It was quite a pull over to the point where the milk-cans were waiting, but Kitty and w.i.l.l.y were both good oars, and the doughnuts were crisp and fortifying.
"Let"s take the point by storm!" suggested the gallant England, who had not had his fill of glory. "The cans might be treasure, you know, and we can creep up silently."
"But there"s no one to hear us be silent!" said Kitty.
"Oh, that"s nothing! We can hear ourselves, and, anyhow, it is good practice. Come on, now! Be silent as the grave!" Leaving the boat on the sh.o.r.e, they crept up the beach, pounced on the milk-can,--a tall "separator" which held the whole provision for the family supper and breakfast,--and bore it in triumph to the boat. But, alas! for the gallant pirates! In getting aboard, one of them slipped; the other stumbled; between the two, neither could tell just how, the tall can toppled, and fell into the boat; the stopper flew out--"Then all the mighty floods were out!"
"But where _can_ the children be?" asked Mrs. Merryweather, for the tenth time.
The horn had blown for supper, the fish were fried, the campers were hungry and thirsty; and the milk had not come.
"Where _can_ they be?" said every one.
Mr. Merryweather put down the gla.s.s with which he had been sweeping the lake. "They are out there!" he said. "I see them, but they don"t seem to be rowing. Give me the megaphone, will you, Jerry? Thanks!"
A calm roar went out across the lake. "Come--in--to--tea!"
A faint pipe was heard in reply. "Don"t--want--any--tea!"
The second roar was still calm, but peremptory. "_Come--in!_"
Slowly, very slowly, the oars rose and fell, and the boat crept over the water. What could be the matter with the children?
"Too much bloodshed has upset the gallant England!" said Phil. "When it comes to w.i.l.l.y"s not wanting his tea!"
"They have had some accident!" said Mr. Merryweather. "Broken an oar, probably, or lost a rowlock. No. They are both rowing. Well, here they come."
The whole family started for the wharf, but a piteous wail arose from the now approaching boat.
"Please don"t everybody come down! we want just Papa and Mamma."
"Stay here, dear people, please!" said Mrs. Merryweather; and both parents hurried down to the wharf, toward which two dejected little figures were now tugging a very heavy boat.
"What"s the matter, Will?" said Mr. Merryweather. "Speak up, son."
"We--spilt the milk!" said w.i.l.l.y, in a carefully measured tone.
"Oh, my dears! all of it?" inquired their mother.
"Every drop!" said w.i.l.l.y, grimly.
"Oh, Mammy, we are so sorry!" cried Kitty. "The old can--just--upset!
and we are so wet, and it keeps splashing all over my legs!"
"There! there! come ash.o.r.e; never mind about the milk!" said Mr.
Merryweather.
"Never mind!" echoed Mrs. Merryweather, heartily. "My poor chicks, where have you been all this time? Why didn"t you come straight home?"
"We were--afraid!" sobbed Kitty. "We have been rowing around for ever and ever so long, and we are so tired, and hungry, and--wet--"
But by this time Kitty was near enough for her father to bend down and lift her bodily out of the boat, and put her, all dripping milk as she was, into her mother"s arms. On her mother"s shoulder she sobbed out the rest of the pitiful little story. Kitty was twelve, and not specially small of her age; but she was the baby, and Mrs. Merryweather sat down on the wharf and rocked to and fro, hushing her.
"There! there!" she said, soothingly. "My lamb! as if all the milk in the world were worth your crying about! and crying into the spilt milk, too, and making the boat all the wetter! Hush! hush! Run along, Papa and w.i.l.l.y--dear little boy, it really is only funny, so don"t fret, not one little sc.r.a.p. Kitty and I will come in about two minutes."
CHAPTER VI.
A DISCUSSION
THE morning reading was over, but the girls lingered in the pine parlor, where the whole family had been gathered to hear some thrilling chapters of Parkman. Margaret and Bell had their sewing, Gertrude her drawing-board; Peggy was carving the handle of a walking-stick, while Kitty struggled with some refractory knitting-needles.
It was a pleasant place in which they were sitting: a little clear s.p.a.ce of pine-needles, embroidered here and there with tiny ferns, and shut in by walls of dusky pine, soft and fragrant. The tree-trunks made excellent (though sometimes rather sticky) chair-backs; the sunshine filtered in through the branches overhead, making a golden half-light which was the very essence of restfulness.
"Oh, pleasant place!" said Margaret, breaking the silence that had followed the departure of the rest of the family. "How strange it seems, sitting here in this green peace and quiet, to read of all those terrible happenings. How can it be the same world?"
"He was a man, that La Salle!" exclaimed Peggy. "I never heard of such a man. Think of that winter voyage! Think of that man, brought up in luxury, with every kind of accomplishment, and that kind of thing, wading in snow-water up to his knees, and sleeping on the frozen ground, rolled in his blanket, while his clothes dried and froze stiff on the trees! think of him standing alone against courts and savages, and winning every time--till he was killed by those wretches. It is the greatest story I ever read. Now, if all history were like this, Margaret, I never should complain."
"Don"t you like history, Peggy?" asked Bell, looking up in wonder.
"I used to detest it," said Peggy, laughing. "Julius Caesar, and William the Conqueror, and all those people used to bore me dreadfully, though Margaret did her very best to make them interesting; didn"t you, you dear?"
"I tried, Peggy," said Margaret, with a smile; "but you never would admit that they were real people, just as real as if they were alive to-day."
"Oh, well, of course I know they were alive once, but so were mummies, and you can"t expect me to be interested in _them_. However, I think I really am improving. "Hereward" brought William alive for me, it truly did; and this Parkman book delights me. Oh! I should like to have made that voyage down the Mississippi, girls! I think, on the whole, I would rather be Cavalier de La Salle than any one I ever heard of."
"In spite of all the suffering and tragedy?" said Gertrude. "I could not say that, much as I admire him."
"Who would you be, if you could choose? Let us all say!" cried Bell. "A new game! two minutes for reflection!" and she took out her watch with a business-like air.
"Oh!" cried Gertrude. "But there are so many!"
"Silence!" said Bell; and there was an instant of absolute stillness.
Taking advantage of it, a chipmunk ran across the brown carpet, and pausing midway, sat up on his haunches and surveyed the new and singular mountain ranges that had risen on his horizon. One of the mountains stirred--whisk! he was gone.
"Time"s up!" said Bell. "Margaret, I will begin with you. With all history to choose from, who will you be?"
"Oh! must I be first?" cried Margaret. "As Gertrude says, there are so many; and yet when you come to think them over, there is something against every one; I mean something one would not like to do or to suffer. But,--on the whole,--I _think_ I would be Elizabeth of Hungary."
"Our Lady of the Roses? Well, she was lovely, though I should be sorry to marry her husband. The story would have been somewhat different if I had; but I am not a saint. Peggy, your turn!"
"This man we are reading about!" said Peggy, decidedly. "La Salle!"
"Toots!"