The launch arrived at Croxton"s Ford long before we did, but we came as fast as the current allowed, having drifted a good part of the way. The party had landed and had begun to make the camp for the day. It was a wonderful spot chosen for the picnic. A large creek, flowing into the river, broadened out almost into a lake, and in the mouth of this creek were innumerable small islands. Some of them had large trees growing on them, lovely sandy beaches and strips of verdure; others were too young to have trees but were covered with gra.s.s. The camp was pitched on the largest island, right at the mouth of the creek that afforded a landing for the launch. There was a famous spring on this island that was thought by the county people to have some great curative power. What it cured you of I don"t know, but it tasted too good to be much good as a medicine, I imagine.
Aunt Milly, who had proven herself to be an ideal chaperone, having slept during the entire journey, was now ensconced under a water oak on a warm sand bank with nothing to do but enjoy herself. This she did immediately by falling asleep again.
"Whin I ain"t a-wuckin", I"s a-sleepin"," she droned as slumber enfolded her.
Of course the camp fire must be made and potatoes and corn put to roast and the coffee-pot filled with the sparkling spring water. The trip down had made everybody hungry, whether accomplished without exertion as by those in the launch; or with the sweat of the brow as by Mary and Shorty in the canoe, or Dum and Billy Somers in the red skiff; or with just enough work to keep the boat in the current which was Zebedee"s and my method of locomotion: one and all were hungry.
"While dinner is cooking, let"s have a swim," suggested Harvie. "You girls take this side of the island for a dressing-room and we"ll take the other. Here are some low willows that make splendid walls."
Bathing suits were produced and while our chaperone slumbered and slept, we got into them and then into the water. Such water! It was clear and soft, so much more so than the water of the big river. The bottom was clean sand with no disturbing rocks and snags. The trees shaded the place chosen for our swim where the sloping beach made it safe for the timid close to sh.o.r.e, but ten yards of perseverance plunged the bold swimmer into really deep water.
The shouts of joy would have waked the dead had there been any on the island, but nothing waked the sleeping Aunt Milly. She had burrowed down in the unresisting sand almost as deep as some meteoric stone might have done. There she lay, having the rest that she deserved after the "mos" a hun"erd years er cookin"" that she declared she had served at Maxton.
"This is my island!" cried Dum, swimming over to a beautiful spot about twenty yards from camp. She clambered out on the strip of sand and stood with arms outstretched looking very handsome, her lithe young figure drawn up to its full height. "I am monarch of all I survey! I"m queen of this land!"
"Let me come help you rule," pleaded Billy Somers, who had followed her.
"I don"t need a prime minister just now, thank you, but you might get in the waiting list."
"Thanks awfully!" and the young Kentuckian threw himself on the warm sand at her feet. What nice fellows those Kentuckians were, anyhow!
They were full of life and fun, clean minded, clear thinking, well-mannered boys. Dum and Billy were friends from the moment they met and were usually the ringleaders in any larks that were started on the house-party. The strange thing about the friendship was that they looked alike, so very much alike that I believe some pioneer ancestor of Billy"s must have come from the Tucker stock.
Billy"s hair had a bit more red in it than Dum"s, not much, just enough to make his hair in the shade about the color Dum"s was in the sun.
Their foreheads were identical and their chins had the same tendency to get square when an argument was under way. They really looked quite as much alike as the twins themselves did. Zebedee declared that Billy made him feel a hundred years old because he looked so like his son, if he had ever had one. Billy was about three years older than the twins, and when we consider that the twins were born when their father was only twenty, no wonder the possibility of a son at seventeen made poor Mr.
Tucker blue.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "THIS IS OUR ISLAND AND WE ARE GOING TO PERMIT NO ALIENS TO LAND HERE."
Page 178.]
"This is our island and we are going to permit no aliens to land here,"
called Dum as a challenge to all of us. "I am Queen Dum and Billy is General Billdad. We have held counsel and herewith make the proclamation that there is to be no immigration to this kingdom."
It took only a moment for us to answer the challenge. Dee headed the opposing forces, making a long dive that brought her up almost on the beach of the little kingdom. Dum was ready to push her back in the water and kerflop! she went before Zebedee could come to her aid. Then ensued such a battle as had not been fought in the United States since Custer"s last rally.
Of course Dum and Billy had the advantage of position, but we so far outnumbered them that it took all of their strength to keep us from landing.
"Mary! Mary! You and Shorty come be our allies!" called Queen Dum to the couple who had gone to housekeeping on a small island near her own.
Mary slid into the water like a turtle and Shorty followed. They landed from the rear and now the battle raged fiercely.
I know I got pitched back into the water at least a dozen times. Having learned to swim only the summer before at Willoughby, I was not a past master in the art, but I could keep above water indefinitely, thanks to Zebedee, my instructor, who had made floating the first requisite.
The odds were in our favor but the vantage they had in position was well-nigh discouraging us, when Zebedee and Wink made a flank movement and landed on the other side of the island, immediately pushing over the opposing forces into the foaming torrent and then pulling all of us onto dry land.
"Victory! Victory!" we shouted; and then for the first time since the battle began to rage we remembered our chaperone. She had awakened and dug herself out of her warm sand nest. What were her charges up to? It never entered the old woman"s head that we were playing a game, and I fancy we looked in dead earnest.
When she had dozed off after landing we were all of us clothed and in our right minds, and suddenly she awoke to find us anything but clothed, according to her strict ideas of propriety among the quality, never having seen girls in bathing suits; and not only were we in disgraceful dishabille, but we were engaged in a distressing brawl.
"My Gawd! My Gawd!" she wailed. "Here I been a-slumberin" an" sleepin"
an" Miss Maria done tol" me to shopper-roon. I trus"ed de white folks an" look at "em!" She covered her face with her hands and wept aloud.
I fancy we were something to look at. Bathing caps were off and hair wet and tangled streaming down our backs. Dee had lost a stocking in the tussle and Rags had been bereft of more than half of his shirt, so that his white back gleamed forth in a most immodest abandon. Shorty had tapped Harvie on the nose and that scion of a n.o.ble race was bleeding like a stuck pig. The gore added color to the scene, and had not Aunt Milly already been certain that this was a real war we were raging, the blood of her young master would have convinced her.
"Hi, you! You!" she called. "Quit dat!"
The battle being won, we had stopped for repairs but there were still here and there some fitful hostilities. For instance: Shorty had determined that Harvie needed some cold water on his bleeding nose and was rolling him into the creek. Both of them were shouting and pommelling each other as they rolled.
As they approached the large island where our camp was pitched, Aunt Milly became very much excited. Who were these vile wretches who had accepted the hospitality of the Prices and then turned against them, and while she, the natural protector of the young master, was sleeping, had well-nigh stripped him of his clothes and then bloodied him all over with his own blue blood, which was certainly flowing very redly?
"Hi, you! You little low flung, no "count, bench-legged trash! What you a-doin" ter Mr. Harbie?" she called to the all-unconscious Shorty, who was having the time of his life as he and his friend wallowed in the water, wrestling as they swam.
But Aunt Milly saw no joke in such doings. She looked around for something to use as a weapon and spied the camp fire where the corn and potatoes were being prepared to fulfill their mission. They were done to a turn by that tune and the fire had died down to a bed of red embers.
The old woman grabbed from the ashes a great yam and with an aim that astonished one, she threw it and hit Shorty a sounding whack on his back.
"Wow!" yelled that young warrior.
"You"d better wow! An" don" you lan" here; you go back ter dem Injuns whar you come wid."
"Why, Aunt Milly! What on earth?" gasped Harvie as he saw the old woman stooping for more ammunition.
"Yo" ol" Milly gwine he"p you, dat"s what!" She aimed another at the astonished Shorty, but that young man turned himself into a submarine and disappeared.
Harvie clambered out of the water spluttering and laughing. His nose had stopped bleeding now and the water had washed off all traces of the gory disaster. He caught the rampant Milly by the arm:
"Aunt Milly, it"s all a joke, a game! n.o.body was abusing me. Don"t throw away the potatoes, we are so hungry."
"Lawsamussy, chile! You can"t fool this ol" n.i.g.g.e.r. I"s seen folks a-playin" an" I"s a-seen folks a-fightin", an" if"n that there warn"t a battle royal, I neber seed one."
By this time all of us were headed for camp. As we came ash.o.r.e her expression was still a belligerent one and she had a hot potato which she tossed from hand to hand ready for an emergency.
It took all the tact the Tuckers could muster among them to convince Aunt Milly that we had not been fighting, and even after she seemed to be convinced, she growled a bit when Shorty appeared all dressed and spruce, with his hair plastered down tight and his arm linked in Harvie"s. She had the fidelity of some old dog for its master and it would take some time to erase from her mind and heart that terrible scene of Mr. Harbie being beaten and blooded and pitched into the water.
We led her back to her seat in the sand and brought her dinner to her.
We would not let her help cook or serve, but treated her like a real chaperone and waited on her right royally. She rolled her eyes a bit when to Shorty was relegated the task of taking her a cup of coffee. He pretended to be very much frightened and trembled violently as he handed her the br.i.m.m.i.n.g cup.
"Aunt Milly, how did you learn how to throw so well? You hit me with that potato just as though you belonged to a baseball nine."
"I been a-practicin" all my life a-throwin" at rats," she growled.
This brought down the house.
CHAPTER XIII
TANGLEFOOT