The Corner House Girls Growing Up

  CHAPTER X

  ABOARD THE NANCY HANKS

  It must be confessed--and not to the belittlement of Sammy Pinkney--thathe never would have run away to be a pirate on this occasion had it notbeen for Dot Kenway. When this little miss had once set her mind to athing it took a good deal to turn her from her purpose.

  It had been Sammy's dire threat for a long time that he would seek theadventurous life of a buccaneer on the rolling main. But he had neverset a definite date for his departure upon this venture. To-day was theday. Fate willed it thus. And it looked as though fate was disguised inthe character of a strong-minded little girl with two cherry-redhair-ribbons and a doll hugged tightly in her arms.

  Sammy, however, having once embarked on the venture considered that hemust take a certain lead in affairs. Dot certainly had urged him awayfrom home and mother; but now she gave up the guidance of affairsentirely into her companion's hands.

  She had no more idea of what "being pirates" meant than she had of thelocation where "pirating" as a profession might be safely pursued. OnSammy's part, he knew that pirates roved the sea. The nearest water tothe corner of Willow and Main Streets was the canal. Therefore he ledthe little girl by the hand toward that rather placid body of water thatflowed through one end of Milton and into the river.

  The canal connected two tributaries of a large watercourse--the largestin the state, in fact; but it was not a very busy waterway. Now and thena battered old barge was drawn through by a pair of equally batteredhorses or mules. Milton people held the canal folk in some contempt. Butthen, they knew very little about the followers of the inland waterwaysas a class.

  Sometimes some of the canal boatmen came over as far as Meadow Street topurchase provisions of Mrs. Kranz, or of Joe Maroni, both of whomoccupied stores on property belonging now to the four Corner Housegirls; and the way the two small runaways took on this day led themdirectly past this Meadow Street property.

  "If we are going to be pirates," said Sammy rather soberly for him, "wemust lay in a stock of provisions. We've got to eat, you know."

  "Oh! have we?" asked the little girl, to whom the fact of piracy was asublimated sort of existence in which she had not considered it would benecessary to think of mundane things.

  "I've got the money, and we'll lay in a stock," Sammy said, proud of hisposition now as acknowledged leader of the expedition.

  Mrs. Kranz, the German woman who kept the delicatessen store, was not atall surprised to see Dot. The Corner House girls often visited her andthe other tenants on the property, and Dot was particularly beloved bythe good woman.

  "My! my! Undt de baby, too? Coom right in undt haf some nicepop-sarsaparilla. I haf some on de ice yet--you undt your young man."

  "Oh, Mrs. Kranz!" cried Dot, eagerly, "we haven't come to visit you.We've come to buy something."

  But Sammy nudged her quickly. "Let's have the sarsaparilla," hewhispered in Dot's ear, as the generous woman bustled away to theicebox. "That'll go fine."

  Maria Maroni, oldest of the fruit dealer's family, who dwelt in thecellar of the building but lived mostly with Mrs. Kranz, waited uponSammy; so the storekeeper herself had no idea of the queer order Sammygave.

  He bought crackers--mostly of the animal kind; a piece of cheese;fishhooks; a ball of twine; a sack of potatoes (Maria ran and got thosefrom her father); a pencil and a pad of paper; some raisins; a jar ofpeanut butter; some drop-cakes; and ten cents' worth of a confectionjust then very popular, called by the children "gumballs."

  All these things, save the gumballs, he had put in a flour sack, andtold Dot they were ready to depart.

  "Undt dat iss a pig pundle of t'ings Mrs. MacCall sent you for," saidMrs. Kranz placidly, as the runaways started out of the store.

  "Oh, Mrs. MacCall didn't send us," Dot explained.

  "No? Are dey for de poy's mutter!"

  "Oh, no. You see, Mrs. Kranz," Dot said gravely, "we're going to bepirates, and we have to have a stock of things to eat. Don't we, Sammy?"

  "Come along," growled Sammy, fearful that they would be laughed at.

  But Mrs. Kranz was befogged. She had never before heard of pirates, andshe did not know whether it was a game, a lodge one belonged to, or apicnic. She guessed it was the last, however, for she bade them a heartyfarewell and hoped they would have a pleasant day.

  As they came out there was Joe Maroni himself, the neat, smiling, brownlittle Italian in his corduroy suit and with gold rings in his ears,ready waiting with a basket piled high with fruit.

  "For the leetle padrona," Joe said, with a smiling bow, sending hisusual gift to Ruth, whom he considered a grand signora and, as his"landlady," deserving of such thoughtful attentions.

  "Aw, say!" cried Sammy his eyes growing big; "that's scrumptious."

  "But they are for Ruthie," complained Dot. "We'll have to lug them allaround with us--and no knowing when we'll get home from being pirates."

  "Get _home_!" snorted the boy. "Why, we can't never go home again. Ifthey catch us they'll hang us in chains."

  Dot's mouth became suddenly a round "O" and nothing more, while her eyesNeale O'Neil would have said had he seen them, "bulged out." Theassurance in Sammy's tone seemed final. She could not go home again! And"hanging in chains" somehow had an awfully creepy sound.

  But as the boy himself did not seem to take these terrible possibilitiesvery seriously, Dot took comfort from that fact and went on againcheerfully. Nor did she mind carrying the basket of attractive fruit.One of the peaches on top was a little mellow and she stuck a tentativefinger into the most luscious spot she could see upon the cheek of thatparticular peach.

  The juice was just as sweet! She touched it with her finger again andthen put the finger to her lips.

  By this time they had come out of Meadow Street and were crossing theopen common toward the canal. On one hand was a blacksmith shop, and thesmith was getting ready to shoe a pair of mules which, with droopingears and saddened aspect, waited in the shade.

  There was no moving boat on the canal and nothing stirring along thetowpath. But a battered looking old barge was moored to the nigh bank,and Sammy's face brightened.

  "Come on, Dot," he said, glancing back at the little girl. "There's aship and I guess there isn't anybody aboard. Anyhow, if there is, we'llfight our way over the bulwarks, kill half the crew, and make the otherswalk the plank. That is what pirates would do."

  "Oo-ee!" squealed Dot--and she dropped the basket of fruit.

  "Aw, say!" growled Sammy. "What kind of a pirate will _you_ make? Ofcourse we have to do what all pirates do."

  But it was not anything to do with the true business of pirating thathad brought forth that squeal from Dot Kenway. Just as she had beenabout to touch that peach again with her pink finger, where the sweetjuice was oozing out, a great ugly, yellow wasp came along and lit righton that juicy spot!

  "Oo-ee!" squealed Dot again. Sammy valiantly came to the rescue, andbeat away the "stinger" with his cap. But he carried the fruit himself,as well as the bag of other provisions, the rest of the way to thecanalboat.

  "Can't trust you with it, Dot," he declared. "You'd have the things allmush if you dropped them every time you saw a bee."

  "I don't like bees," declared his little comrade.

  "And you was one yourself, once," grinned Sammy. "In that show, youknow."

  "Oh, but I didn't sting anybody," the little girl replied. "I wouldn'tbe so mean!"

  "How do you know this fellow was going to sting you?" demanded Sammy.

  "Why, Sammy Pinkney! Of course he was!" declared Dot, earnestly. "I--Icould see it right in his face! He was _so_ ugly."

  The canalboat was high out of the water, for its hold was empty; but therunaways climbed aboard easily. Sammy was as brave as a lion. Heproposed to take possession of the craft and drive ashore anybody whomight already be there. Only, there was nobody aboard.

  "The crew maybe saw us coming and deserted her," he said to Dot. "Lotsof 'em do. When they see the Black Roger flying at
our peak--"

  "What's the Black Roger?" demanded Dot, big-eyed again. She was gainingconsiderable information regarding pirates and "pirating."

  "Our flag. And when the crews of the merchant ships see it, theytremble," went on Sammy.

  "But we haven't got any flag," said the rather literal Dot. "You know wehaven't, Sammy."

  "Well," he returned cheerfully, "we'll have to make one. I made oneonce. I got one of my father's handkerchiefs, and blacked it with ma'sliquid shoeblacking, all but white spots in the center for a skull andcrossbones. But--but," he admitted, "ma took it away from me."

  "Never mind," said Dot, kindly. "I've got a handkerchief," and shepulled forth from her pocket a diminutive bit of cambric. "You get someshoeblacking and we'll make another."

  Sammy was for getting settled at once, and he went to the door of thedecked over cabin intending to put their possessions inside. But thedoor was made fast with a big padlock.

  However, a hatch cover was off one of the hatchways, and the sunshineshone down into the hold of the canalboat. It seemed dry and comfortablejust under this opening and there was a rough ladder which gave accessto the hold. Sammy went down first; then Dot delivered the package ofgroceries into his arms, then the basket of fruit, and lastly backedover the edge herself in a most gingerly way, and was helped downgallantly by the pirate chief.

  "Now what'll we do, Sammy?" asked the little girl eagerly.

  "We'll unpack our things first," said Sammy. "Then I'll rig up afish-line. We'll have to catch fish to help out with the rest of thegrub," added the practical youngster.

  "But not with worms!" cried Dot, with a shudder. "If you bring any ofthose horrid, squirmy worms aboard this boat, I--I'll just go right homeand not be pirates any more."

  "Oh! All right," said the scornful Sammy, who found "female pirates"rather more trying than he had supposed. "I'll fish with grasshoppers."

  "We-ell," agreed Dot. "Only don't let 'em jump on me. For if they doI'll scream-- I know I shall, Sammy."

  "Pooh! Pirates don't scream," growled the boy.

  "Not--not even girl pirates?"

  "No," said the boy doggedly. "'Taint the thing to do. We got to be realsavage and--"

  "Oh, but, Sammy!" gasped the little girl, "I couldn't be savage to agrasshopper."

  However, they unpacked their provisions and arranged them on a board.Dot really could not keep her finger off that mellow peach.

  "I don't believe Ruthie would mind," she said at last. "And, anyway,it's getting so juicy that maybe it wouldn't be good by the time we gothome--"

  "Don't I tell you we ain't going home no more!" demanded Sammy.

  "Er--well, then I guess we'd better eat the peach to save it," said thelittle girl, with some hesitancy. "You cut it in half, Sammy," she addedwith more decision.

  Inroads were made upon most of the other provisions within the firsthour. For, indeed, what else is there more interesting in being piratesthan using up the food laid in for a voyage? Sammy had spent his twodollars with the cheerfulness and judgment of a sailor ashore with hispay in his pocket. And he did not propose to let any greedy little girleat her share and his own of their stock.

  Several times Sammy ran up the ladder to examine the vicinity of the_Nancy Hanks_, as the battered old canalboat was named--its title beingpainted in big letters along either side of the decked-over cabin, whichwas a little higher than the remainder of the deck--but the pirate chiefsighted no prey on the canal. The waters of that raging main seemeddeserted of all craft whatsoever.

  Suddenly, however, he sighted an approaching group. It came from thedirection of the blacksmith shop. The mules they had seen waiting to beshod ambled ahead at a pace warranted to bring them to the towpath intime. Behind, at the same gait, came a tall, shambling man, whatappeared to be a girl some twelve years of age in tattered calico, andshoeless, and a droop-eared, forlorn, yellow hound.

  "Hist!" said Sammy, down the well of the hold.

  Dot did not know just what to reply to this thrilling summons, but sheventured to ask:

  "Do you want to say something to me, Sammy Pinkney? For if you do, youcan."

  "Hist! Keep quiet," ordered the pirate chief. "They're--they're in theoffing."

  "Wha--what's a offling?" she demanded. "We're orphans--Ruthie, andAggie, and Tess, and me. So's Mr. Luke and Cecile. And so's NealeO'Neil," she added thoughtfully. "Is an offling like an orphan?"

  "Keep still!" hissed the boy. "They're nearer."

  "Who's nearer?"

  "Shall I make 'em heave to when they come near 'nough, or shall we let'em go on and give chase?"

  "Goodness me, Sammy!" cried Dot, greatly puzzled. "You'd better comeright down here. If anybody's coming we don't want to get into trouble.You _know_ we didn't ask the man if we could come into this boat, andperhaps he don't like pirates."

  This idea appealed to Sammy, too, as the mules and the little companywith them drew near. He slipped over the edge of the hatchway and camedown the ladder.

  Overhead a threatening black cloud had obscured the sun. Thundermuttered in the distance. A tempest would probably break soon andneither Sammy nor Dot liked thunder and lightning.

  "And we didn't bring any umbrella, Sammy Pinkney!" gasped Dot.

  "Aw, we won't need one down here. We'll be dry enough," the boydeclared.

  Just then a drawling voice said: "Lowise, you better pull over thathatch right smart. It's agoin' to pour cats and dogs in a minute."

  "You get the mewels hitched on, Pap," said a shriller and younger voice."Where's the key to the house? Give it here. And you, Beauty, comeaboard. Ain't no rabbits fur you to chase so near town as this."

  "Oh," whispered the little girl below in the hold, "they have come on toour boat!"

  "Hist!" said Sammy, shakingly.

  "Do--do people do that to pirates?" demanded Dot, anxiously. "I--Ithought we were going to--to get on to other people's boats and makethem walk over a board."

  "_Walk the plank!_" hissed Sammy.

  "And aren't we?"

  "Wait!" commanded the pirate chief in a most threatening tone.

  They waited. By and by somebody came along and kicked the hatch-coverinto place and the light was suddenly shut out of the hold. At the sametime big drops of rain began drumming on the deck and the thunder burstforth in a rolling reverberation overhead.

  "I guess we _will wait_, Sammy Pinkney!" gasped Dot, nervously. "They'veshut us up down here!"