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Page 16
"He's cutting hay," the boy returned. "I'll show you the field and
then I'll run."
Lillian and Eleanor had now joined the two girls to find out what was
delaying them. Miss Jones still waited, disconsolate, under the willow
tree. The four girls started out behind the one small boy, who
answered to the name of Bill Jenkins, Jr. It was evident that Bill
Jenkins, Sr., was the name of the boat-thief.
"What shall we say and do when we find the man?" asked Eleanor
anxiously. "I suppose we had no right to tie our boat up at his
landing place without asking permission."
Madge shook her head angrily. "Right or no right, I shall certainly
tell him my opinion of him," she said tensely.
"You must not make the man angry, Madge," argued gentle Eleanor, who
knew Madge's fiery, temper and stood in awe of it. "Perhaps, when he
sees we are girls, he will be sorry he took our boat away and will
bring it back for us."
"Let us go and see him at once," was Madge's sole response.
After all, it was Eleanor's gentleness that won the day! She told the
farmer, whom they found in the hay field, the whole story of the
houseboat, and how they hoped to spend their holiday aboard it.
"I declare, I'm real sorry I moved your houseboat," he apologized. "If
I'd 'a' known the pretty toy boat belonged to a parcel of young girls
like you, I'd never have laid hands on it. You kin stay along my shore
all summer if you like. But no one asked my permission to tie the boat
to my post. And soon as I seen it, I just thought the boat belonged to
some rich society folks who thought they owned the airth. I hid the
boat up the bay a piece. But don't you fret. I'll go git it and tote
it back in no time."
"I am so sorry," explained Madge prettily, ashamed of her bad temper
and how near she had come to displaying it. "I thought, of course, the
engineer who towed our boat out here from Baltimore had asked your
permission before he made a landing. I suppose he was in such a hurry
to get back to the city that he neglected it."
While the girls and their chaperon waited for the return of their
houseboat they ate an early luncheon out of the hampers that Phil and
Lillian had brought from their homes to provision the travelers for the
day.
The houseboat finally did appear, much as the girls had pictured her.
She was painted white, with a line of green showing just above the
water. The four rooms in the cabin, which was set well toward the
stern, opened into each other, and each room had a small door and
window facing on the deck. The two bedrooms had six berths set along
the walls. One room was intended for the kitchen and the fourth, which
was the largest, was to serve as the dining room, sitting room, work
and play room for the houseboat party on rainy days, when it was
impossible for them to be out on deck.
While the men were unloading the barrels and boxes on the boat the
girls ran in and out the doors of their cabin rooms like the figures in
a pantomime, bumping into each other and stumbling over things. Miss
Jones at last sent Eleanor and Lillian to the kitchen to drive nails
along the wall and to hang up their limited display of kitchen
utensils, while Phil and Madge helped with the unpacking. There was
one steamer chair, bought in honor of the chaperon, and a great many
sofa cushions, borrowed from their rooms at school, to be used as deck
furniture. A barrel of apples, a barrel of potatoes and two Virginia
hams were donations from the farm in Virginia. Mrs. Seldon, Lillian's
mother, had also sent a store of pickles and preserves.
Phil, too, had brought a big box from home, while Madge's own purchases
for the houseboat included a small table, five chairs, besides the
necessary china and some of the bedding. The rest of the outfit the
girls managed to secure from their own homes.
Miss Jones, Phil and Madge were industriously turning the berths into
beds when a sharp scream from Lillian, who was working in the kitchen,
filled them with terror. Miss Jones arrived first at the kitchen door,
with her heart in her mouth. Had some horrible disaster overtaken
them, just as they were about to start on their adventures? There
stood the two girls, Lillian and Eleanor, their faces, instead of
showing fright, apparently shining with delight. The men who had been
setting up the little stove, which they had bought for a trifling sum
after all, had disappeared. The girls were now in full possession of
their domain.
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