"When Christopher put up at his hotel And first pushed in the b.u.t.ton of his bell And upward came the boy who orders takes, I wonder if he ordered buckwheat cakes?
"When Christopher went down to Washington To pay his call the President upon I wonder if the President felt queer To know that his discoverer was here?
"I wonder when his slow-poke caravels Were tossed about by heavy winds and swells, If he was not put out and mad to spy The ocean steamers prancing swiftly by?"
"I don"t know about other people," said the Unwiseman, "but little things like that always interest me about as much as anything else, but there"s nary a word about it in the papers, and as far as my memory is concerned when he first came I was too young to know much about what was going on. I do remember a big parade in his honor, but I think that was some years after the discovery."
"I guess it was," said Mollie, with a laugh. "There wasn"t anything but Indians there when he arrived."
"Really? How unfortunate--how very unfortunate," said the Unwiseman. "To think that on the few occasions that he came here he should meet only Indians. Mercy! What a queer idea of the citizens of the United States he must have got. Really, Mollie, I don"t wonder that instead of settling down in New York, or Boston, or Chicago, he went back home again to live. Nothing but Indians! Well, well, well!"
And the Unwiseman wandered moodily back to his carpet-bag.
"With so many nice people living in America," he sighed, "it does seem too bad that he should meet only Indians who, while they may be very good Indians indeed, are not noted for the quality of their manners."
And so the little party pa.s.sed over the sea, and I did not meet with them again until I reached the pier at New York and discovered the Unwiseman struggling with the Custom House Inspectors.
XIV.
AT THE CUSTOM HOUSE
"Hi there--where are you going with that carpet-bag?" cried a gruff voice, as the Unwiseman scurried along the pier, eager to get back home as speedily as possible after the arrival of the steamer at New York.
"Where do you suppose I"m going?" retorted the Unwiseman, pausing in his quick-step march back to the waiting arms of his kitchen-stove. "Doesn"t look as if I was walkin" off to sea again, does it?"
"Come back here with that bag," said the man of the gruff voice, a tall man with a shiny black moustache and a blue cap with gold tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs on his head.
"What, me?" demanded the Unwiseman.
"Yes, you," said the man roughly. "What business have you skipping out like that with a carpet-bag as big as a house under your arm?"
"It"s my bag--who"s got a better right?" retorted the Unwiseman. "I bought and paid for it with my own money, so why shouldn"t I walk off with it?"
"Has it been inspected?" demanded the official.
"It don"t need to be--there ain"t any germans in it," said the Unwiseman.
"Germans?" laughed the official.
"Yes--Mike robes--you know----" continued the Unwiseman.
"O, you mean germs," said the official. "Well, I didn"t say disinfected.
I said inspected. You can"t lug a bag like that in through here without having it examined, you know. What you got in it?"
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE UNWISEMAN LOOKED THE OFFICIAL COLDLY IN THE EYE]
The Unwiseman placed his bag on the floor of the pier and sat on it and looked the other coldly in the eye.
"Who are you anyhow?" he asked. "What right have you to ask me such impident questions as, What have I got in this bag?"
"Well in private life my name"s Maginnis," said the official, "but down here on this dock I"m Uncle Sam, otherwise the United States of America, that"s who."
The Unwiseman threw his head back and roared with laughter.
"I do not mean to be rude, my dear Mr. Maginnis," he said, "but I really must say Tutt, Tush, Pshaw and Pooh. I may even go so far as to say Pooh-pooh--which is twice as scornful as just plain pooh. _You_ Uncle Sam? You must think I"m as green as apples if you think I"ll believe that."
"It is true nevertheless," said the official sternly, "and unless you hand over that bag at once----"
"Well I know better," said the Unwiseman angrily. "Uncle Sam has a red goatee and you"ve got nothing but a shiny black moustache that looks like a pair of comic eyebrows that have slipped and slid down over your nose. Uncle Sam wears a blue swallow-tail coat with bra.s.s b.u.t.tons on it, and a pair of red and white striped trousers like a peppermint stick, and you"ve got nothin" but an old pea-jacket and blue flannel pants on, and as for the hat, Uncle Sam wears a yellow beaver with fur on it like a c.o.o.n-cat, while that thing of yours looks like a last summer"s yachtin" cap spruced up with bra.s.s. You"re a very smart man, Mr.
Maginnis, but you can"t fool an old traveller like me. I"ve been to Europe, I have, and I guess I know the difference between a fire-engine and a clothes horse. Uncle Sam indeed!"
"I must inspect the contents of that bag," said the official firmly. "If you resist it will be confiscated."
"I don"t know what confiscated means," returned the Unwiseman valiantly, "but any man who goes through this bag of mine goes through me first.
I"m sittin" on the lock, Mr. Maginnis, and I don"t intend to move--no, not if you try to blast me away. A man"s carpet-bag is his castle and don"t you forget it."
"What"s the matter here?" demanded a policeman, who had overheard the last part of this little quarrel.
"Nothing much," said the Unwiseman. "This gentleman here in the messenger boy"s clothes says he"s the President o" the United States, Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Army and Navy, all rolled into one, thinking that by so doing he can get hold of my carpet-bag. That"s all.
Anybody can see by lookin" at him that he ain"t even the Department of Agriculture. The United States Government! Really it makes me laugh."
Here the Unwiseman grinned broadly, and the Policeman and the official joined in.
"He"s a new kind of a smuggler, officer," said Mr. Maginnis, "or at least he acts like one. I caught him trotting off with that bag under his arm, and he refuses to let me inspect it."
"I ain"t a smuggler!" retorted the Unwiseman indignantly.
"You"ll have to let him look through the bag, Mister," said the Policeman. "He"s a Custom House Inspector and n.o.body"s allowed to take in baggage of any sort that hasn"t been inspected."
"Is that the law?" asked the Unwiseman.
"Yep," said the Policeman.
"What"s the idea of it?" demanded the Unwiseman.
"Well the United States Government makes people pay a tax on things that are made on the other side," explained the Inspector. "That"s the way they make the money to pay the President"s salary and the other running expenses of the Government."
"Oh--that"s it, eh?" said the Unwiseman. "Well you"d ought to have told me that in the beginning. I didn"t know the Government needed money to pay the President. I thought all it had to do was to print all it needed. Of course if the President"s got to go without his money unless I help pay, I"ll be only too glad to do all I can to make up the amount you"re short. He earns every penny of it, and it isn"t fair to make him wait for it. About how much do you need to even it up? I"ve only got four dollars left and I"m afraid I"ll have to use a little of it myself, but what"s left over you"re welcome to, only I"d like the President to know I chipped in. How much does he get anyhow?"
"Seventy-five thousand dollars," said the Inspector.
"And there are 80,000,000 people in the country, ain"t there?" asked the Unwiseman.
"About that?" said the Inspector.