III
PHRONSIE GOES VISITING
"Grandpapa," said Phronsie, softly, as she clung to his hand, afterthey had made the descent to the lower deck, "I think the littlest onecan eat some of the fruit, don't you?" she asked anxiously.
"Never you fear," assented old Mr. King, "that child that I sawyesterday can compass anything in the shape of food. Why, it had itsmouth full of teeth, Phronsie; it was impossible not to see them whenit roared."
"I am so glad its teeth are there," said Phronsie, with a sigh ofsatisfaction, as she regarded her basket of fruit, "because if ithadn't any, we couldn't give it these nice pears, Grandpapa."
"Well, here we are," said Mr. King, holding her hand tightly. "Blessme--are those your toes, young man?" this to a big chubby-faced boy,whose fat legs lay across the space as he sprawled on the deck; "justdraw them in a bit, will you?--there. Well, now, Phronsie, this way.Here's the party, I believe," and he led her over to the other side,where a knot of steerage passengers were huddled together. In the midstsat a woman, chubby faced, and big and square, holding a baby. She hada big red shawl wrapped around her, in the folds of which snuggled thebaby, who was contentedly chewing one end of it, while his mother hadher eyes on the rest of her offspring, of which there seemed a goodmany. When the baby saw Phronsie, he stopped chewing the old shawl andgrinned, showing all the teeth of which Mr. King had spoken. The otherchildren, tow headed and also chubby, looked at the basket hanging onPhronsie's arm, and also grinned.
"There is the baby!" exclaimed Phronsie, in delight, pullingGrandpapa's hand gently. "Oh, Grandpapa, there he is."
"That's very evident," said the old gentleman. "Bless me!" addressingthe woman, "how many children have you, pray tell?"
"Nine," she said. Then she twitched the jacket of one of them, and thepinafore of another, to have them mind their manners, while the babykicked and crowed and gurgled, seeming to be all teeth.
"I have brought you some fruit," said Phronsie, holding out her basket,whereat all the tow headed group except the baby crowded each otherdreadfully to see all there was in it. "I'm sorry the flowers are gone,so I couldn't bring any to-day. May the baby have this?" holding out apear by the stem.
The baby settled that question by lunging forward and seizing the pearwith two fat hands, when he immediately sank into the depths of the oldshawl again, all his teeth quite busy at work. Phronsie set down herbasket on the deck, and the rest of the brood emptied it to their ownsatisfaction. Their mother's stolid face lighted up with a broad smilethat showed all her teeth, and very white and even they were.
"Grandpapa," said Phronsie, turning to him and clasping her hands, "ifI only might hold that baby just one little bit of a minute," shebegged, keenly excited.
"Oh, Phronsie, he's too big," expostulated Mr. King, in dismay.
"I can hold him just as easy, Grandpapa dear," said Phronsie, her lipsdrooping mournfully. "See." And she sat down on a big coil of rope nearby and smoothed out her brown gown. "Please, Grandpapa dear."
"He'll cry," said Mr. King, quickly. "Oh, no, Phronsie, it wouldn't doto take him away from his mother. You see it would be dreadful to setthat child to roaring--very dreadful indeed." Yet he hung over her indistress at the drooping little face.
"He won't cry." The mother's stolid face lighted up a moment. "And ifthe little lady wants to hold him, he'll sit there."
"May I, Grandpapa?" cried Phronsie, her red lips curling into a happysmile. "Oh, please say I may, Grandpapa dear," clasping her hands.
"The family seems unusually clean," observed Mr. King to himself. "Andthe doctor says there's no sickness on board, and it's a very differentlot of steerage folks going this way from coming out, all of which I'vesettled before coming down here," he reflected. "Well, Phronsie--yes--Isee no reason why you may not hold the baby if you want to." And beforethe words were hardly out of his mouth, the chubby-faced woman had setthe fat baby in the middle of the brown gown smoothed out to receivehim. He clung to his pear with both hands and ate away with greatsatisfaction, regardless of his new resting-place.
"Just come here!" Mrs. Griswold, in immaculately fitting garments,evidently made up freshly for steamer use, beckoned with a hasty handto her husband. "It's worth getting up to see." He flung down his noveland tumbled out of his steamer chair. "Look down there!"
"_Whew!_" whistled Mr. Griswold; "that _is_ a sight!"
"And that is the great Horatio King!" exclaimed Mrs. Griswold under herbreath; "down there in that dirty steerage--and look at thatchild--Reginald, did you ever see such a sight in your life?"
"On my honour, I never have," declared Mr. Griswold, solemnly, andwanting to whistle again.
"Sh!--don't speak so loud," warned Mrs. Griswold, who was doing most ofthe talking herself. And plucking his sleeve, she emphasised every wordwith fearful distinctness close to his ear. "She's got a dirty steeragebaby in her lap, and Mr. King is laughing. Well, I never! O dear me,here come the young people!"
Polly and Jasper came on a brisk trot up the deck length. "Fifteentimes around make a mile, don't they, Jasper?" she cried.
"I believe they do," said Jasper, "but it isn't like home miles, is it,Polly?"--laughing gaily--"or dear old Badgertown?"
"I should think not," replied Polly, with a little pang at her heartwhenever Badgertown was mentioned. "We used to run around the littlebrown house, and see how many times we could do it without stopping."
"And how many did you, Polly?" asked Jasper,--"the largest number, Imean."
"Oh, I don't know," said Polly, with a little laugh; "Joel beat usalways, I remember that."
"Yes, Joe would get over the ground, you may be sure," said Jasper, "ifanybody could."
Polly's laugh suddenly died away and her face fell. "Jasper, you don'tknow," she said, "how I do want to see those boys."
"I know," said Jasper, sympathisingly, "but you'll get a letter, youknow, most as soon as we reach port, for they were going to mail itbefore we left."
"And I have one every day in my mail-bag," said Polly, "but I want to_see_ them so, Jasper, I don't know what to do." She went up to therail at a remove from the Griswolds and leaned over it.
"Polly," said Jasper, taking her hand, "you know your mother will feeldreadfully if she knows you are worrying about it."
"I know it," said Polly, bravely, raising her head; "and I won't--whyJasper Elyot King!" for then she saw Grandpapa and Phronsie and thesteerage baby.
Jasper gave a halloo, and waved his hand, and Polly danced up and downand called, and waved her hands too. And Phronsie gave a little crow ofdelight. "See, Grandpapa, there they are; I want Polly--and Jasper,too." And old Mr. King whirled around. "O dear me! Come down, both ofyou," which command it did not take them long to obey.
"Well, I never did in all my life," ejaculated Mrs. Griswold, "seeanything like that. Now if some people"--she didn't say "we"--"shoulddo anything like that, 'twould be dreadfully erratic and queer. Butthose Kings can do anything," she added, with venom.
"It's pretty much so," assented Mr. Griswold, giving a lazy shake."Well, I'm going back to my chair if you've got through with me,Louisa." And he sauntered off.
"Don't go, Reginald," begged his wife; "I haven't got a soul to talkto."
"Oh, well, you can talk to yourself," said her husband, "any womancan." But he paused a moment.
"Haven't those Pepper children got a good berth?" exclaimed Mrs.Griswold, unable to keep her eyes off from the small group below. "Andtheir Mother Pepper, or Fisher, or whatever her name is--I declare it'sjust like a novel, the way I heard the story from Mrs. Vanderburghabout it all."
"And I wish you'd let me get back to my book, Louisa," exclaimed Mr.Griswold, tartly, at the mention of the word "novel," beginning to looklongingly at his deserted steamer chair, "for it's precious little timeI get to read on shore. Seems as if I might have a little peace at sea."
"Do go back and read, then," said his wife, impatiently; "that's justlike a man,--he can't talk of anything but business, or
he must havehis nose in a book."
"We men want to talk sense," growled her husband, turning off. But Mrs.Griswold was engrossed in her survey of Mr. King and the doings of hisparty, and either didn't hear or didn't care what was remarked outsideof that interest.
Tom Selwyn just then ran up against some one as clumsily as ever. Itproved to be the ship's doctor, who surveyed him coldly and passed on.Tom gave a start and swallowed hard, then plunged after him. "Oh, Isay."
"What is it?" asked Dr. Jones, pausing.
"Can I--I'd like--to see my Grandfather, don't you know?"
Dr. Jones scanned him coolly from top to toe. Tom took it withoutwincing, but inwardly he felt as if he must shake to pieces.
"If you can so conduct yourself that your Grandfather will not beexcited," at last said the doctor,--what an age it seemed to Tom,--"Isee no reason why you shouldn't see your Grandfather, and go back toyour state-room. But let me tell you, young man, it was a pretty closeshave for him the other day. Had he slipped away, you'd have had thaton your conscience that would have lasted you for many a day." Withthis, and a parting keen glance, he turned on his heel and strode off.
Tom gave a great gasp, clenched his big hands tightly together, took along look at the wide expanse of water, then disappeared within.
In about half an hour, the steerage baby having gone to sleep inPhronsie's arms, the brothers and sisters, finding, after the closestinspection, nothing more to eat in the basket, gathered around thecentre of attraction in a small bunch.
"I hope they won't wake up the baby," said Phronsie, in gentle alarm.
"Never you fear," said old Mr. King, quite comfortable now in thecamp-chair one of the sailors had brought in response to a request fromJasper; "that child knows very well by this time, I should imagine,what noise is."
But after a little, the edge of their curiosity having been worn off,the small group began to get restive, and to clamour and pull at theirmother for want of something better to do.
"O dear me!" said Phronsie, in distress.
"Dear, dear!" echoed Polly, vainly trying to induce the child next tothe baby to get into her lap; "something must be done. Oh, don't youwant to hear about a funny cat, children? I'm going to tell them aboutGrandma Bascom's, Jasper," she said, seeing the piteous look inPhronsie's eyes.
"Yes, we do," said one of the boys, as spokesman, and he solemnlybobbed his tow head, whereat all the children then bobbed theirs.
"Sit down, then," said Polly, socially making way for them, "all of youin a circle, and I'll tell you of that very funny cat." So the wholebunch of tow-headed children sat down in a ring, and solemnly foldedtheir hands in their laps. Jasper threw himself down where he couldedge himself in. Old Mr. King leaned back and surveyed them with greatsatisfaction. So Polly launched out in her gayest mood, and the bigblue eyes in the round faces before her widened, and the mouths flewopen, showing the white teeth; and the stolid mother leaned forward,and her eyes and mouth looked just like those of her children, onlythey were bigger; and at last Polly drew a long breath and wound upwith a flourish, "And that's all."
"Tell another," said one of the round-eyed, open-mouthed children,without moving a muscle. All the rest sat perfectly still.
"O dear me," said Polly, with a little laugh, "that was such a goodlong one, you can't want another."
"I think you've gotten yourself into business, Polly," said Jasper,with a laugh. "Hadn't we better go?"
Polly gave a quick glance at Phronsie. "Phronsie dear," she said, "letus go up to our deck now, dear. Shall we?"
"Oh, no, Polly, please don't go yet," begged Phronsie, in alarm, andpatting the baby softly with a gentle little hand. Polly looked off atGrandpapa. He was placidly surveying the water, his eyes occasionallyroving over the novel and interesting sights around. On the other sideof the deck a returning immigrant was bringing out a jew's-harp, andtwo or three of his fellow-passengers were preparing to pitch quoits.Old Mr. King was actually smiling at it all. Polly hadn't seen him socontented since they sailed.
"I guess I'll tell another one, Jasper," she said. "Oh, about a dog,you wanted, did you?" nodding at the biggest boy.
"Yes," said the boy, bobbing his tow head, "I did;" and he unfolded andfolded his hands back again, then waited patiently.
So Polly flew off on a gay little story about a dog that bade fair torival Grandma Bascom's cat for cleverness. He belonged to Mr. Atkinswho kept store in Badgertown, and the Pepper children used to see agood deal of him, when they took home the sacks and coats that Mamsiesewed for the storekeeper. And in the midst of the story, when thestolid steerage children were actually laughing over the antics of thatremarkable dog, Jasper glanced up toward the promenade deck, took along look, and started to his feet. "Why, Polly Pepper, see!" Hepointed upward. There, on the curve, were old Mr. Selwyn and Tomwalking arm in arm.