A Jolly Fellowship

  CHAPTER IX.

  THE THREE GRAY BEANS.

  Corny went ashore, but she did not stay there three minutes. From theedge of the wharf we could see that Silver Spring was better worthlooking at than anything we should be likely to see on shore. The littlelake seemed deeper than a three-story house, and yet, even from where westood, we could see down to the very bottom.

  There were two boys with row-boats at the wharf. We hired one of theboats right off, and Corny gave me such a look, that I told her to getin. After she was in the boat, she asked her mother, who was standing onthe deck of the steam-boat, if she might go. Mrs. Chipperton said shesupposed so, and away we went. When we had rowed out to the middle ofthe spring, I stopped rowing, and we looked down into the depths. It wasalmost the same as looking into air. Far down at the bottom we could seethe glittering sand and the green rocks, and sometimes a fish, as longas my arm, would slowly rise and fall, and paddle away beneath us. Wedropped nickels and copper cents down to the bottom, and we couldplainly see them lying there. In some parts of the bottom there were"wells," or holes, about two feet in diameter, which seemed to go downindefinitely. These, we were told, were the places where the water cameup from below into the spring. We could see the weeds and grasses thatgrew on the edges of these wells, although we could not see very fardown into them.

  "If I had only known," said Rectus, "what sort of a place we were comingto, I should have brought something to lower down into these wells. Itell you what would have been splendid!--a heavy bottle filled withsweet oil and some phosphorus, and a long cord. If we shook up thebottle it would shine, so that, when we lowered it into the wells, wecould see it go down to the very bottom, that is, if the cord should belong enough."

  At this instant, Corny went overboard! Rectus made a grab at her, but itwas too late. He sprang to his feet, and I thought he was going overafter her, but I seized him.

  "Sit down!" said I. "Watch her! She'll come up again. Lean over and beready for her!"

  We both leaned over the bow as far as was safe. With one hand I gentlypaddled the boat, this way and that, so as to keep ourselves directlyover Corny. It would have been of no use to jump in. We could see her asplainly as anything.

  She was going down, all in a bunch, when I first saw her, and the nextinstant she touched the bottom. Her feet were under now, and I saw hermake a little spring. She just pushed out her feet.

  Then she began to come right up. We saw her slowly rising beneath us.Her face was turned upward, and her eyes were wide open. It was awonderful sight. I trembled from head to foot. It seemed as if we werefloating in the air, and Corny was coming up to us from the earth.

  Before she quite reached the surface, I caught her, and had her head outof water in an instant. Rectus then took hold, and with a mighty jerk,we pulled her into the boat.

  Corny sat down hard and opened her mouth.

  "There!" she said; "I didn't breathe an inch!"

  And then she puffed for about two minutes, while the water ran off herinto the bottom of the boat. I seized the oars to row to shore.

  "How did you fall over?" said Rectus, who still shook as if he had had achill.

  "Don't know," answered Corny. "I was leaning far over, when my hand musthave slipped, and the first thing I knew I was into it. It's good Ididn't shut my eyes. If you get into water, with your eyes shut, youcan't open them again." She still puffed a little. "Coming up was thebest. It's the first time I ever saw the bottom of a boat."

  "Weren't you frightened?" I asked.

  "Hadn't time at first. And when I was coming up, I saw you reaching outfor me."

  "WE SAW HER SLOWLY RISING BENEATH US."]

  "Did you think we'd get you?" said Rectus, his face flushing.

  "Yes," said Corny, "but if you'd missed me that time, I'd never havetrusted you again."

  The gentleman-with-a-wife-and-a-young-lady was in another boat, not veryfar off, but it was nearer the upper end of the little lake, and none ofthe party knew of our accident until we were pulling Corny out of thewater. Then they rowed toward us as fast as they could, but they didnot reach us until we were at the wharf. No one on shore, or on thesteam-boat, seemed to have noticed Corny's dive. Indeed, the whole thingwas done so quietly, and was so soon over, that there was not as much ofa show as the occasion demanded.

  "I never before was in deep water that seemed so little like realwater," said Corny, just before we reached the wharf. "This was cold,and that was the only thing natural about it."

  "Then this is not the first time you've been in deep water?" I asked.

  "No," said Corny, "not the very first time;" and she scrambled up on thewharf, where her mother was standing, talking to some ladies.

  "Why, Cornelia!" exclaimed Mrs. Chipperton, as soon as she saw thedripping girl, "have you been in the water again?"

  "Yes, ma'am," said Corny, drawing her shoulders up to her ears, "and Imust be rubbed down and have dry clothes as quick as lightning."

  And with this, she and her mother hurried on board the steam-boat.

  Rectus and I went back on the lake, for we had not gone half over itwhen Corny went into it. We had rowed about for half an hour or so, andwere just coming in, when Corny appeared on the deck of the steam-boat,with a handkerchief tied around her head.

  "Are you going to take a walk on shore?" she called out.

  "Yes!" we shouted.

  "All right," said she; "if you'll let me, I'll go with you, for mothersays I must take a good run in the sun. I look funny, don't I? but Ihaven't any more hats."

  We gave her a good run, although it was not altogether in the sun. Thecountry hereabout was pretty well wooded, but there were roads cutthrough the woods, and there were some open places, and everywhere,underfoot, the sand was about six inches deep. Rectus took Corny by onehand, and I took her by the other, and we made her trot through thatsand, in sunshine and shade, until she declared she was warm enough tolast for a week. The yellow-legged party and some of the otherpassengers were wandering about, gathering the long gray moss,--fromlimbs where they could reach it,--and cutting great palmetto leaveswhich grew on low bushes all through the woods, and carrying them aboutas fans or parasols; but although Corny wanted to join in this fun, wewould not stop. We just trotted her until she was tired, and then we ranher on board the boat, where her mother was waiting for her.

  "Now, then," said Mrs. Chipperton, "immediately to bed."

  The two disappeared, and we saw no more of Corny until supper-time. Hermother was certainly good at cure, if she didn't have much of a knack atprevention.

  Just as the boat was about to start off on her return trip, and aftershe had blown her whistle two or three times, Mr. Chipperton appeared,carrying an immense arm-load of gray moss. He puffed and blew as hethrew it down on deck. When his wife came out and told him of Corny'sdisaster, he stopped dusting his clothes, and looked up for an instant.

  "I declare," said he, "Corny must keep out of the water. It seems to methat I can never leave her but she gets into some scrape. But I'm sureour friends here have proved themselves good fellows, indeed," and heshook hands with both of us.

  "Now then, my dear," said he to his wife, "I've enough moss here for theparlor and sitting-room, and the little back-room, upstairs. I didn'tget any for the dining-room, because it might blow about and get intothe food."

  "Do you mean to take that moss all the way home?" asked Mrs. Chipperton,in surprise. "Why, how will you ever carry it?"

  "Of course I mean to take it home," said he. "I gathered this with myown hands from the top of one of the tallest trees on the banks of thisfamous Silver Spring."

  "Mr. Chipperton!" exclaimed his wife.

  "To be sure, the tree was cut down, but that makes no difference in thefact. It is both an ornament and a trophy of travel. If necessary, I'llbuy a trunk for it. What did you do with Corny after they got her out?"

  Our journey home was very much like our trip up the river, but therewere a few exceptions. There was not so much fir
ing, for I think theammunition got pretty low; we saw more alligators, and the yellow-leggedparty, which had joined us at Pilatka, went all the way to St.Augustine with us. There was still another difference, and that was inRectus. He was a good deal livelier,--more in the spirit that hadhatched out in him in the cemetery at Savannah. He seemed to be allright with Corny now, and we had a good time together. I was going tosay to him, once, that he had changed his mind about girls, but Ithought I wouldn't. It would be better to let well enough alone, and hewas a ticklish customer.

  The day after we returned to St. Augustine, we were walking on thesea-wall, when we met Corny. She said she had been looking for us. Herfather had gone out fishing with some gentlemen, and her mother wouldnot walk in the sun, and, besides, she had something to say to us.

  So we all walked to the fort and sat down on the wide wall of thewater-battery. Rectus bestrode one of the cannon that stood pointing outto sea, but Corny told him she wanted him to get down and sit by her, sothat she wouldn't have to shout.

  "Now then," said she, after pausing a little, as if she wanted to besure and get it right, "you two saved my life, and I want to give yousomething to remember me by."

  We both exclaimed against this.

  "You needn't do that," said I, "for I'm sure that no one who saw youcoming up from the bottom, like the fairy-women float up on wires at thetheatre, could ever forget you. We'll remember you, Corny, without yourgiving us anything."

  "But that wont do," said she. "The only other time that I was everreally saved was by a ferryman, and father gave him some money, whichwas all right for him, but wouldn't do for you two, you know; andanother time there wasn't really any danger, and I'm sorry the man gotanything; but he did.

  "We brought scarcely anything with us, because we didn't expect to needthings in this way; but this is my own, and I want to give it to youboth. One of you can't use it by himself, and so it will be more like apresent for both of you together, than most things would be." And shehanded me a box of dominoes.

  "I give it to you because you're the oldest, but, remember, it's forboth of you."

  Of course we took it, and Corny was much pleased. She was a good littlegirl and, somehow or other, she seemed to be older and more sensiblewhen she was with us than when she was bouncing around in the bosom ofher family.

  We had a good deal of talk together, and, after a while, she asked howlong we were going to stay in St. Augustine.

  "Until next Tuesday," I said, "and then we shall start for Nassau in the'Tigris.'"

  "Nassau!" she exclaimed, "where's that?"

  "Right down there," I said, pointing out to sea with a crook of myfinger, to the south. "It's on one of the Bahamas, and they lie off thelower end of Florida, you know."

  "No," said she; "I don't remember where they are. I always get theBahamas mixed up with the Bermudas, anyway. So does father. We talkedof going to one of those places, when we first thought of travellingfor his lung, but then they thought Florida would be better. What isthere good about Nassau? Is it any better than this place?"

  "Well," said I, "it's in the West Indies, and it's semi-tropical, andthey have cocoa-nuts and pineapples and bananas there; and there arelots of darkeys, and the weather is always just what you want----"

  "I guess that's a little stretched," said Corny, and Rectus agreed withher.

  "And it's a new kind of a place," I continued; "an English colony, suchas our ancestors lived in before the Revolution, and we ought to seewhat sort of a thing an English colony is, so as to know whetherWashington and the rest of them should have kicked against it."

  "Oh, they were all right!" said Corny, in a tone which settled thatlittle matter.

  "And so, you see," I went on, "Rectus and I thought we should like to goout of the country for a while, and see how it would feel to live undera queen and a cocoa-nut tree."

  "Good!" cried Corny. "We'll go."

  "Who?" I asked.

  "Father and mother and I," said Corny, rising. "I'll tell them all aboutit; and I'd better be going back to the hotel, for if the steamer leaveson Tuesday, we'll have lots to do."

  As we were walking homeward on the sea-wall, Rectus looked back andsuddenly exclaimed:

  "There! Do you see that Crowded Owl following us? He's been hanginground us all the afternoon. He's up to something. Don't you remember thecaptain told us he was a bad-tempered fellow?"

  "What did he do?" asked Corny, looking back at the Indian, who now stoodin the road, a short distance from the wall, regarding us veryearnestly.

  "Well, he never did anything, much," I said. "He seemed to be angry,once, because we would not buy some of his things, and the captain saidhe'd have him told not to worry us. That may have made him madder yet."

  "He don't look mad," said Corny.

  "Don't you trust him," said Rectus.

  "I believe all these Indians are perfectly gentle, now," said Corny,"and father thinks so, too. He's been over here a good deal, and talkedto some of them. Let's go ask him what he wants. Perhaps he's onlysorry."

  "If he is, we'll never find it out," I remarked, "for he can only speakone word of English."

  I beckoned to Crowded Owl, and he immediately ran up to the wall, andsaid "How?" in an uncertain tone, as if he was not sure how we shouldtake it. However, Corny offered him her hand, and Rectus and I followedsuit. After this, he put his hand into his pocket, and pulled out threesea-beans.

  "There!" said Rectus. "At it again. Disobeying military orders."

  "But they're pretty ones," said Corny, taking one of the beans in herhand.

  They were pretty. They were not very large, but were beautifullypolished, and of a delicate gray color, the first we had seen of thekind.

  "These must be a rare kind," said Rectus. "They are almost always brown.Let's forgive him this once, and buy them."

  "Perhaps he wants to make up with you," said Corny, "and has broughtthese as a present."

  "I can soon settle that question," said I, and I took the three beans,and pulled from my pocket three quarter-dollars, which I offered to theIndian.

  Crowded Owl took the money, grinned, gave a bob of his head, and wenthome happy.

  If he had had any wish to "make up" with us, he had shown it by givingus a chance at a choice lot of goods.

  "Now," said I, reaching out my hand to Corny, "here's one for each ofus. Take your choice."

  "For me?" said Corny. "No, I oughtn't to. Yes, I will, too. I am ever somuch obliged. We have lots of sea-beans, but none like this. I'll have aring fastened to it, and wear it, somehow."

  "That'll do to remember us by," said I.

  "Yes," said Rectus, "and whenever you're in danger, just hold up thatbean, and we'll come to you."

  "I'll do it," said Corny. "But how about you? What can I do?"

  "Oh, I don't suppose we shall want you to help us much," I said.

  "Well, hold up your beans, and we'll see," said Corny.