one or two of their pieces, it might draw folks
+in."
+
+"Why, that's a good idea, and I wish you would ask them."
+
+At a quarter after seven the next night the White Shields, each carrying a
+neat cross of blue on his badge, appeared at the church door and began to
+sing. It was the night when Dr. Tilton was accustomed to close his store
+earlier than usual, if customers did not appear; and at a quarter after
+seven Will Somers was accustomed that night to pass the church door on his
+way home. Would he fall into the trap that Aunt Stanshy had ingeniously
+set for him? The club began to sing their hymns. There was the touching
+plea containing the lines:
+
+  "O what are you going to do, brother?
+    Say, what are you going to do?
+  You have thought of some useful labor,
+    But what is the end in view?"
+
+Tony sang this. It seemed that night as if some of Italy's sweet singers
+must have lent him their notes. The people began to gather about the club.
+Aunt Stanshy was there on the watch, eager to see if Will Somers might be
+coming down the street. Tony's voice warbled away. Now it was an exultant
+note that he touched, and then his voice sank to a plaintive appeal:
+
+  "Is your heart in the Saviour's keeping?
+    Remember, he died for you;
+  Then what are you going to do, brother?
+    Say, what are you going to do?"
+
+As Tony sang, there was a young man leaning against the fence adjoining
+the church door. It was somebody listlessly leaning, lifting to the light
+of the street lamp a face on which rested the shadow of a great sadness.
+
+"It's he!" said Aunt Stanshy, excitedly.
+
+Charlie heard her. He guessed that it was some one out on the sidewalk
+whom she had discovered, and he stretched his small head beyond the ring
+of singers, anxiously looking out into the shadows. His sharp eye saw that
+form leaning against the fence. He could not wait until the song was
+finished. He ran out upon the sidewalk, and Aunt Stanshy followed.
+
+"Do come, do come," pleaded Charlie, as he seized Will's hand and gently
+drew him toward the church.
+
+"Yes, yes," said Aunt Stanshy, "We all want you."
+
+And Will Somers irresolutely yielded to the gentle hands that were drawing
+him, and entered the church.
+
+What a meeting that was!
+
+"Never seed the beat of it in my life," said Simes Badger, who was off
+duty at the lighthouse that night, and having attended the meeting,
+reported it soon after to a band of his old cronies. "Why, when the pledge
+was offered that meetin', it seemed as if every man, woman, and child
+would go for it at once. No matter if they was as innocent of liquor as a
+baby a day old; they jest walked up and took that pledge. And Dr. Tilton,
+he couldn't stand it, and he hopped down and he jined the pledge. And his
+clerk, that Will Somers, he did write his name handsome. O, it was a
+meetin', I tell ye!"
+
+Yes, it was a memorable evening. Dr. Tilton and Will Somers kept their
+word faithfully, and society recognized the fact and liberally patronized
+the doctor's store, afterward.
+
+"Got a new 'pothecary in our town," said Simes Badger. "At any rate, he's
+good as new, and new things draw. A 'pothecary can do amazin' sight of
+harm if he aint jest the right sort of man in his business."
+
+Society, outside the store, recognized the new life that Dr. Tilton and
+Will had begun. They were received cordially by their old friends. The
+club gathered about Will, treating him after the fashion of the old
+enthusiastic friendship.
+
+"He's singin' once more and a playin'," Aunt Stanshy said to a neighbor,
+"jest as nice as can be. It does me good to see him."
+
+And Tim Tyler--where was he?
+
+His sister Ann did hope he would be reached, but she folded her old shawl
+about her shoulders and went away from the meeting, saying sorrowfully to
+herself, "Tim didn't come."
+
+No, he was not at the meeting. He did not show any interest in the
+movement.
+
+"But--but we can't give him up," some of his praying friends whispered.
+
+And when our prayers refuse to let the angel of blessing go, was that
+angel ever known to forsake us?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE FAIR.
+
+
+Poor Charlie! His life did not seem to him to be altogether agreeable.
+
+Being fat and good-natured, the boys were rather disposed to pick on him.
+Then a standing vexation at school was his arithmetic. In addition to
+these things, he had a special trouble one day to grieve him. His class
+was reading a selection called the "Miller." The teacher, Mr. Armstrong,
+permitted the members of the class to remain in their desks and there
+read. Charlie abused this privilege by clapping his head below his desk,
+and while the boys in another part of the room were reading, he was doing
+his best to pack away a corn-ball.
+
+"Time enough," he had concluded, "before it is my time to read, to have
+something good to pay for my old arithmetic."
+
+His mouth was full of corn-ball and preparing itself to take in more, when
+his teacher, watching the long detention of Charlie's head in such a
+humble posture, and suspicious of the real reason, stole softly up behind
+Charlie and, looking over his shoulder, was puzzled to decide whether the
+corn-ball was going into Charlie or he into the corn-ball. He quietly
+stole back to his desk and there abruptly shouted, "Macomber, you may read
+about the 'Miller' at once."
+
+The shot struck. Charlie bounded up in great confusion, his month full of
+corn-ball!
+
+"Hold, Macomber!" said the master, in a very sarcastic way. "It must be
+evident to you that a man cannot successfully read about the grinding of
+corn, and yet be grinding corn in his mouth at the same time." Then he
+broke out into a roar, "Stand out in the floor! You may do any further
+grinding there. Stop after school, also!"
+
+Unfortunate Charlie! When he went home at a late hour Aunt Stanshy was
+disposed to rebuke him for his tardiness. This was too much for Charlie.
+He broke out into a whimper: "I think I have a sad life, only scoldings at
+home and scoldings and arithmetic at school."
+
+"O, no!" said Aunt Stanshy, soothingly, guessing that the little fellow
+had had some trouble that day, and had been sufficiently punished for any
+fault; "O, no! not so bad as that! Haven't you a pleasant home?"
+
+"Yes--you--you are kind, I know, real kind."
+
+"Well, don't think any thing more about it. Here is a big piece of mince
+pie."
+
+He had not eaten more than one half of his lunch when he felt very much
+comforted, and the outside world brightened very perceptibly. To comfort
+him still further Aunt Stanshy allowed him to go after several boys and
+bring them to the barn, and it was in connection with this gathering that
+a new and important enterprise was suggested by one of the boys.
+
+"It's something that will pay," said Sid.
+
+Every body wanted to believe it and was willing to help it along. Soon
+Charlie came running from the barn into the kitchen.
+
+"Aunt Stanshy, will you please lend me your scales?"
+
+"My what?"
+
+"Your scales for weighing, please."
+
+"What on earth is it now?" exclaimed Aunt Stanshy. It was a--so the
+placard on the barn door stated--it was A FAIR!
+
+Charlie did not have much to say about it, but through the remainder of
+the day often hummed, or smiled and chuckled complacently. When Aunt
+Stanshy had lighted the kerosene lamp that had a big lion's claw for a
+base and boasted a yellow shade covered with green shepherdesses and blue
+sheep, then Charlie sat down at the center-table and for an hour was
+exceedingly busy. About eight he held up an object to Aunt Stanshy.
+
+"What is that, Aunt Stanshy?" he asked.
+
+"A rag-man," she replied, promptly.
+
+The artisan's face dropped and a pout came out. A smile though quickly
+smoothed down the pout, and he exclaimed, in triumph, "Santa Claus! He's a
+friend of our club! We thought we would be in season for Christmas, and
+people could buy their presents of us, and--and--will you buy?"
+
+"I will--buy--that."
+
+"You will? I'll give you a kiss for that," and Aunt Stanshy's young lover
+came up to her and in his delight gave her a kiss. Of a tuft of cotton
+Charlie had made a head. Another tuft furnished a body; two more supplied
+arms to work with, and two more supplied legs to stand on. Charlie put a
+three-cornered hat on Santa's head and tied together the parts of his body
+with a girdle of pink worsted. A card on Santa announced the fact that he
+could be bought for TWO CENTS.
+
+Charlie trembled when Aunt Stanshy's eyes were directed toward the price
+lest she might not think it worth the money.
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"Two cents," replied Charlie, in fear.
+
+"O! Well, I'll give that."
+
+"You will?" said Charlie, in delight. "I'll give you another kiss."
+
+"Charlie," said the blushing Constantia, "you'll make a fool of an old
+woman like me."
+
+In the night the lips of the sleeping Charlie parted as he said, with a
+smile, "Two cents!" When this good news of the first sale was announced to
+the club in the morning, it threw the members into a feverish excitement.
+
+"First-rate opening, fellers," declared the president, "even before we
+have opened any thing."
+
+"We don't open," said the governor, "till school is out to-night."
+
+"Let's open now," said Billy Grimes, in the excitement of his enthusiasm
+over the news;
+
+"What a booby!" said the governor, in plain language. "We have got no
+things here yet, and there are no buyers, and we must all clear out to
+school in ten minutes."
+
+The governor's massive logic crushed the foolish Billy at once.
+
+"Let's open in good style," said the president, "and do it to-night."
+
+By fifteen minutes after four, just as soon as a lot of scampering,
+shouting boys could get to the barn, bringing pockets stuffed with
+"articles," the fair was declared "opened."
+
+"But how dark it is!" said the president.
+
+So it was. The boys had forgotten how early the sun was setting in the
+November days.
+
+"Let's postpone it till to-morrow afternoon, when there's no school," said
+Charlie.
+
+"Who's agreed?" asked the president.
+
+"Me!" responded the club, vociferously. They all had prudently concluded
+to wait for the advent of more daylight, and, withdrawing from the barn,
+went down the yard talking as busily as if they were a lot of hens
+cackling after a successful venture at egg-laying. It had been left to
+Charlie to put above the notice, "FAIR," the word "POSTPONED."
+
+"That will prevent any rush till morning, and save folks from being
+disappointed," Sid had declared.
+
+In the afternoon every thing was under way, and Aunt Stanshy went out to
+see the fair.
+
+"I should never know the place, I must say," remarked Aunt Stanshy, as her
+eyes swept the spot. There were several so-called "tables," such as an old
+window-blind and a disused shelf propped up by various supports like boxes
+and barrels. These tables were covered with pieces of the old curtain, now
+doing service for the last time.
+
+"Here is the confectionery table," shouted Juggie. There were now on the
+table three pieces of molasses candy made by his grandmother. He had had
+twelve to start with, and, as he had sold none, the disposition of the
+missing nine pieces was a matter of grave suspicion.
+
+"Here's the toy table!" called out Charlie. He had a few paper dolls and a
+few "hand-painted" shells, the decorator being Sid, and prominent on the
+table was the cotton image of that friend of the club, Santa Claus.
+
+"Buy a corner-copier stuffed wid candy!" shouted Juggie, holding up a
+brown paper tunnel into which he was about dropping a solitary piece of
+candy.
+
+The governor had the "harvest table," which was groaning under the weight
+of three pears and two papers of seed.
+
+"What's this?" asked Aunt Stanshy, stopping before a discarded
+mantel-piece resting on a rabbit-box and a coal-hod. On this "table" were
+autumn leaves, sprigs of hemlock, a few ferns, and one chrysanthemum
+blossom.
+
+"Thith?" replied Pip, who, like all the others, had put on a "Sunday
+smile" to attract customers. "Thith ith a flower table. Will you buy a
+flower?"
+
+"If I can see one," said Aunt Stanshy, laughing.
+
+"There," said Pip, triumphantly holding up the lonely chrysanthemum. "One
+thent only! Thomething rare!"
+
+"I'll buy it, and here is the cent."
+
+"Cath!" sang out Pip, in tones of command, addressed to a supposed
+cash-boy.
+
+No one responded.
+
+"Cath!"
+
+"Why, you are the cash-boy," said the president, "and you bring the money
+to me, for I am the cashier."
+
+"I tend a counter," squeaked Pip. A serious misunderstanding as to
+positions in the fair here threatened to arise, but it was all averted by
+the obliging Tony, who undertook to transport all bullion from the tables
+to the cashier's office.
+
+There now appeared the president's little sister, "Callie Doodles," as she
+was familiarly called.
+
+"O, boys, she's got a cent, for mother promised it to her! She isn't a
+nail-one!" shouted her brother.
+
+Nail-ones belonged to an inferior caste. This class included those who had
+been about the streets and yards, back of barns and in old corner-lots,
+picking up nails or cast-away bits of iron. Their currency was the more
+common. A hard-cash customer was about as common as bobolinks in December.
+
+"Callie, come here and buy some fruit!"
+
+"Don't you want some candy, Callie?"
+
+"Buy a toy, Callie!"
+
+"Flowerth! flowerth!" were the various shouts greeting the cash customer.
+She was saluted eagerly, as hack-men hail the arrivals in the trains at a
+city station. Callie made no reply, but stubbed in a demure, dignified
+way, from table to table, finally halting where children's strongest
+passion is sure to take them, at the candy table. Here she traded away her
+cash.
+
+"And wont you try a piece?" said Juggie to Aunt Stanshy, displaying his
+stock of two pieces of candy. "Try dese goods."
+
+She graciously took the sample.
+
+"How do you sell candy?"
+
+"Cent a stick."
+
+"Well, I'll take it."
+
+"Two cents," said Juggie, prudently charging for the piece given on trial
+also.
+
+As Aunt Stanshy left this enterprising trader, she heard a vigorous
+summons:
+
+"Cash! cash!"
+
+At the supper-table that night Charlie asked, "Aunty, what do you suppose
+we are going to have now in our club? Something at our fair, I mean?"
+
+"A tornado."
+
+"No, a refreshment saloon; and the boys said they knew you would be in
+every day to buy something."
+
+"O dear!" groaned Aunt Stanshy, inwardly.
+
+"We are going to have ice-cream, too, may be. We couldn't afford it in
+summer."
+
+"Not in summer? Why, that's the time when people want it most."
+
+"But we make ours out of snow, you know, and could only have it in cold
+weather."
+
+"Then I hope, for your sake, we may have some snow, and I see that the
+clouds look like it. But the weather is getting colder nowadays, and if
+you have your snow, and so can make your ice-cream, it may be so cold that
+you will have no customers."
+
+"We will risk _that_. Ice-cream always pays. Ours does, at any rate."
+
+"Snow is coming, I guess, for it looks like a change in the weather."
+
+A change, indeed, was setting in. The river indicated it. It was as smooth
+and glassy as if Aunt Stanshy's flat iron had been over it and pressed
+every wrinkle and ripple down. The air was light. The smoke from the
+houses and the steam from the only tug that the commerce of the town could
+afford to support fell, and fluttered downward in thin veils. Overhead
+there was a mass of gray cloud halting directly above the town, and
+looking too lazy ever to stir again.
+
+"Storm comin'!" declared Simes Badger to all his cronies at Silas
+Trefethen's store. "Wind is sou' already."
+
+It did not stay "sou'," but swung around to the east, then worked into the
+north-east, and then all through the night the wind was sifting
+cotton-wool down on all the streets as if carpeting them, on all the roofs
+as if blanketing them, into all the cracks in the walls of houses and
+barns as if it would chink them up and make them tight for winter.
+
+Chancing to look out of the window as soon as he was awake the morning
+after the storm, Charlie shouted,
+
+"Ice-cream!"
+
+"Yes, all you want," said Aunt Stanshy, who, leaving her coffee-pot, her
+pan of fried potatoes, and batch of biscuit on the kitchen stove, had
+mounted the stairs to wake the sleepy Charlie.
+
+"Boys will soon be here to make it."
+
+"I warrant you! They will make their ice-cream before shoveling the folks'
+paths at home."
+
+It looked so, for half a dozen boys were out in the yard by eight o'clock,
+shouting "ice-cream" to Charlie, who had not finished his breakfast.
+
+With the help of Aunt Stanshy's "essences" enough snow was flavored to
+meet the demands of customers, who, quickly notified, quickly appeared,
+bringing the contents of all the nail-boxes at their homes. Even Aunt
+Stanshy was prevailed upon to buy a dish, and she consistently paid cash
+for it.
+
+Her boarder, Will Somers, was induced to promise more extensive patronage.
+
+"Will, we all think you a first-rate feller," said the artful president;
+"and just to help us out at the fair, couldn't you take your meals at our
+restaurant? Our mothers say they will cook us things--steak, you know, and
+so on."
+
+"Y--e--s, I will try it for--the present."
+
+For some reason the "things" said to have been promised--"steak, you know,
+and so on," did not arrive. Will gave out soon after noon the first day.
+
+"Aunt Stanshy, I shall starve if I stay there," said Will, appearing at
+her pantry door; "and if I didn't starve, they would kill me with their
+abominable 'cream' that they make me buy, though they say it is at a
+reduced price."
+
+The restaurant was given up very soon. The president said that people had
+left the sea-side for the city, and they could hardly expect enough home
+trade to make it pay.
+
+Pip thought he could make his table pay if he had some flowers to set it
+off. But that was not all; he was envious of others' success. The fair had
+been characterized by the usual amount of "human nature" displayed on such
+occasions, and Pip now exhibited his peculiarities. For ten cents he
+bought a few white flowers at a hot-house, and then thought he would get
+ahead of the boys and be at the barn at an early hour, making sure for
+himself any possible customers.
+
+"To give all an equal chance," declared the president, "to make it the
+same for those who get up early and those who lie abed, the barn will be
+open at nine o'clock, except on holidays, when we will accommodate the
+public at an earlier hour."
+
+Pip thought he would be on hand by eight one morning. He would then be
+sure to catch any "nail custom," as that was a class apt to be astir
+early, hunting up currency before other people had a chance at it. But the
+weather had stiffened since the storm. It was too cold to be agreeable,
+and even the nail-customers, usually so early at the barn, were now at
+home hugging the kitchen stove. Pip stood alone at the grand flower table.
+His blossoms lay unsought upon the table.
+
+"Pip! Pip!"
+
+It was the governor down in the yard.
+
+"We are going to see them skate on the pond back of the mill. Come, go!"
+
+Pip could hardly be coming and going at the same time, but he left his
+table and left his flowers. That day, the cold increased steadily.
+
+"It is nippin' cold," said Aunt Stanshy to a neighbor, and what did Jack
+Frost do but take out his nippers and clap them on Pip's flowers! The next
+morning, Pip found a little heap of frozen petals on the "flower-table."
+He could no more make them into flowers than if they had been petals of
+snow!
+
+That day, "owing to the weather," the "Fair" was closed. The boys divided
+the little heap of cash and the large heap of nails, and each knight took
+his share. The club now ceased to have an active existence. It became like
+any other stick that is laid aside and set up in the corner. It seemed as
+if the knights had forgotten that they belonged to a club whose expressive
+title suggested energetic movement.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE FIRE.
+
+
+Will Somers belonged to the "Cataract," which was not a "steamer," but a
+hand-engine. To belong to the "Cataract" it was necessary to own a red
+flannel shirt, a good pair of lungs, and a nimble pair of legs. The
+shirt--did that mean fire? The lungs enabled one to do all the "hollering"
+that might be necessary. The legs were still more essential, that the
+engine might move with proper speed to a fire, and this was at a
+neck-breaking pace. As the engine company had many alarms to answer, some
+of them purposely raised to enable the company to "show off"--so Simes
+Badger said--the legs of a Cataract-boy were not the least valuable of his
+fire-apparatus. And then it did seem as if the company all took a fiendish
+delight in going "like mad" by the homes of old women and all single
+ladies like Miss Persnips, tossing their red helmets--I omitted this
+essential piece of property--directing at the windows defiant glances, and
+all the while their sharp, cracked engine-bell went up and down, over and
+over, as if it were an insane acrobat.
+
+"Fire! Fire!" screamed a female voice, one afternoon. The screamer was
+Miss Persnips.
+
+"Where, where?" shouted Simes Badger.
+
+"O, there, there! I know it must be," was the answer.
+
+That was all Simes wanted, and especially as Mr. Walton was holding a
+service at St. John's. If Simes could excite a neighborhood, and also
+create a sensation in church, he was happy. He now rushed into the
+church-vestibule, and then into the bell-tower, and seizing the rope
+pulled it as if the small-pox had broken out and attacked every other
+person in the community. Simes being the one to make the bell boom,
+"Danger!" he gave evidence that this one person certainly was not
+afflicted with the malady.
+
+In just two minutes from the first rap on the bell, Will Somers, leaving
+behind him a caldron of boiling herbs, was at the door of the
+engine-house, and unlocking it, had seized the long rope attached to the
+engine. There were enough who joined him to rush out into the street the
+clumsy machine. There they received large re-enforcements.
+
+"Where is the fire?" bawled the foreman.
+
+Nobody knew.
+
+"Where is the fire, Simes?" the bell-ringer was asked as the engine
+rattled toward the church-door.
+
+"Miss Persnips!"
+
+Simes meant not the place of the fire, but the source of the information.
+
+"Miss Persnips's house is afire!" shouted the engine-men. It was enough.
+They rushed for that lady's place, and seeing a column of smoke above her
+roof, concluded that its source was directly below, and stopping at a pump
+this side of her house, ran their hose down into the well. They were
+working the brakes at a lively rate and preparing for a thorough
+bombardment of the building, when fortunately she appeared, screaming,
+"Fire is over there, beyond the woods!"
+
+The smoke had now shifted its coarse, and rolling away from Miss
+Persnips's, hung in a dark, sullen cloud above the forest but a little way
+off.
+
+Away went the engine and its allies, sweeping along men and boys, and also
+every able-bodied member of the Up-the-Ladder Club whose legs could carry
+him. Down past shops and houses and farms rushed the crowd, pulling along
+several fat men who had grasped the rope. By and by they came to a farmer
+in a red shirt who pointed his spectacles at them across the top-rail of
+the fence at the right of the road.
+
+"Where's the' fire, squire?" excitedly asked the foreman.
+
+"Fire? I don't know of fire," replied the farmer, coolly, "at leastways,
+any fire that is worth puttin' out. I have got a bonfire in back here, and
+it was purty big, and its smoke you may have seen in the village. If you
+want to stretch your muscle and soak your hose--and that is about all you
+engine-people do--you may come and play on my bonfire."
+
+"Come and play on _you_" shouted an angry voice.
+
+"Put out _him_" screamed another.
+
+"Play away, One," bawled a third, giving the number of the engine as known
+at fires.
+
+There was now a half-joking, half-angry comment on the "squire," and there
+were enough there desirous of wetting down, not his bonfire, but its
+builder. The foreman quieted the strife and the "Cataract" started for
+home. A willingness was expressed to moisten "Miss Persnips's place"
+because she had misled them, though it was unintentional on her part.
+
+Some one sang out, "She can't tell about smoke. She has only one good eye,
+and t'other one is a glass eye."
+
+This put them all in a good-natured mood, and the "Cataract" went home.
+
+Soon there was a fire serious enough to satisfy the most ardent of the
+company. A milder style of weather had been prevailing after the late
+snow-storm. The sun had put extra coal on its fires and melted all the
+snow. Then came a wind that blew continuously two days, drying the grounds
+and the buildings.
+
+"I notice, Somers," said Dr. Tilton, "that you did not have good luck in
+finding a fire that last alarm, but if one is sounded now, I guess it will
+amount to something. Fearful dry, it is getting to be."
+
+The doctor was a true prophet. The next alarm did amount to something. One
+morning about half past seven, there echoed in the narrow streets of
+Seamont a cry that plain meant bad news. Will Somers heard, and might be
+said to have _seen_, that cry. He had taken down the shutters of his
+employer's store, and was hanging in the windows two very gaudily lettered
+placards, "A balm for all, Jenkins's Soporific," "The need of an aching
+world, Muggins's Liniment." Will heard that magic cry, "Fire--re--re!" He
+turned and saw a man coming down the street. He was not only coming, but
+running, his hat off, and his mouth open wide enough to take in a ten-cent
+loaf of brown bread, Will thought.
+
+"Woolen mill on fire!"
+
+"Woolen mill!" gasped Will, and his first thought was, "glory enough for
+one day."
+
+The woolen mill was in a pretty little hollow, a nest whose walls were
+spreading elm-trees. The mill was a relic of the old industries of the
+place and represented a vain effort to make Seamont a "manufacturing
+center."
+
+"Then the fire is down in the hollow," thought Will. He saw somebody
+approaching who he thought might be a customer, but he quickly decided the
+question whether he owed a greater duty to one person or to many--the
+public--by turning the key in the lock of the door. Then he hurried away.
+As he rushed to the house of the "Cataract," he stopped at the door of Dr.
+Tilton's home.
+
+"There," he said to Biddy Flannigan, who answered, "tell the doctor
+there's a tremendous alarm in town, and I thought he might want me to go,
+as he is an owner, and here is the key."
+
+"What?" said Biddy.
+
+"Woolen mill's afire, tell him."
+
+"Woolen Mill Sophia! Who is she?" wondered Biddy, and she went to report
+to the doctor.
+
+"Faith, sir, yer clerk says there is a tremenjus 'larm in town and it's
+about Woolen Mill Sophia, and here is the key, sir."
+
+"Woolen-mill what?" asked the doctor. "I am an owner up there."
+
+"Indade! It must be that Sophia works up there."
+
+"Sophia?" the doctor asked, and then stared at her and exclaimed, "It is
+'woolen mill's afire!' My! Where are my boots? Quick! Bertha, bring down
+my boots, please."
+
+This last request was shouted up stairs to his niece, Bertha Barry, who
+was making a brief visit at the doctor's. Bertha quickly appeared, boots
+in hand, her blue eyes looking bright and fresh as the spring violets just
+gathered from the fields.
+
+"Bertha, it's the old mill that is afire. Will Somers has left the key of
+the store here and gone to the fire. I can forgive him this morning,
+though I did think his duties as a fireman began to interfere with his
+duties as an apothecary. Let me see! I'm all ready, I believe--guess I
+must go up to the fire. Tell your aunt I have gone to the fire and I'll be
+back--when I arrive."
+
+Off went the doctor. Bertha delivered the message to her aunt and went
+down stairs. Then she looked out of the window and watched the people on
+their way to the fire.
+
+"Guess I'll go to the fire, too," said Bertha, "if aunt is willing."
+
+"Och," said Biddy, as she watched the departing Bertha, "we'll all be fur
+goin' up to see Sophia. The saints defind us!"
+
+The fire had started in the waste room of the old mill. Somebody had once
+insisted on isolating this quarter as much as possible, and brick
+partitions had been put up that happily interfered with the spread of the
+fire and allowed all the operatives a chance to escape. The fire finally
+reached an elevator. It then darted with startling rapidity to the top of
+the building, shooting up like an arrow sent by a destructive hand below.
+The flames were now spreading every-where in the highest story. People
+gathered from the town, and the engines soon were working.
+
+"Get every body out of the building!" said a commanding voice, owned by a
+man who had just arrived.
+
+"Of course! That's what we have just been doing," said a second.
+
+The cry now arose, "Two boys in the mill!"
+
+Some one said that the boys had made their escape with the other
+operatives, but had gone back into one of the lower stories after their
+overcoats.
+
+"Boys in the mill!" rang out the fearful cry.
+
+The owner of the commanding voice rushed forward into the lower entry of
+the mill, swinging an ax. Will Somers found him at the door trying to cut
+round the latch.
+
+"What's that for?" asked Will.
+
+"Want to get 'em out, you fool!"
+
+"Have you tried the door?"
+
+"N--n--o."
+
+Will seized it, pulled it, and open it came!
+
+Will was brave, and, in such an emergency as the present, generally took
+his wits with him. The room was full of smoke. He stepped in and shouted,
+but there was no response. While at the door of the first room, he heard
+some one behind saying, "Boys in the next story, they say." Will turned
+and sprang up stairs. Just ahead was the person who had recently spoken.
+The proprietor of the commanding voice was now retreating, his ax over his
+shoulder, stepping proudly out in the consciousness that he had done a
+memorable thing. Up the stairs went Will and his companion, the smoke
+thickening about them. Reaching the second floor and pushing open the door
+of the adjoining room, they saw--was it a boy on the floor? He had
+evidently striven to gain the door, but when he had almost reached it, had
+succumbed to the suffocating smoke, falling with arms stretched out toward
+the goal he desired to secure. And who was it running toward them, boy or
+man, the smoke parting about him as he advanced, then closing up again? It
+was a boy rushing for the door, trying to make his way through the smoke
+which, light as it was, proved too heavy a burden for him, for down he
+dropped, felling flat upon his face. It was the work of a moment
+apparently to seize the boys and carry them out into the entry.
+
+"Thank God for strong arms!" said Will Somers, lifting one boy and
+starting off with him.
+
+"Yes, thank Him for every thing good," answered his companion, shouldering
+the other prize. They descended the stairs. How the smoke had increased!
+They had been absent longer than they thought, and in that time the fire
+was rapidly advancing toward them. They heard a loud noise without, a
+shout rising above the crackle and roar of the flames. Then voices were
+heard at the foot of the stairs: "Come this way! Quick! Hurry!" As Will
+passed through the lower entry, he chanced to glance into the room whose
+door had been left open by the knight of the ax. A draft had been created,
+and Will could see that the flames were springing toward the outer air.
+
+"This way! Hurry!" people were shouting, and through the almost blinding,
+bewildering, suffocating smoke, Will and his companion bore the trophies
+they had snatched from the flames.
+
+"Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!" went up heartily from the dense, black crowd
+below. The rescued boys were laid upon the grass at a safe distance from
+the burning mill. The people began to gather about them.
+
+"Ah, poor Tim, poor Tim!" said a woman, bending over one of the boys.
+
+"That's Ann there with Tim Tyler," said Charlie to Sid Waters, these two
+enterprising knights having made good use of their legs and quickly
+reached the spot.
+
+"Who's Ann?"
+
+"It is Tim's mother."
+
+"I recognize the other boy. It's Bob Landers."
+
+"Will Somers, this you?" asked Charlie.
+
+"It will be when my face is washed. Dirty work at fires."
+
+"Why, Mr. Walton, is this you? What a 'ero! Did you save one of them
+boys?" squeaked Miss Persnips to Will's companion.
+
+The minister's face was not very clean after his fight with the sooty
+enemy, but as Will thought, "Love sees through all disguises."
+
+"Yes, here I am, and if some of you good people will carry these boys
+home, the rest of us will soak down those tenement houses opposite the
+mill and see if we can't save them."
+
+"The dear man! So disinterested, and before he had got his face washed,"
+said Miss Persnips, pressing nearer to gain a better look at the object of
+her admiration.
+
+"Miss Persnips, excuse me," said the foreman of the "Torrent," the great
+rival of the "Cataract," "but unless you withdraw, we shall be obliged to
+wash you out of the way with the hose. Play away, Three!" he roared.
+
+"O, massy!" screamed the shop-keeper, retiring to a safe place.
+
+Will Somers went back to his place at the brakes of the "Cataract." As he
+passed the door of the mill he looked into the entry, "What a blaze!" he
+said.
+
+It was not surprising that the flames had swept forward with such
+rapidity. Up those old wooden stairs drying for years, greasy with the oil
+drippings of the mill, the fire leaped and flew even rather than leaped.
+The flames were reaching out like long, forked arms, vainly clutching
+after the two boys that had been snatched away. The building was now the
+plaything of the flames. Through it and over it, now climbing to the
+highest point of the old-fashioned roof, then searching down into the
+cellar, scorching, raging, roaring every-where, went the fire. In places
+unexpected the flames would show themselves, looking out like the faces of
+firefiends. Then they would retire a moment, only to come again and burst
+out with a fury that nothing could resist, a fury that raged and rioted
+till beams, rafters, flooring, and stair-ways were a black, ashy heap,
+sputtering and hissing toward the sky--a snake heap full of hot fangs.
+
+"I wonder how that fire started," was a frequent exclamation. "Don't
+know," said every body save one poor, old tobacco-ridden man who confessed
+that he had been smoking in the waste room, the place where the fire
+started.
+
+"When you see a man shoving a lighted pipe into sich a place." said Simes
+Badger to the gossippy circle at Silas Trefethen's store that night, "send
+in a bucket of water after him."
+
+"What for? to put out the fire, or to wash him?" asked a hearer.
+
+"Both," said Simes, "one to protect the place and the other to purify
+him."
+
+The wise men all laughed, and there was some sense in the laugh that
+applauded the oracle.
+
+Tim Tyler and Bob Landers had both been carried to their homes. Bob
+escaped serious injury, but it was found that Tim was badly burned.
+
+"I felt it a good deal at the very first," he told Mr. Walton one day,
+"when, in going after my coat, I happened to open a door where the fire
+was, and it darted at me. You see the pain stopped, but now it has started
+up."
+
+"Yes, I understand that while the first contact with the fire is painful,
+then what you might call a paralyzing of the nerves takes place, and
+feeling is benumbed. When the action of the fire ceases, and the attempt
+at healing sets in, the nerves try to do their duty and the pain starts up
+once more. I have thought that the old martyrs who were burned at the
+stake, while they smarted terribly at first, had an easier time after
+that. Bad enough to step upon the hot round of such a ladder to heaven,
+but it was easier climbing after that. You got confused, Tim, didn't you,
+in the mill, when trying to find your way back?"
+
+"O yes; and as I said, I opened a door where the fire rushed at me. It was
+so smoky I wonder I ever got out at all. It seems I had some good
+friends."
+
+"Yes, and God was your best friend, and he helped you, and if you are not
+a martyr, you can try to bear your pain as patiently as you can, and some
+people in bearing pain stand more than the martyrs even."
+
+Tim looked up. "Could you--could you--say a small prayer for me? I don't
+want to knuckle under, but grin and bear it best I can."
+
+When Mr. Walton came out into the kitchen where Ann was she said: "I heard
+Tim ask you to pray. That was a good deal for him to do. Afore, you did it
+without the asking, but I was glad to have him just speak up for himself.
+O, he has been a softenin' since the fire, a comin' round a good deal."
+
+"Where is your brother?"
+
+"Mine? Tim, you mean?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+She only shook her head, and looked sad.
+
+As Mr. Walton was walking home he met Tony, one of his favorites.
+
+"Well, Tony, how is the club? Have they all got the shields Miss Barry
+gave them?"
+
+"I think so, and you were very kind to promise what you did; but we don't
+have any meetings now."
+
+"Don't you?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Won't you come in and see me?"
+
+Tony followed his friend into the clergyman's study. Then Mr. Walton found
+his mother and brought her into the study.
+
+"This little fellow is one of my Sunday-school boys, and his name is
+Tony."
+
+"Why," said the old mother, looking into his face, "I have seen him
+before."
+
+And Tony lifted his eyes--large, lustrous, black--to the old lady's face
+rimmed with silver hair, and said, ingenuously,
+
+"I don't think you ever did. I have never been here."
+
+"But I have seen you, and I want to see you again; and you will come when
+you can, won't you? Where do you live?"
+
+"At Mr. Badger's, and I came from New York with a Mr. Blanco."
+
+"Where is your father?"
+
+"He is in Italy."
+
+"And that is over the sea, over the sea!" she murmured, as she returned to
+her sitting-room. There she stood looking at the picture of a ship, and,
+glancing up at the church vane, which could be seen from her window, she
+wondered if the weather would be easterly and rainy that day.
+
+When they were alone, Tony said to Mr. Walton, "Do you see Tim Tyler
+often?"
+
+"Pretty often."
+
+"And they are real poor?"
+
+"O yes."
+
+On his way home Tony met Charlie.
+
+"Mr. Walton says they are real poor at Tim Tyler's, Charlie. I wish I had
+some money to give him."
+
+Charlie thought a minute, and then he spoke up, eagerly, "I say, Tony,
+let's get up a fair for him."
+
+"That's the very thing I wanted to ask you about. Now it's strange we
+should both think of it."
+
+"That's so."
+
+"Let's shake hands on it, Charlie."
+
+Tony and Charlie, standing on the sidewalk, shook hands cordially. "What
+next? The shaking of hands would not bring a fair.
+
+"Let's go and see Miss Barry," suggested Charlie. This was in accordance
+with the boys' custom to refer all their troubles to this sympathetic
+teacher.
+
+"We want to get up a fair for Tim Tyler," said Charlie, enthusiastically.
+
+"Yes, yes!" cried Tony. Miss Barry looked down into the boys' eager faces.
+
+"Tim Tyler, that boy burned at the fire?"
+
+"Yes," said Charlie.
+
+"That would be splendid."
+
+"But--but," said Tony, "we want you to help us. Could--could you?"
+
+"Yes, I'll help."
+
+The boys were in raptures.
+
+"Have you asked the other boys?" asked the teacher.
+
+"No," replied Charlie; "but there go Sid Waters and Rick Grimes down
+street now. We might ask them."
+
+"You tell them, please, I want to see them."
+
+When Sid and Rick arrived, their assent, at first, was readily given to
+the teacher's proposition for a fair by the boys in behalf of Tim Tyler.
+
+"Only," said Rick, "won't it go to old Tim, his uncle, for rum? I don't
+believe in that."
+
+"O, Tim's mother wouldn't allow that."
+
+"But, you see, Tim had a fuss with Charlie Macomber, and imposed on him,"
+exclaimed Sid.
+
+"Charlie is willing, for he has said so," replied Miss Barry. "You are not
+going to hold on to an old grudge. Your name is 'Up-the-Ladder Club,' and
+not _down_ the ladder. You go down when you hold on to a grudge, boys."
+
+"We won't go down!" cried Charlie.
+
+"No, no!" said the boys.
+
+The different members of the club signified their willingness. Will Somers
+said he would assist.
+
+One other person must be consulted, the older "honorary member" of the
+club, Aunt Stanshy. Knowing her very just and positive opposition to
+drinking habits, Miss Barry thought she might refer to old Tim's, and
+throw out a sharp opinion that the uncle ought to help the boy, as he
+lived in the family of the boy's mother. Charlie, too, thought his aunt
+might object, but she did not. She only put on that look of sadness
+Charlie had noticed when old Tim was in the neighborhood that rainy day,
+and to Will's remark that old Tim ought to do more, she said, with a sigh,
+
+"I suppose the boy is not responsible for other people's failings, and
+they say his face is very white, and his hands are real thin, and he
+behaves better than he did. Yes, I'll--help."
+
+It was easy to decide when to hold this fair, but "where" was a difficult
+problem.
+
+"Take the barn chamber," said Sid.
+
+"It's too cold," replied Will, "and this is to be quite a grand affair."
+
+It was like Aunt Stanshy to offer her front room and sitting-room for
+Tim's benefit, provided Will could spare his quarters, and spare he did.
+
+"We will scatter some posters," said Will. "I will see that they are
+printed."
+
+"We can do it ourselves with pen and ink, and then people will think more
+of it, you know. Besides, as we scatter them, we may have a chance to
+solicit donations, as they call it," said Sid.
+
+"Splendid!" replied Will.
+
+"And we will call on the apothecary," shouted Charlie.
+
+"Yes, but if it be candy, I must put an extra string round the package to
+make sure that it all gets to the right place and is not troubled on the
+way."
+
+The members of the club who had met to "consult" were in excellent
+spirits, especially when Will said, in reply to the governor's proposition
+to ask friends to contribute refreshments, "I see you know how to do it.
+Your experience at your fair fitted you to go right along with this thing
+in splendid style."
+
+Tony thought he could bring some pictures that had been forwarded from
+Italy, and Charlie said, "I guess I can get up a maginary."
+
+"A maginary?" asked Will.
+
+Charlie only chuckled over his proposition, and made no explanations.
+
+"I propose," said Will, "I propose, Mr. President"--here he bowed to Sid,
+which caused that dignitary to stick his thumb into the lowest button hole
+of his jacket and swell out with pride--"I propose that we call our affair
+a 'Helping-Hand Sale.' You know there is a good deal in a name, and it
+sets people to thinking, and sets them to helping, too, and I think Miss
+Barry will like the name."
+
+This was agreeable to the club, whose members now separated to their
+homes.
+
+"Aunt Stanshy," said Charlie, that night, "do you know where my rabbit
+is?"
+
+"I don't know. Now I told you, when Miss Persnips came down here, that
+thing in her arms, and she smilin' and blinkin', as if she had an armful
+of gold, that she was givin' you an elephant rather than a rabbit. Nobody
+knows where the critter is or what it is up to."
+
+Charlie found the white pet, and asked Will what he thought the rabbit
+looked like.
+
+"Looks more like a rabbit than any thing else, Charlie."
+
+"Aunt Stanshy called it an elephant."
+
+"Well, you might say elephant, the white elephant of Siam--sort of a
+distant cousin. Why, what do you ask the question for?"
+
+Charlie grinned, but made no reply.
+
+Every thing was made ready for the sale. Aunt Stanshy's two rooms were the
+scene of much bustle, and while the boys were at their tables, Miss Barry
+in a tastily-draped corner was ready for a reasonable sum to serve out
+refreshments to every applicant.
+
+The Helping-Hand Sale had various attractions. Among them was Charlie's
+"maginary." It was a box covered with white cloth, a piece of workmanship
+at which Charlie had been secretly tinkering for two days. It was labeled
+"A Distant Cousin of the White Elephant of Siam. Price to see, three
+cents, and don't tell when you've seen it."
+
+This attracted great attention.
+
+"Miss Persnips," said Charlie to the shopkeeper, who came to patronize the
+sale, "do you want to see my maginary? Only three cents, and don't tell."
+
+"Your menagerie? Yes. What have you got there? Some dreadful animal! I'm
+afraid to."
+
+Charlie lifted the cover of the box, and there, fat and sleepy, was--Miss
+Persnips told the rest.
+
+"Did you ever! That darling, sweet pet I gave you. Quite an idea, really,
+and here's another cent."
+
+The white elephant's relative was a conspicuous character--after the
+lifting of the cover--that evening.
+
+The next morning Charlie appeared before Will, hanging out a long, dismal
+face, and speaking with difficulty.
+
+"She's gone!"
+
+"Who, Aunt Stanshy?"
+
+"No, Bunny!"
+
+"Your rabbit? How?"
+
+"I don't know. I left her all right in the maginary, last night."
+
+"Let me go out and look round. But where did you put your box?"
+
+"Well, Aunt Stanshy thought it would do just as well if I put the box out
+into the wood-shed--and--"
+
+"Was the door left open?"
+
+"I saw it open this morning."
+
+"I will look about."
+
+Will went into the wood-shed, and there before the door he saw two cats
+licking their chops, and their guilty eyes seemed to him to say, "Rabbit
+stew for breakfast! Keep dark!"
+
+"Charlie," said Will, entering the house again, "I think two cats out
+there took your rabbit, and we will catch them and box them and exhibit
+them."
+
+"As my maginary?"
+
+"Yes, and I'll tell you how to label them."
+
+The cats were caught and boxed, and this was the label their cage bore on
+the second and last evening of the "Helping Hand Sale:" "Destroyers of the
+Distant Cousin of the White Elephant of Siam." This device took, and many
+pennies were put by the neighbors into Charlie's hands. When the boys
+summed up the profits of the sale, they had for Tim Tyler's benefit the
+sum of thirty dollars, which Mr. Walton promised should be judiciously
+expended.
+
+"It all shows," remarked Miss Barry to the club, "what we can do when we
+work in earnest, and also how much small sums amount to."
+
+Simes Badger's comment on the affair was that Aunt Stanshy had shown
+herself a Christian, "knowin' as I do," said Simes, "the story of the
+Tyler affair way back."
+
+Mr. Walton and his old mother had something also to say about the sale,
+and it was in connection with one of Tony's Italian pictures that Mr.
+Walton bought.
+
+"A house, mother, in Naples, not far from the water, you see."
+
+The old lady was silent awhile. Then she murmured, "I have seen it,
+haven't you, somewhere?"
+
+"Why, yes--no. What is it?"
+
+But the old lady herself was confused about it. She looked at the fair
+home by the sea, and then looked again, but she could not seem to
+positively identify it.
+
+"And still I have seen it before," she affirmed.
+
+To identify the spot was like trying to get hold of the exact form of a
+ship that partially breaks through the fog and then recedes, ever coming
+yet ever vanishing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+TWO MUD-TURTLES.
+
+
+"There goes a man drunk, Aunt Stanshy."
+
+Aunt Stanshy said nothing, but continued to thump away on her
+ironing-board.
+
+"He is going down the lane, aunty."
+
+Aunt Stanshy heard Charlie, but she said nothing, only ironing away
+steadily as ever. Charlie heard her sigh once, or thought he did.
+
+"Did you speak, aunty?"
+
+"Me, child? Why, no!"
+
+Charlie continued to look out of the window that fronted the narrow lane.
+The drunken man was not a very attractive object. Then it was a dark,
+lowery, and rainy day in the latter part of November. The streets were
+muddy, fences damp and clammy to the touch. Over the river hung a gray,
+cheerless fog. To such a day a staggering drunkard could not be said to
+contribute a cheering feature, and it was no wonder that Aunt Stanshy
+cared little to see him. Soon after this, Charlie went out into the barn.
+It had a deserted look, especially up in the chamber.
+
+"No White Shields here now," he said, mournfully.
+
+That fastened window, too, the nail driven securely above the hook and
+staple, had a mournful look to Charlie's soul. He remembered the story
+that Simes Badger had told him about this window and the closed door
+below.
+
+"I wonder if they will ever be open," thought Charlie.
+
+He remembered the river view that was possible from the "cupelo" above,
+and he said, "Guess I'll climb up and see what the weather is." Charlie
+was not a very experienced weather-observer, but he thought he would like
+to obtain a wider outlook than the lane window had afforded him. He
+planted an eye between the slats of his watch-tower and then looked off.
+The view was neither extensive nor varied, mostly one of mud-flats. A
+thick fog had come from the sea and stretched like a curtain across the
+mouth of the dock in the rear of Aunt Stanshy's premises. The low tide had
+left in the dock a stretch of ugly flats, out of which stuck various
+family relics like pots and kettles, then pots and kettles again, and
+finally a dead cat. Charlie saw several tall chimneys in the neighborhood,
+but the buildings they decorated had been covered by the fog, and the
+chimneys looked like a vessel's masts from which the hull had drifted
+away, leaving them standing in depths of river-mud. Toward the sea it was
+only mist, mist that looked extensive enough to reach as far as London,
+whose fog-lovers would have welcomed it. Did the dock, the tall chimneys,
+the mist, notice that curious eye up in the "cupelo" looking through the
+slats and watching them?
+
+"Guess I'll go down," said their owner.
+
+The mist continued to wrap Seamont all that day and far into the night.
+
+Will Somers was preparing to leave Dr. Tilton's store that evening. He had
+sent off medicine to quiet the last earache in town that had been heard
+from. He had also given powders to make poor Miss Persnips sleep quietly.
+She was sick with a nervous fever. Will now closed the store, turned the
+key in the lock, and went up the street, whistling "The Star-Spangled
+Banner." It was half after ten. One by one the house-lamps had been
+extinguished, and it was "dark as a pocket" in the lane. Still whistling,
+Will neared Aunt Stanshy's. He ceased his tune suddenly for he caught an
+outcry.
+
+"Where does that come from!" asked Will. "Back of the barn, I guess. There
+it is again! It is from the dock, I know, sure as I'm born."
+
+He sprang across Aunt Stanshy's garden and then leaped a fence which
+separated her estate from an open piece of ground bordering the dock and
+used for various purposes. Fishermen dried their fish here on long flakes.
+Around three sides of the dock went a stone wall, against which the tide
+washed and rippled, mildly grumbling because the wall was stubborn and
+would not budge an inch. On the stone wall bordering the upper end of the
+dock rested that side of Aunt Stanshy's barn in which were the fastened
+door below and the fastened window above.
+
+Will, having leaped the fence, ran past the fish-flakes to the edge of the
+stone dock-wall. It was so dark that his running was neither rapid nor
+straight.
+
+"Somebody is down in the dock," thought Will. "Don't worry!" he shouted,
+"I am here."
+
+He now heard a series of noises, some of them distinct and quite human.
+Others were confused outcries.
+
+"It's time for low tide," thought Will, and, without further reflection,
+down he dropped into the dark, dismal dock, landing in a bed of mud soft
+as ever a flounder slept on. He was conscious at once that this bed was a
+very yielding one, but he could not stop to calculate how far down he
+might sink, shouting at once, "Where are you? Sing out there!"
+
+"M--m--moo--moo," replied the person, as if a cow in distress. "I'm
+hic--here--hic!"
+
+"Drank as a fool," thought Will. "Where?"
+
+"Hic--here--hic!"
+
+"Hie--haec--hoc, more likely," said Will, recalling his Latin. "Stay right
+where you are."
+
+"I'll stay--hic."
+
+"Let me feel for you. O, here you are."
+
+Will now felt of some one crouching against the stone-wall of the dock,
+"How did you come here?"
+
+"Dunno--hic--but I spect I did."
+
+"You must have walked off the wall, and the great question now is how to
+get back again."
+
+"Yes--hic--that--is the question--hic--afore the house."
+
+"Afore the dock, I should say. Whew, I believe I'm up to my thighs in mud,
+and if that isn't water I'm splashing in! The tide is coming in, certain.
+Come, friend, we must get out of this!"
+
+"Yes, we must all--hic."
+
+"Must all hic? We must all get out, you mean."
+
+"Yes, all get-hic."
+
+"Let me think. There are stairs out of this old bog somewhere, and where
+are they? I declare! down at the other end, and the water is three or four
+feet deep there when it is dry up here. Then put on top of it or under it
+two or three feet of mud and you have five to six feet in all, and that is
+an interesting state of things to wade through. We must stay at this end
+of the dock; and back of Aunt Stanshy's barn, I believe, are steps. I must
+work him up there, and do it myself somehow, for my shouting don't bring
+any one."
+
+Will had called several times for help, but there was no response. He now
+addressed his boozy companion:
+
+"I must get you up out of this somehow, and work you along where the steps
+are. The wall is too high to boost you up here. If this isn't interesting,
+nigh eleven o'clock, pitch dark, down in this old dock blundering with
+you, drank as a fool! I feel like laughing."
+
+"Yes--hic--you're drunk--as a--fool--and I
+want--to--hic--laugh--he--he--he!"
+
+Will did really laugh now. It seemed so funny there at that hour in that
+place.
+
+"But it's no laughing matter, friend, I'll tell you. O whew! Here's the
+water half a foot deep all around us! Come now, lift up your feet and come
+with me. Make an effort now."
+
+The man rallied his strength so effectively to make this effort that he
+lost his balance, and stumbling against Will, pitched him over.
+
+"Look--look out--friend!" roared Will, as he floundered in mud and water.
+"Can't you do better than that?"
+
+"Besht--hic--I can do for you. Might try it again--hic."
+
+"O, thanks--thanks. Be contented with that trial. There is my boot, stuck
+fast in the mud, and let her go. Come, friend, make an effort to get
+along. Stick close to the wall and work your way on, and lean on me.
+There, you did splendidly then. Try again! There, there! Easy now. O
+scissors, there goes my other boot! The next thing will be that I shall
+get my legs in for good, and by to-morrow morning early the water will be
+over us all. Come, friend, you don't want to get drowned. Pull away!
+Steady there! Move on! We are making progress, you see. Again, there! On
+she goes! Hem--now, once more! All together! There we are!"
+
+There came a series of such trials, and finally Will shouted, "Must be
+almost there--and--" bump they went against the stone wall at the upper
+end of the dock.
+
+"Three cheers, friend!"
+
+"Hip--hip--hip--"
+
+"No matter about giving them. Now we will work along to some steps back of
+a barn. Careful!"
+
+When the steps had been reached Will exclaimed, "So far, so good, friend."
+
+"Yes--hic--I'm glad--I've--hic--got you--hic--so far safe--hic."
+
+"Got me? You have my thanks. Well, now, you stay here by these steps until
+I come for you. I will fetch a light. Stay here, now."
+
+"I will--hic."
+
+Will felt his way along the base of the wall until he came to the lane.
+The stones in the wall were smooth with the slime accumulating there for
+years, and it was hard work to get his feet out of the mud, and very hard
+then to get them up and over the wall. He succeeded though, and grasping a
+rail-fence and mounting it, dropped down into the lane.
+
+"Glad to touch solid ground," thought Will, "though I be in my
+stocking-feet."
+
+He hurried to Aunt Stanshy's door, which had been left unlocked for his
+admittance, and opening it, stepped upon the entry oil-cloth.
+
+"Tick--tick! Who comes here?" the old clock now seemed to say, loudly,
+solemnly ticking.
+
+"How I shall muddy this sacred floor! Can't help it, though! Aunt
+Stanshy," he now began to call; at the same time he rapped on the
+baluster. "Aunt Stanshy!"
+
+He looked up and saw the light from the lamp that she kept burning at
+night. Soon there was the sound of a stirring, and a tall figure in white
+bent over the railing. A second and smaller statue of snow was there in a
+moment, leaning over the railing by the side of Aunt Stanshy.
+
+"What is it?" she asked.
+
+"I'm sorry to trouble you, but I've just come from the dock, and--"
+
+"Why, you look like a mud-turtle," said Aunt Stanshy, bending over still
+farther and holding out the lamp, whose light fell on Will.
+
+"Mud-turtle? I don't wonder you say so, and there's another and
+worse-looking one out in the dock."
+
+"Two mud-turtles? What do you mean? Where _have_ you been?"
+
+"I mean this; I was coming home and heard some one calling for help, and
+ran to the dock and saw--no, I couldn't _see_ a barley-corn before my
+nose--but I knew somebody was down there, and without thinking--"
+
+"Just like you!" said Aunt Stanshy to herself.
+
+"And in I went, and I succeeded in getting my man, who is drunk, round to
+the upper aide of the dock."
+
+"You did splendidly," said Aunt Stanshy, aloud.
+
+"But I had to work for it! And now I want a light, which you may wonder I
+didn't get before; but I was so anxious to help that fellow, I put and run
+as soon as I heard him cry, and when I was in the dock I thought I might
+as well stick to him and work him into a safe place. But haven't you a
+door in the dock-side of your barn?"
+
+"Y--e--s," said Aunt Stanshy, reluctantly, remembering an old decision
+about the door. "I will be out, and you take the lantern that you will see
+in the back entry. Don't mind my floor. I will be out in two minutes."
+
+"Let me go down and show Will about the lantern," said Charlie.
+
+"Are you dressed?"
+
+"O yes. I thought I might help, you know," was the complacent remark of
+Charlie, who had improved his time, and, while keeping his "ears out," had
+been putting his legs into his pants as rapidly as possible.
+
+"You have been smarter than your aunt, but she will be there soon."
+
+Charlie showed Will where the lantern hung in the back entry, and together
+they went into the barn.
+
+"Here is the door," said Charlie, "that lets folks into the dock."
+
+"But how do you get the thing open?" asked Will, flashing the light of his
+lantern upon the door.
+
+"I will open it," said Aunt Stanshy, who now appeared, and already decided
+that the door might be consistently opened for a good deed's sake. She
+carried a hammer in her hand, which she energetically swung about the
+driven nails, soon removing them. Then she threw back the door, and out
+into the black night peered anxiously. How long it had been since the last
+time that she had looked out from that door! She could see nothing at
+first, but in a moment made out a man's form below. As the rays of Aunt
+Stanshy's lamp shone out, they made a bridge of light that stretched off
+into the mist, as if anxious to reach the river and bridge it for some
+poor, helpless soul in the water.
+
+"Say, friend, you down there?" called out Will.
+
+A voice below answered, "Yesh--hic--I'll help you--up--"
+
+"You will? Better let me help you first."
+
+"Shuit yourself--hic."
+
+Will descended the steps, and found the man leaning against the dock-wall.
+
+"Now, friend, we'll climb these stairs."
+
+"I will--help you--hic--yes--up."
+
+"You are very kind, but let me help you first. Now go it! Tough! You don't
+gain a peg."
+
+"You'll have me--hic--over--friend."
+
+"Have _you_ over! It's the other way, man."
+
+"Well--shay! It's all right, aint it?--hic."
+
+"O yes! We wont quarrel about it. Look here, folks! haven't you got any
+thing up there we could steer him by--a rope, perhaps, to which he could
+cling? The water has risen and come up here, and it's not comfortable in
+one's stocking-feet. Wish my fire company was here! We would make short
+work of it."
+
+"Shall I ring the church bell?" asked Charlie, excitedly.
+
+"O don't, don't!"
+
+"Here's a rope," said Aunt Stanshy.
+
+"Yes, yes!" exclaimed Charlie, "and we will pull him in."
+
+"We might do that, or at least help," said Aunt Stanshy, laughing.
+
+"Yesh--hic--pull him in," said the man in the dock.
+
+"We will fasten the rope about you, friend, and they'll draw on it, and
+perhaps you could hold on to it and draw yourself up, and I will shove you
+behind. Now, all, a good try!"
+
+Will was now shoving, Aunt Stanshy and Charlie hauling, while the man
+tried to grasp the sides of the steps; and so, out of the slime and the
+mist and the night, up into the light, and then into Aunt Stanshy's barn,
+came the face of--old Tim Tyler!
+
+"Horrors!" said Aunt Stanshy, startled by this unexpected sight of the
+second mud-turtle. Her face wore, indeed, a look of horror at first, and
+then the expression changed to one of pity.
+
+Over the door-sill he crawled, and then looking up, he said, in a drunken,
+but abashed, humiliated way, "Stanshy, is it you? Real--hic--sorry to
+trouble--hic--you."
+
+Aunt Stanshy made no audible reply, but stood looking away as if into
+distant years. She was recalling the words uttered by Tim long ago, when
+he vowed that he would see himself "a-drownin' in that dock first afore
+he'd ask a favor of her." "He has come up to his word," she said to
+herself, and then she bowed her troubled face.
+
+"Well, now," said Will, looking round with a worried face, "what next?"
+
+"Guesh I'll--hic--go home now. Thank you, sir," he said, bowing to Will.
+"Thank you, Stanshy," and he bowed still lower.
+
+"Timothy," said Aunt Stanshy, calling him by the old name, "I wouldn't
+turn a dog into the street a night like this, and you had better stay
+here. I will get you some clothes, and, Will, perhaps you will see that he
+gets off these."
+
+"And bring me one of my suits, too, please. And if Charlie will bring me a
+basin and some water, we will wash here. I will look after my man here.
+Bring my slippers, please."
+
+"Where's--hic--your boots?"
+
+"O, they concluded to stay in the dock."
+
+"I'll--get--you another pair--hic."
+
+"I may find them at low-water and by daylight."
+
+Tim Tyler stayed at Aunt Stanshy's that night The next morning he was in
+his right mind, and, thanking Aunt Stanshy, said he must go. Then he
+lingered, twirling in his hands the old felt hat that was his daily
+companion, though a much abused one.
+
+"He wants to say something," thought Charlie.
+
+"Constantia, years ago you and I had a falling out. I think I was to blame
+in tempting that boy's father, and I have often thought so, but have been
+too proud to say it all these years. I did not like what you said; but no
+matter, I was to blame for what I did, and I did not answer you back in
+gentleman-fashion. I want to say I am sorry, and ask you to overlook it
+and shake hands."
+
+He held out his hand to Aunt Stanshy.
+
+"He has spoken like a man and what will she do?" thought Will.
+
+Aunt Stanshy was ready to show that she was a woman. She held out her
+hand, also, and said, "I said more than I needed to, and I am sorry for
+that. Let it go, please."
+
+"Well," he exclaimed, "it was mean in me to tempt a man, though I did not
+see then, as I do now, how low drink may bring a man. God knows I am low
+enough."
+
+The tears were now making their way down old Tim Tyler's face. Charlie saw
+that Aunt Stanshy turned away from those present and looked in another
+direction, but the quick-eyed boy thought he noticed a redness to Aunt
+Stanshy's eyes when she faced the company again.
+
+Will Somers had come from the store in season to hear Tim's words. A
+fisherman soon called who had hurt his hand with a fish-hook and wished to
+have a poultice applied by the "young doctor," as people sometimes called
+Will. This second party had closely followed Will and had heard what was
+last said. It was an interesting scene. There was the drunkard, confessing
+how low he had fallen, and there was the woman who once had loved and
+respected him. There was Charlie, the son of the man whom the drunkard
+tried to lead astray. There was Will, and the fisherman made an additional
+spectator.
+
+Will stepped up to Tim.
+
+"Mr. Tyler, excuse, me, but why do you stay so low? Why not come up
+again?"
+
+"Will's tone was full of sympathy.
+
+"God knows I would like to come up again."
+
+"You can, and be back in your old place, owning your own boat, too."
+
+"Yes," said Aunt Stanshy, eagerly, "and fishing from the barn, just the
+same as before."
+
+"You are all kind, very kind. It does me good," and poor Tim actually
+smiled at the prospect. "What would my sister, who has clung to me, say?
+Wouldn't she be taken aback?"
+
+The tears were again in the drunkard's eyes.
+
+"Good deal of the man there yet," thought Will. "Your sister might be
+taken aback, but in that kind of way that would help you forward. Come,"
+he said, aloud, "I will go into my room and write a pledge for you, and be
+back in a moment."
+
+Tim looked intently at the pledge of total abstinence that Will brought.
+
+"If--if--I had some one to sign with me, some one to stand with me," he
+murmured.
+
+"I will," said the fisherman, stepping forward, and now recognized as a
+previous acquaintance.
+
+"You, John Fisher, will you?"
+
+"Yes, I have taken a drop now and then, but I'll sign and stand with you.
+I don't want to get into the--"
+
+"Dock, where I was?" asked Tim.
+
+"No, I am sure I don't."
+
+"And that's the very place where drop-people may fetch up. I was a
+drop-taker once. I will sign, and God help me!"
+
+"O he will," said Aunt Stanshy, encouragingly. Charlie now saw that her
+eyes were redder than ever.
+
+After the name of Timothy Tyler came the name of John Fisher.
+
+"Now you will make those at home happy," said Will.
+
+But only those with whom Tim made his home really knew how happy it made
+them. How great was the change there! Young Tim speedily began to rally,
+sitting up that very day, while Ann went round the house singing.
+
+Charlie came up the next day with a delicacy from Aunt Stanshy for the
+patient.
+
+"Tell Aunt Stanshy to wipe out every thing, and we will start once more,"
+was the message that Ann sent off by Charlie.
+
+"It is all wiped out," was Aunt Stanshy's answer, and the two soon came
+together and joined hands.
+
+The barn-door toward the dock was now open, and, in a humble way, the firm
+of "Tyler & Fisher" began business, drying their fish on the flakes
+adjoining Aunt Stanshy's barn, while in the barn itself they stored their
+possessions, as might be necessary.
+
+A note from Mr. Walton arrived about that time. It was written in his
+frank, simple, hearty way, congratulating both the men on the stand they
+had taken. Referring to Tim's desire for fellowship in his new effort, of
+which Mr. Walton had heard, he added, "There is another who will stand by
+you, the Great Brother who came as a babe at Bethlehem, and Christmas will
+soon remind us of it. Feeling for us and loving us, he at last died for
+us. Ask him to stand with you. He came to help just such poor weak fellows
+as we all are."
+
+That touched the "firm," and the next Sunday they both sat in a back seat
+near the stove by the church-door. As Tim Tyler sat there in old St.
+John's and heard the dreary wind roaring without, he thought of the
+fishing-boats that scud before such winds anxious to make port and reach
+home.
+
+"That's me, I hope, trying to get home," he thought, "and find harbor in
+God's Church, will hold us all."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+A NEW DEPARTURE.
+
+
+Again the club was only a memory. It was like a walking-stick that, when
+the mountain-tramp is over, the vacationist puts on the wall as a memento.
+
+"How is your club getting along, Charlie?" asked Miss Bertha Barry, one
+day, when she was calling at Aunt Stanshy's.
+
+"We--we--don't meet," said Charlie, mournfully. Juggie was there, also,
+calling on a once brother knight, and he, too, looked sad.
+
+"Now I have an idea," said the teacher. "You know I like a good time as
+well as any body, but I think if we have clubs, it is a good idea to make
+them as useful as possible. If you meet again, remember, your name is
+'Up-the-Ladder Club,' always to be climbing up, always to be advancing.
+Now you can advance in this way; you can combine the literary element."
+
+"Come-and-bine what?" asked Juggie.
+
+"The literary element."
+
+"De literal element?"
+
+"Recitations and so on, I mean."
+
+"We did have an entertainment," said Charlie, who was not disposed to
+forget or disparage the glory of "departed days."
+
+"But this is something different, and let me explain. Let us suppose that
+we take the subject, 'Days of our Forefathers,' the times before or at the
+Revolutionary War. One of you could be dressed as a farmer in those days,
+and tell what farmers did; another as printer could tell what printers
+did, and so on. That would give you an idea of those days, and make
+something useful of your club."
+
+The plan was popular with the boys of the club. When the subject was
+proposed to Aunt Stanshy, she made the comment:
+
+"Some sense in the idea. The boys will learn something."
+
+"And then," said Miss Barry, "when Christmas comes, you can give a
+Christmas entertainment, and ask an admission fee, and, won't you give the
+money to the missions of our Church? That will be putting another round in
+the ladder, and the 'Up-the-Ladder Club' will go higher still. I want you
+to help other people all you can. I'll tell you what to do, and be with
+you."
+
+The boys agreed to their teacher's plan. Sid was specially enthusiastic.
+Will Somers said he would help. Aunt Stanshy had promised to open the
+rooms of her house, and one December night, when the sky was like the dark
+face of an Oriental beauty, hung all over with golden jewelry, the White
+Shields and their friends met at Aunt Stanshy's. How happy were the club
+boys to find there a banner sent by Mr. Walton. He wrote that Tim Tyler
+was coming to Sunday-school, and that they had previously secured four
+scholars, and Tim should be counted the fifth. Happy knights to earn that
+banner!
+
+About eight Sid came into the front room dressed in a brown, broad-skirted
+coat, also wearing small clothes, silver knee-buckles, and buckled shoes.
+He took off his cocked hat, made a low bow, and holding out a diminutive
+newspaper, yellow with age, began:
+
+"I am a printer. I had the honor of printing the 'New Hampshire Gazette,'
+which was started in Portsmouth in 1756, and is still published in that
+good old city. In those days newspapers were not so numerous as now. When
+the Revolutionary War closed there were forty-three papers in the country.
+We did not give such crowded or so large sheets as are now published. My
+paper, though, was so popular all the spare copies were taken, and I have
+none by me this moment; but here is a copy of the 'New England Chronicle,'
+that came out in Boston on the 4th of July, 1776. It has four pages, you
+will see, measures ten inches by fifteen, say, and each page has three
+columns. It was not easy work then to publish a paper. We had no
+steam-presses, but hand-power had to do the work, and my arms ache to this
+day. It was hard, too, at the time of the Revolutionary War, to get paper,
+and before the war, too. In 1769 there was only one paper-mill in New
+England, and that was at Milton, Mass. They had to advertise for rags, and
+what they called the bell-cart went through Boston picking them up. Then
+in towns like Salem, Charlestown, Portsmouth, they scraped all they could.
+Ten years after, my brother-publisher, of the 'Massachusetts Spy,'
+appealed to the 'fair Daughters of Liberty in this extensive country' to
+save their rags, and so 'serve their country,' advising them to hang up a
+bag in one corner of a room that the odds and ends might be saved. For a
+pound of 'clean white rags' the ladies could get ten shillings! If you had
+lived then, and had your mother's rags to-day, what heaps of money you
+could have made! It was hard, too, for us newspaper men to get news. I was
+looking yesterday at a copy of the 'Portsmouth Oracle,' published in 1805.
+That was in this wonderful century. What did it say on the 26th of
+January? 'News by telegraph?' and did it tell us what the Hottentots were
+doing yesterday? No; it said, 'By the mails,' and had one item from Boston
+two days old, two from New York nine days old, and one from Fredericksburg
+about a trouble with the colored people, and that news was twenty-three
+days old! Rags and news, those two things, how hard they were to get! And
+then, ladies and gentlemen, how hard it was to get our pay! A brother
+editor in New York, in 1777, told his customers he must charge them, for
+'a quarter of news,' twelve pounds of beef, seven pounds of cheese, and so
+on, or he must have their worth in money, and he tells them to bring in
+the produce, or he will have to 'shut up shop.' I will now shut, also."
+
+Making a low bow again, the wearer of small clothes retired. When Juggie's
+turn arrived, he appeared, whip in hand.
+
+"I'm de stage-driber. In de days ob our ancestors dar were no railroads,
+but jest common roads. De fust canal was built in 1777. Dar was a big road
+dat went from Bosson to mouf of Kennebec, one up into New Hampshire, and
+den ta Canada, one to Providence, and one to New York, while New York had
+two roads, norf and one souf. I was a stage-driber." (Here Juggie cracked
+his whip and shouted, "Get up, Caesar!") "I ran de 'Flyin' Machine' dat
+went from New York to Philadelfy, and took only two days; and one spell I
+took a stage from New York to Bosson in six days. What do you say to dat?
+Don't it make yer eyes open? Who carried de mail, do you say? And haben't
+you eber heard? De stage. In 1775 de mail went from Philadelfy to New
+England ebery fortnight in winter, but dey improbed and went once a week,
+and letter-writers could get an answer in free weeks, when before it took
+six weeks. What progress! De worl' goes on, and--so do I."
+
+Juggie left, and Governor Grimes appeared in the dress of a farmer,
+carrying a shovel in one hand and a hoe in the other.
+
+"I am a farmer, and was one in the old days. It is true I did not have so
+many neighbors as people nowadays, and I went without things that farmers
+now have. I didn't have newfangled cultivators, reapers, or such things.
+But then what a stout house I lived in, a big, square house, and its frame
+wasn't made of pipe-stem sticks! They were big, solid sticks of oak that I
+had, and you could see them sticking out of the corners and down from the
+ceiling. What chimneys I had, and the bricks came all the way from
+England! I had none of your box stoves, but a big fire in the chimney
+which you could see. My wife, Polly, had no carpets on the floor, but she
+had rugs she made of rags. And my darter, Jerusha, what a cook she was!
+She made pies--cooked 'em, I mean--in a brick oven, and she stewed her
+chickens in pots hung on hooks from a swinging crane in the chimney. And
+then I gave Jerusha a turn-spit, too, which she put before the fire, and I
+gave her a tin kitchen. Polly had a spinning-wheel and Jerusha a
+hand-loom, and that is where our cloth came from. I raised corn and grass
+and potatoes, and we had plenty of apples, and what fun we had at huskin'
+parties and apple parings! I took care of my horses, oxen, cows, and
+sheep, pigs, too, and had to kill my own critters and cure the hams we
+used. In those days we had to do many things ourselves, such as dip our
+candles, and I made my eyes weak mending Jedidiah's shoes in the evening,
+a candle near me, and the tall old family clock ticking in the corner."
+
+Miss Barry was charming in her antique dress, as every White Shield
+thought. It came down from her great-great-grandmother, Sally Tilton, who
+was a famous belle in her day. The dress was hooped and ruffled,
+"trailed," also, in the old style. Miss Barry's hair was powdered, and she
+wore white satin shoes. She represented the "Daughters of Liberty," and
+told about Emily Geiger, the South Carolina young lady who undertook to
+carry a written message from General Greene to General Sumter, and when
+the British took her, she ate up her letter! The enemy released her, not
+finding her message. She went on and she did her errand, though, giving
+the message from memory, as General Greene, fearful of a capture, had told
+her the contents of the letter. Then Miss Barry told about some girls in
+New York who gave a coat of molasses and flag-down to a young man
+disrespectful to Congress. She gave an account of the young ladies in
+Virginia, Massachusetts, and elsewhere.
+
+Will Somers appeared in the dress of a revolutionary soldier, carrying on
+his shoulder a musket that was a fire-lock, and slung at his side was a
+powder-horn, while in his tinder-box were flint and steel. How many
+battles this old Continental had been in, what victories he had won, and
+what hardships he had endured! He was not slow to tell of them all.
+
+The entertainment was voted a great success.
+
+"There, Charles Pitt," declared Aunt Stanshy the next morning at the
+breakfast-table, "I like that style of a club ever so much. It tells you
+something."
+
+"Yes," said Charlie, "I know a lot more than I did."
+
+"I want you to have a good time in your club, but when it is all play and
+nothing else, it aint just the thing."
+
+"Yes, aunty," said the now matured and venerable Charlie. "And we're going
+to have something else."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+He only winked and looked wise as an owl at midnight.
+
+December was now hurrying away. The winter weeks followed one another
+rapidly, and at last Charlie heard Mr. Walton say in church something
+about a Christmas festival.
+
+"Christmas is coming!" was Charlie's silent response.
+
+What a Christmas it was! Two nights previous to it the club had an
+entertainment in behalf of missions, as Miss Barry had suggested. Dressed
+as that benevolent individual, Santa Claus, different members of the club
+stepped forward and gave an account of Christmas in Germany, Christmas in
+Russia, Christmas in Italy, and Christmas in Australia. The boys were
+curious to see how much money they had made.
+
+"Twenty dollars!" declared Sid, who counted the funds.
+
+"There," said Miss Barry, "the Up-the-Ladder Club will put rounds under
+the feet of boys in heathen lands, and help them climb up into the light
+of a Saviour's presence."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE WRECK.
+
+
+Snow still kept away, but winter winds had come, and they swept over the
+bare ground, cutting like knives. About the first of the year the weather
+softened. The old gray heads, whose possessors occupied that
+village-throne of wisdom, the jackknife-carved bench by Silas Trefethen's
+stove, prophesied "a spell of weather."
+
+"Storm brewin'! I feel it in my bones," declared Simes Badger, squinting
+at the vane on Aunt Stanshy's barn and then at the gray, scowling clouds
+above. The wind was from the "nor'-east." It had a damp, chilly touch, so
+that the people shrank from it, and were glad to get near their cozy
+fires. All day threatening clouds rolled in from the sea, as if the storm
+had planted batteries there and the smoke from the cannonade was
+thickening. At night Charlie, passing a window in his chamber, heard the
+rain drumming on the panes. He had gone to his warm nest and been there
+only two minutes, when he said to himself, as he gaped, "If it would only
+rain so hard that I wouldn't have to go to school to-mor--" Here the angel
+of sleep came along, and, putting his hand on the eyes of a tired boy,
+closed them and drowned in sweet oblivion all his school anxieties. It
+rained through the night. It rained all the next day. The tide, too, was
+unusually high. It rolled over the wharves, swept up the shipyards, and
+even ventured into the yard back of Silas Trefethen's store, floating away
+a hencoop with its squawking tenants.
+
+"It beats all!" said Simes Badger. "The oldest person round here never saw
+such a tide."
+
+The Up-the-Ladder Club did the tide the honor of making it a call in a
+body, and from the rear of Silas Trefethen's store watched the swollen
+current beyond the yard.
+
+"Let's go down to the beach and see the waves to-morrow. It's Saturday,
+you know, and the waves pile up tremendous in a storm. Who's for it!"
+inquired Sid Waters. There was not a White Shield present who was
+unwilling to go. Some of them, however, went sooner than they expected.
+
+Toward the morning of the next day, Will Somers was aroused by the ringing
+of a bell. He opened his ears, opened his eyes, and then he sprang out of
+bed.
+
+"Fire!" he said. "Fire!"
+
+He rushed to a window, threw it up, and put his head out into the black
+storm, through which echoed the notes of the bell of old St. John's. They
+made such an impression it seemed as if they must be living things out in
+the darkness walking. So strange, so unreal was this, it was a relief to
+hear the approaching footsteps of somebody who was actually "flesh and
+blood."
+
+"Where's the fire?" asked Will.
+
+"Fire!" said the man, walking leisurely along. "I should think any booby
+might know this is not the night for a fire, when things are so wet; but
+it is the night for a wreck, and the feller pullin' that bell tells me
+there is one off Gull's P'int."
+
+"Is it? I am going, then, and I should think any one but a booby would be
+going in that direction," retorted Will, noticing that the man was not
+moving toward the quarter where the wreck was. The stranger muttered
+something about knowing his own business best, while Will pulled in his
+head and slammed down the window.
+
+"Charlie!" he said, stepping into the boy's little chamber after lighting
+a lamp.
+
+"What is it?" asked Charlie, winking his eyes at the blinding glare of the
+light.
+
+"Do you want to go with me?"
+
+"Go where?"
+
+"To see a wreck."
+
+"O yes! Just wait a minute and let me ask Aunt Stanshy."
+
+He groped his way to his aunt's bedroom.
+
+"Aunt Stanshy, may I go with Will?"
+
+In his eagerness he forgot to mention the object of this midnight
+expedition. Aunt Stanshy was not thoroughly awake, for the angel of sleep
+visiting Charlie had touched her eyes also. If awake, she might not have
+granted the request. The idea went confusedly through her brain that
+Charlie wanted to sleep with Will.
+
+"Y-e-s," she murmured, drowsily, and then the angel of sleep had her fully
+again under his control. Charlie stole down into Will's room, his clothes
+on his arm.
+
+"Now, dress quick as you can. Have you an overcoat?"
+
+"Yes, but it is up in Aunt Stanshy's closet."
+
+"We don't want to disturb her again. Here, you put on the cape of my cloak
+and fold it about you."
+
+Charlie was proud to be thus enveloped. Will then completed his dressing,
+and looked like a Cape Codder just arrived from a fishing-smack. He took
+his young companion by the hand and off they started.
+
+"Who's that?" asked Will, as they turned from Water Street into Beach
+Street.
+
+"That boy in the door where there's a light? Why, that is Tony! He's up.
+Tony, that you?" sang out Charlie.
+
+"Yes! You going down to the beach?" said Tony, standing in the lighted
+door-way of a low-roofed house.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I heard the bell and got up, and one of the neighbors came and told us it
+was a wreck, and Mr. Grimes said I might go if I could go with somebody."
+
+"Come along," said Will. "Tell him I will take care of you."
+
+Tony went eagerly back. He prepared for the trip, and then came out to
+join Will and Charlie.
+
+"Now, boys, take hold of my hand and let's put," said Will.
+
+They accordingly "put."
+
+"Isn't this good fun, Tony."
+
+"Yes, Charlie, splendid."
+
+It was such good fun that Charlie thought he was willing to be a sailor on
+board that wreck even. He changed his mind, however, in a short time.
+Beach Street led down to a road that was called "Back Road." This took as
+many turns as it pleased, and after a quarter of a mile struck the low,
+level marshes. Traversing the marshes, the road led Will and his
+companions up to the yellow hammocks, at whose base the breakers were
+discharging their fury in a terrible bombardment of the land. The road
+wound through the hummocks, and then the party stood upon the beach. It
+was a cold, ugly atmosphere, pierced by the missiles of the storm, while
+the surf crashed on the sand in one long, fierce, unearthly roar. People
+from the town were now gathering on the beach, some of them carrying
+lanterns that twinkled like stars knocked out of their places by the
+storm, fallen now to the level of the beach.
+
+But where was the wreck? No sign of it anywhere; only rain, surf, storm,
+blackness--a wild medley.
+
+"This is a sell!" said a man.
+
+"Wish I was in bed agin," exclaimed another.
+
+"Let's catch the feller that rang that church bell," exclaimed a third,
+"and duck him in the surf."
+
+A fourth made a sensible suggestion: "Let's go down to the life-saving
+station, and they can probably tell us there."
+
+A quarter of a mile up the beach was a life-saving station, and a light
+could be seen winking from one of its windows. Several, including Will and
+the boys, walked up the beach, past the crashing waves, and reaching the
+station, pushed open its door on the land-side of the building, and
+entered. Charlie looked about him with eager curiosity, for it was the
+first time he had ever been in such a place. The building was of two
+stories. The larger part of the lower story was taken up by a "boat-room"
+for various kinds of apparatus for reaching wrecks. Charlie also saw the
+inside of a kitchen, and Will told him there was a room up stairs for the
+beds of the men at the station. Charlie and Tony warmed themselves at the
+brisk fire in the store. The man on duty there did not seem to know any
+thing about the disaster reported in town, but he talked with Will and
+Charlie about shipwrecks and storms and efforts at rescuing the wrecked.
+After a while, Charlie said to Will, "Let's go out and take a run along
+the beach, and see what's going on."
+
+"Yes," added Tony, "let's do it."
+
+"A run up and down the beach to see what is going on, this stormy night?
+You are enterprising boys. Well, we will go. Button up your coats snug,
+though. Fold my cape about you, Charlie. There, you look like a small monk
+off on a tare. You fixed, Tony? Come, boys," said Will.
+
+Bang! How the wind slammed the door after them! And how the sea thundered
+and roared; then roared and thundered again! It seemed as if every throw
+of surf was heavier than that before, and yet none of this violence and
+wrath could be seen unless some one chanced to pass carrying a lantern.
+Then this thing that raged along the sands, this creature, this dragon
+from the deep, would show an angry whiteness, as if it were the opening of
+his jaws.
+
+Will and the boys may have tramped a quarter of a mile along the beach,
+when Will exclaimed, "Hullo, there's a light!"
+
+It was a lively twinkle upon the sands that came nearer and nearer, and
+then stopped before the party.
+
+"Who's this?" asked a voice, pleasantly.
+
+Charlie lifted up his face toward the shining of this friendly light.
+
+"Bub, is this you down here at this time of night? Don't you know the man
+who goes fishin' from your Aunt Stanshy's barn?"
+
+"O yes, I know you."
+
+It was the junior member of the new firm, "Tyler & Fisher."
+
+"Are you a patrolman, Mr. Fisher?" asked Will.
+
+"I am at spells, when a man at the station may be sick. You see I can't go
+fishin' in this storm, and it comes handy to be employed as a substitute
+at the station. But what are you here for?"
+
+"We came down to find a wreck. Up in town St. John's bell was rung and we
+were told there was a wreck at Gull Point. At the station, though, where
+we have been, a man said that he did not know of any."
+
+"I guess I know how that story got up to town. A little fool was down here
+with a squeaky voice and sharp little eyes, and he wanted to know if there
+were any wrecks. The fact is we had been looking for sich all day and
+through the evening and night. There were one or two vessels off the mouth
+of the harbor as night came on, trying to get in, and, pizen! they could
+no more get in than my old tarpaulin, and they wouldn't stand a hundredth
+part of the chance she would. You see, a nor'easter rakes right across the
+mouth of our harbor and drives off any sail tryin' to get in, and one of
+two things will happen--either a ship will be swept out to sea or swept on
+to Gull P'int. Well, that feller said to Joe Danforth--Joe and me were
+together--'Has there been a wreck?' 'No,' said Joe, 'I think not,' meaning
+to answer him. But I had said to Joe at that time, or just before that
+feller asked his question, 'Hadn't we better go to the station and get a
+bite?' 'Yes,' said Joe, meaning to answer _me_, and that person--whoever
+it was, grabbed up the answer to me and thought it was for him, and went
+off accordingly. That is how that bell came to ring. It would be an awful
+night for a wreck, wouldn't it? Hullo!" exclaimed John Fisher, stopping in
+his explanation, "What's that? If that aint the crittur hisself!"
+
+As the patrolman turned his face to the sea, the boys looked off in that
+direction, and they were quick enough to see a rocket exploding in the
+air, scattering down a shower of tinted stars. This bright constellation
+faded away into the night, when suddenly up, up into the darkness, shot
+two vivid lines of fire, parting as they swept higher and higher,
+exploding in stars till the whole seemed like immense forks of gold with
+spreading, jeweled prongs.
+
+"They let go a couple then," said Will.
+
+"O look, Tony!" cried Charlie.
+
+While the boys were watching the rockets, John Fisher was eagerly handling
+his Coston light. The design of this is to signal to any wreck, or to warn
+vessels away from an unsafe shore. John now ignited his light and, holding
+it up, ran along the beach. His big, burly form wrapped in a coarse, heavy
+suit, threw an immense shadow on the sands, while the light of his torch
+so colored the beach that he seemed to be trampling on red snow. The foam
+of the waves, broken into patches, changed till it became clots of blood.
+Beyond all, was that wrathful, howling, restless ocean. Away ran John
+Fisher, swinging his light, flinging out his big boots till he looked like
+a sea-monster, with unwieldy limbs, plunging through an atmosphere
+blood-tinged. At the station they had evidently become aware of the real
+situation of things, for there was a moving of lamps at the windows, then
+the opening of a door letting out a bright light. As Will and the boys
+reached the station, they saw the big door in one end of the building
+swinging back, and out rushed two men pulling a cart. John Fisher here
+came running up.
+
+"Wreck is down at Gull's P'int," he said, "so some one told me, and that
+agrees with the place where the signals were seen. I guess she is on the
+nub of the P'int, and our wreck-gun will reach her."
+
+"What is a wreck-gun?" Charlie wanted to ask, but every body seemed too
+busy to answer questions.
+
+"It will be morning soon," exclaimed Will. "I fancy I see a whitish streak
+now in the east."
+
+Charlie was not looking at the sky, but, standing on his longest toe, was
+trying to get a peep into that mysterious cart dragged from the station. A
+man now stood on the axle and lighted a lamp on a pole. The lamp was
+inclosed so that the storm could not harm it. Charlie saw a stout reel in
+the cart, about which went many turns of a stout rope. Then there was the
+wreck-gun. There were also shovels and various apparatus.
+
+"Now, boys," shouted Captain Peters, who had charge of the station, "all
+hands for the P'int!"
+
+That slow-moving, clumsy man that Charlie had seen in the station when he
+called, was now changed to a very nimble-footed being, and his comrades
+were as active. Away they went, threatening to leave Charlie and Tony far
+behind, but the boys grabbed Will by the hand and rapidly as possible
+pushed on after the enterprising apothecary.
+
+"Getting to be morning," shouted Will. While the shadows were still thick
+on the beach, over in the east was a grayish, uncertain light. There were
+occasional discharges of rockets from the vessel in distress.
+
+"O dear!" said the breathless Charlie.
+
+"I can't hold out much longer," thought Tony.
+
+Will, though, pushed stoutly on, and it was manifest that a wreck excited
+him as much as a fire. The distance to Gull Point from the station was at
+least a mile and a half. The point itself was a rocky stretch into the sea
+measuring about six hundred feet in length. Day was creeping over the
+water; finally, a thin, sullen light, revealing a wild, ghostly tumult of
+waves. The surf that ordinarily broke near the shore seemed to whiten the
+water as far as the eye could reach. It was the angriest tumult of foam
+possible, as if the frothing of millions of enraged creatures of the sea.
+
+"Ah, there she is!" shouted John Fisher, as the cart neared the shore-end
+of the point.
+
+"_We_ will get her!" screamed Charlie, as he reached the cart. The men
+laughed.
+
+"It's a three-masted schooner," bawled Captain Peters, "and she's where
+the life-boat can't reach her, but our wreck-gun will. That craft has
+keeled over on Deep Rock, near the very P'int itself! Get out the gun!"
+
+The men now took from the cart a small cannon, then a mass of rope, and
+then a rope of larger size.
+
+"Take out that life-car, too!" shouted Captain Peters. Charlie watched
+every thing that was done with an intense curiosity. He sat down on the
+cannon to rest his short, fat legs.
+
+"Sonny!" shouted John Fisher--the roar of the surf compelled every one to
+shout--"do you know what we are up to?"
+
+Charlie shook his head.
+
+"Well, that cannon is loaded, and--"
+
+Up sprang Charlie. He did not want a seat like that.
+
+"And the shot has a light but strong line hitched to it. A man will p'int
+the gun so that when the shot goes out it will fall over the vessel, and
+carry the line with it. Now watch him."
+
+Charlie watched. "Bang!" went the gun. Away went the shot, the long rope
+wriggling after it.
+
+"Good!" cried John.
+
+"What is good?" bawled Charlie.
+
+"A good shot! The man sent the shot so that the rope has fallen across the
+vessel, I think."
+
+Others thought so, too, and a man quickly shouted, "They're pulling on it!
+Hurrah!"
+
+Then they all cheered. The crew on board the wreck were steadily drawing
+the rope through the water. Charlie looked intently with both eyes, and he
+wished that his ears also could be eyes for a little while.
+
+"Come here!" shouted John to Charlie, and he led the boy around to a coil
+of rope, one end of which was attached to the line going through the
+water.
+
+"See there, Bub! There is a block, what they call a single pulley-block,
+and this stouter rope is doubled through it. It will soon go to the
+wreck."
+
+Another explanation was then bawled at Charlie, who now wished his eyes
+were ears, so anxious was he to hear.
+
+"Look at that block, and then there is what they call a tally-board, and
+it has some printed directions on it, telling the men on the wreck just
+what to do. Only _watch_!" he shouted.
+
+The stouter rope had now started on its journey through the waters, and
+was taken on board the wreck.
+
+"There," said John, "you noticed the rope was doubled through that block?"
+
+Charlie nodded assent.
+
+"That gives us what we call an endless line--_line_. O, those noisy waves!
+The line runs through the block, I told you, which must have got to the
+wreck by this time. Here, you see, one end is made fast. At the wreck the
+tally-board told them just where to hitch it. Now watch! They are hitching
+on to the line a bigger one yet, and that will be hauled out to the
+schooner, and fastened _above_ the other line. A second tally-board tells
+them what to do."
+
+Here John stopped to lay in a fresh stock of breath. Charlie saw that two
+of the men on shore had been rigging tackles to long supports planted
+firmly in the sand.
+
+"Those tackles," resumed John, "help us straighten that second line till
+it is above the breakers, and--now watch 'em--here comes the life-car, a
+sort of box, you see, that we suspend from the upper rope, and at the same
+time it is hitched to the lower or endless line. Now all we have got to do
+is to pull on that endless line, and the life-car, sliding along the upper
+rope, will spin right out to the vessel, and--here she goes!"
+
+The life-car was moving along the upper line bound for the wreck. One or
+two halts occurred on the way, but the venture was ultimately successful,
+and Charlie saw the life-car as the crew of the wreck eagerly seized it.
+
+"She's coming back!" he cried.
+
+Captain Peters shouted, "Here she comes, my hearties! Pull away on the
+whip!"
+
+This was a title for the endless line.
+
+"Suthin' in that life-car!" sang out one of the men.
+
+"Not so very much, I guess," said another. "She runs sort of light."
+
+How the breakers tried to reach the car! Several times the sea threw
+itself spitefully, violently upward. One breaker seemed to make a spring
+for the car, wetting it with a cloud of spray.
+
+"A real vixen, aint it?" said John. "It can't harm any thing. But who is
+that in the car? A small cargo."
+
+It was not a large one certainly. One man doubted if any thing were there.
+
+Nearer and nearer came the car, riding safely over that white, yeasty sea.
+It was pulled across the surf, and the outermost man laid his hands on it
+and pushed it. At the same time a little door in the top slid back, and a
+boy's head rose higher and higher in the car, and as it stopped he was
+helped to get out. He seemed to be in a heap, and his movements were
+stiff, for his legs were cramped by the cold.
+
+"There!" he screamed, "it's the last time I ever want to go on that pesky
+old sea."
+
+"Wort Wentworth!" shouted Tony, springing forward to meet this returned
+knight.
+
+"Hullo, Tony! Hullo, Charlie!"
+
+"This _you_?" asked Charlie.
+
+"Yes, it's me just about drowned. They let me come alone. The others were
+not quite ready."
+
+"Haven't you been through a lot?" asked Tony.
+
+"More than I want to see again."
+
+"How many are on board the 'White Shield?'"
+
+"I feared it was she when I laid my eyes on her," said Captain Peters.
+
+"Five in the crew, my father, and one passenger."
+
+"Dis a s'prise," said a new-comer, looking at Wort. It was Juggie.
+
+"It _is_ a surprise," was Wort's reply. "Catch me going again."
+
+"You'd rather be de keeper ob de great seal."
+
+"Yes, indeed!"
+
+Among the arrivals by the life-car was the skipper of the "White Shield,"
+and there was also a man wrapped in a cloak.
+
+"He aint a sailor," said one of the station-hands, criticising the dress
+of the man in the cloak.
+
+"It is the passenger," said Wort.
+
+He was a man still young, and his clothes had an outlandish cut. He walked
+up the beach, the four young knights having preceded him. Then he halted,
+and gave a look at the boys. The boys halted, and gave a look at him.
+Suddenly Tony bounded away, and bounded into the man's arms.
+
+What happened afterward, Charlie told Aunt Stanshy at the breakfast-table.
+
+"Aunt Stanshy, guess what happened at the beach to Tony."
+
+"I don't know, I am sure. I give it up."
+
+"Well, the 'White Shield' had a passenger, and when he got on the beach,
+the first thing we knew, Tony Blanco went rushing at him, and the man put
+his arms round Tony, and then Tony came pulling him along to us, and said,
+'It's my father, boys!' And he was real pleasant, and said he'd send as
+some oranges."
+
+"Tony's father? How did he turn up? I thought he was in Italy."
+
+"Well, you see, aunty, he was in a ship coming from Italy, and the ship, I
+b'lieve, had a storm and was sinking when the 'White Shield' and another
+vessel came along, and they two took the people from Tony's father's ship.
+But that other vessel, you know, was going right to Italy, and so all but
+Tony's father went back in her, because you know they were Italian
+sailors. Tony's father, though, was a passenger, and he wanted to come to
+America, and so he got aboard the 'White Shield' and came here, right
+where Tony was; and, wasn't that funny?"
+
+"I should think it was."
+
+"He and Tony were real glad to see one another. Juggie called it, aunty,
+'a second s'prise.'"
+
+The "s'prises," though, were not all over. Charlie had a nap after
+breakfast, and finishing it, went to a window to see how the outside world
+looked. He stayed there only a minute, and then rushed to the head of the
+stairs leading down cellar, calling:
+
+"Aunt Stanshy! Aunt Stanshy, come quick, do! There goes Tony's father!"
+
+Aunt Stanshy was down cellar fishing for pork in a capacious barrel. She
+dropped the piece for which she had successfully angled, and rushed to the
+stairs as if a whirlwind was after her. Breathless, she arrived at
+Charlie's window.
+
+"There, aunty, that is he!"
+
+"What, Mr. Walton?"
+
+"No, Mr. Walton is coming down the lane; but don't you see that other man
+going up the lane?"
+
+"O, yes, I see now."
+
+"Well, that is him."
+
+"But what are those two men doing? If they aint shaking hands! and now
+they've got their arms round one another, and there they go walking off
+together! It is the queerest proceeding! Why, they act as if they had
+known one another a long time!"
+
+Aunt Stanshy had too much of the woman in her to let the matter drop
+there.
+
+She said to herself, "If any one knows about this thing, it is Miss
+Persnips. I'll clap on my bonnet and go up there."
+
+Miss Persnips generally had a bag full of news, and it was the only thing
+in the store for which she did not make a charge. Its mouth was hospitably
+open to all comers, and the distribution of its contents had an effect on
+her custom like the giving out of a chromo as a present. This morning,
+though, while the assortment in the bag was quite full and varied, it had
+nothing on the above subject. Aunt Stanshy went home disappointed. If she
+could have gone to Mr. Walton's she would have witnessed something of
+interest.
+
+Mr. Walton was leading the stranger into his house, when he said, "Stop a
+moment in the parlor and I will go into the sitting-room and prepare her."
+
+"All right."
+
+"Mother," said Mr. Walton, stepping into the sitting-room, "would you like
+to see an old friend this morning? You feel comfortable?"
+
+"O yes; bring him in."
+
+"Shall I tell you who it is?"
+
+"No, let me have the surprise."
+
+Her son led the stranger in.
+
+"Why, Fred!" exclaimed Mrs. Walton.
+
+The man dropped on his knees, and put his head in her lap. And this was
+all that the mother did--she stroked his head with her hands, saying:
+"Why, Fred! Fred! my poor boy!"
+
+That was the way the long-absent son came home.
+
+Fred Walton had been a wayward young man, finally going to Italy in a
+sailing-vessel, engaging to do any work for the sake of his passage.
+
+In Italy, he took the name of Blanco, purposing to build up a new
+character on the basis of a new name. The new character he needed, but his
+old name would have served him. He there married a young Italian lady who
+had met his older brother in his travels and was an object of deep
+interest to him, but he had relinquished her to the younger brother. Their
+married home was a pretty one, and a view of it Fred sent to his family in
+America. It was a picture of this home, taken at another season of the
+year, and from a different point of view, that his mother and brother had
+noticed, and yet failed to identify, when Tony's pictures were inspected.
+Fred's wife dying, leaving a little boy, Antonio, four years old, Fred
+wished to return to America, but concluded to remain in Italy, educating
+his boy in English as well as Italian. A year before this story opens, he
+wrote his mother that he was about to sail for a port in Algeria. It was a
+wild business enterprise, and he sent his little boy, Antonio, with
+friends--also named Blanco--to New York, expecting soon to follow them,
+and desiring in the meantime to make sure of a good home for Antonio.
+During his absence in Africa he wrote home, but his letters miscarried.
+Nothing had been heard since the day he sailed from Italy, and his old
+mother anxiously thought of him on stormy nights, fearing lest he had gone
+down into the wide grave of the sea. The Blanco family that cared for Tony
+in New York, obliged to leave the city by the failure of their work, came
+to Seamont to find it there awhile. When they returned to New York, as
+Tony was attached to Seamont, they left him with the Badger family for
+awhile. They were waiting to hear from Tony's father about his plans for
+the boy, when he appeared in an unexpected fashion to look directly after
+Tony, and visit also his relatives; but they and the club were sorry to
+know that, contrary to his wishes, he must go back to Italy, and take Tony
+with him.
+
+"Ah, now I understand about that boy," said Mr. Walton, to his mother;
+"why he looked familiar, and if the people who brought him had had a
+different name, I might have looked into it, but I thought they must be
+relatives. Of course, not hearing from Fred, we had no thought that his
+child was here."
+
+And the mother said, "I hope my boy will now take his true name, and come
+again soon, and bring Antonio Walton with him."
+
+But would he and Tony ever come again? Tony came to bid good-bye to
+Charlie, and said, very soberly and touchingly, "We'd better kiss each
+other, for I feel that we shall never see each other again. Good-bye, for
+we shall never see each other any more."
+
+It was a very pathetic speech, and Charlie said, mournfully, as he kissed
+him, "Well, good-bye, Tony."
+
+Tony and his father went to Italy in a bark that left Seamont bound for
+the Mediterranean. Charlie watched the vessel from the barn window.
+
+Like a gull that flying afar sinks lower and then disappears behind some
+rising billow, so the sails of the bark, receding farther and farther,
+vanished behind that blue rim of the horizon that rises up to check our
+sight and hide away the vessels that may hold our dearest hopes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE BOUND HIGHER UP.
+
+
+Miss Barry was talking to her boys one Sunday; "Boys, you have had an
+Up-the-Ladder Club this past year, and I hope it has not been simply a
+play-ladder, but while playing you have also done something else. I think
+you have done a good work for temperance, and you have been kind to
+another in trouble. I think you have tried to keep your badge clean, and
+not stain it by bad words. You have tried to get hold of some useful
+knowledge through your club. All that is excellent as far as it goes. But
+I am thinking, while you are on this ladder, whether there may not be a
+round you haven't touched, and yet one you ought to put your foot on.
+Between this time and next Sunday, please think what that other round may
+be, the round higher up."
+
+The boys looked sober, but no one made a reply.
+
+"The round higher up," Charlie would sometimes say to himself during the
+week.
+
+Sometimes in the midst of his play and his studies, that thought would
+visit him, "the round higher up." It came to him in his dreams. Looking
+up, he saw a silver ladder and it stretched above him, reaching at last a
+beautiful palace. Over the palace, flashed out, in letters of gold, the
+words, "God's Palace." But what was it Charlie saw not far from this
+ladder? Another, but O, so mean and little! Charlie knew it.
+
+"My ladder!" he shouted. "Let me see how many rounds are there!"
+
+"I think there is room for a round higher up," said a voice. "That, as it
+is, wont touch God's Palace."
+
+Startled by the sound Charlie awoke.
+
+The next Sunday Miss Barry said: "Boys, I don't think I need ask about the
+round higher up which your ladder needs. You understand me, and I want you
+to put it in. We never can climb very high, unless our life is pure and
+lovely and noble. It must be like Christ's life, and filled with the
+beautiful thoughts and purposes he had. That is the round higher up we
+need."
+
+These words stirred Charlie still more deeply. He thought about that round
+higher up. If he could only put it into his ladder and get his feet on it!
+One night he went to his little bedroom, thinking still about the round
+higher up. He could lie in bed and look up to the white, silver stars
+that, like ladder-rounds, seemed to stretch across the sky in lines going
+higher and higher. If he only had rounds by which he could climb as high
+as they, his ladder would be tall enough. But how find and where get "the
+round higher up?" Once more he dreamed and he was looking again at a
+ladder that starting on the ground stretched up a little way and then
+suddenly stopped.
+
+"My ladder!" exclaimed Charlie. Then it seemed to him as if above his
+ladder he saw a bright, beautiful, silver round, but it was up so high he
+could not reach it! Looking at it, longing to plant his feet upon it, some
+one seemed to approach Charlie whom he immediately knew, because he
+resembled pictures in the old family Bible at Aunt Stanshy's. He had a
+shepherd's crook in his hand, and there was a crown of thorns on his head.
+
+"That's the Good Shepherd," thought Charlie.
+
+"You can't reach that round. Let me help you," said the Good Shepherd. He
+laid down his crook and lifted Charlie at once. Then the beauty of the
+dream, its light, its ladder, the Good Shepherd, seemed to vanish, slowly
+though, even as the stars die away out of the early morning sky. Charley
+knew what it all meant. When he awoke and thought it over, he knelt by his
+bed and he prayed to the Saviour. He told him that he wanted to lead that
+better life, and would he not lift a little fellow where he could not
+climb himself? And a Saviour's arms, ever waiting to raise us all, were
+lowered for Charlie's help, and they lifted him to the "round higher up."
+
+Is it not time that we all looked upward, beseeching God to forgive us,
+receive us, and make us his forever? Forget not "the round higher up," and
+through the strength of God, may it become yours! This very day may your
+feet be planted on it!
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Knights of the White Shield, by Edward A. Rand
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