CHAPTER XI
THE BIRD
"Softly a winged thing Floats across the sky, And earth from slumber waketh And looketh up on high, Sees it is only a bird-- A great white bird-- That floating thro' the darkness undisturbed Floats on, and on, and on."
Late sleeping in a tent is rather a difficult feat as the morning sunseems to spy out the sleeper's eyes and there is no way to escape him.Some of the campers tied black ribbons around their eyes and some evenused black stockings, but the first rays of the sun always found Nanstirring. It was not that she was especially energetic, she was indeedrather lazy, according to her more vigorous sisters, but the charm ofthe early morning was so wonderful that she hated to miss it lying inbed. It was also such a splendid time to be alone. The camp was abustling, noisy place when everyone was up, and early morning was aboutthe only time the girl had for that communing with herself which wasvery precious to one of her poetic temperament.
She slept in a tent, not only with her sisters but with Lil Tate andTillie Wingo, now that the week-enders had swarmed in on them at such arate, stretching their sleeping accommodations to the utmost. Of courseit was great fun to sleep in a tent but there were times when Nan longedfor a room with four walls and a door that she could lock. The next bestthing to a door she could lock was the top of the mountain in the earlymorning. Unless some enthusiastic nature-lover had got up a sunriseparty she was sure to have the top of the mountain to herself.
Mr. Tucker had divulged to her the night before that her mother hadabandoned the designs she had been entertaining for Douglas, and she inturn had been able to pass on the good news to Douglas. Mrs. Carter hadnot told her daughter herself but was evidently going to take her owngood time to do so. Their mother's being a bit cattish was not worryingeither Douglas or Nan. They were too happy over the abandonment of theplan. Of course they could not help feeling that since the plan wasabandoned, it would have been sweet of their mother to let Douglasknow immediately since she was well aware of the fact that the ideawas far from pleasing to her daughter. And since it would have beensweet of her to let her know the moment she had abandoned the plan, itwas on the other hand slightly cattish of her to conceal the fact. Ofcourse the girls did not call it cattish even in their own minds--justthoughtlessness. Douglas had no idea of how the change had come about,and Nan held her counsel. It was Mr. Tucker's and her secret.
As she crept out of the cot on that morning, before the sun was up, sheglanced at her elder sister and a feeling of intense satisfaction filledher heart to see how peacefully Douglas was sleeping. Her beautifulhair, in a great golden red rope, was trailing from the low cot alongthe floor of the tent; her face that had looked so tired and anxiouslately had lost its worried expression--she looked so young--hardly anyolder than Lucy, who lay in the next bed.
"Thank goodness, the poor dear is no longer worried," thought Nandevoutly as she slipped on her clothes and crept noiselessly out of thetent.
What a morning it was! The sun was not quite up and there was a silvergray haze over everything. The neighboring mountains were lost, as werethe valleys. The air had a freshness and sweetness that is peculiar todawn. "'The innocent brightness of a new-born day is lovely yet,'"quoted Nan. "If I can only get to the top of the mountain before the sunis up!" She hurried along the path, stopping a moment at the spring todrink a deep draft of water and to splash the clear water on her faceand hands. She held her face down in the water a moment and came upshaking the drops off her black hair, which curled in innumerable littlerings from the wetting. She laughed aloud in glee. Life was surely worthliving, everything was so beautiful.
The sides of the mountain were thickly wooded but at the top there was asmooth plateau with neither tree nor bush. One great rock right in themiddle of this clearing Nan used as a throne whereon she could view theworld--if not the world, at least a good part of Albemarle county andeven into Nelson on one hand and Orange on the other. Sometimes shethought of this stone as an altar and of herself as a sun-worshipper.
On that morning she clambered up the rock just a moment before the sunpeeped through a crack in the mist. She stood with arms outstretchedfacing the sun. The mists were rolling away and down in the valleyshe could distinguish the apple orchards and now a fence, and now ahaystack. There a mountain cabin emerged from the veil and soon a spiralof thin blue smoke could be spied rising from its chimney.
"I wonder what they are going to have for breakfast!" exclaimed thewood nymph, and then she took herself to task for thinking of foodwhen everything was so poetical. Just as she was wondering what themountaineers who lived in that tiny cabin were going to cook on the firewhose smoke she saw rising in that "thin blue reek" the sun came up. Awonderful sight, but the sun has been rising for so many aeons that wehave become accustomed to it. Something else happened at that moment,something we are not quite accustomed to even yet: Far off over thecrest of a mountain Nan thought she saw an eagle. The first rays of thesun glinted on the great white wings. For a moment it was lost to viewas it passed behind a cloud and then it appeared again flying rapidly.
"It is coming this way, a great white bird! I am almost afraid it mightpick me up in its huge talons and carry me off, carry me 'way up in theair--I almost hope it will--it would be so glorious to fly!"
She stood up on her throne and stretched her arms out, crying aninvocation to the winged thing.
She heeded not the buzzing of the aeroplane as it approached. To her itwas a great white bird and she only awakened from her trance when themachine had actually landed on her plateau.
The humming had stopped and it glided along the grass, kept closelycropped by Josephus, as this was his grazing ground when he was not busypulling the cart. Nan stood as though petrified, a graceful littlefigure in her camp-fire girls' dress. Her arms were still outstretchedas when she cried her invocation to the great white bird.
The machine came to a standstill quite close to her altar and a youngman in aviator's costume sprang from it. Taking off his helmet andgoggles, he made a low bow to Nan.
"Oh, mountain nymph, may a traveler land in your domain?"
"Welcome, stranger!"
"And may I ask what is this enchanted land?"
"This is Helicon--and you--who are you?"
"I am Bellerophon and yonder winged steed is Pegasus. Maid, will you flywith me?"
He held out his hand and Nan, with no more thought of the proprietiesthan a real mountain nymph would have had, let him help her into hismachine. He wrapped a great coat around her, remarking that even nymphsmight get cold, and seemingly with no more concern than Bill Tinsleyfelt over starting the mountain goat, he touched some buttons and turnedsome wheels and in a moment the aeroplane was gliding over the plateauand then floating in the air, mounting slowly over the tree tops. Up, upthey went and then began making beautiful circles in the air. Nansighed.
"Are you scared?" and the aviator looked anxiously at his littlecompanion. He had not resumed his helmet and goggles and his eyes wereso kind and so merry that Nan felt as though she had known him all herlife.
"Scared! Of course not! I am just so happy."
"Have you ever flown before?"
"Not in reality--but it is just as I have dreamed it."
"You dream then a great deal?"
"Yes! 'In a dream all day I wander only half awake.' I am sure I must bedreaming now."
"I, too! But then the best of life is the dreams, the greatest men arethe dreamers. If it had not been for a dreamer, we could not have hadthis machine. Look! Isn't that wonderful?"
Nan was looking with all eyes at the panorama spread out below them. Thesun was up now in good earnest and the mountains had shaken off the mistas sleepers newly aroused might throw off their coverlids. The orchardsin the valleys looked like cabbage beds and the great mansions thatadorn the hills and are the pride and boast of the county seemed nolarger than doll houses. From every chimney in the valley smoke wasarising. Nan was disgusted with
herself that again the thought came toher:
"What are all of these people going to have for breakfast?"
They dipped and floated and curvetted. Nan thought of Hawthorne'sdescription of Pegasus in the "Chimaera" and the very first opportunityshe had later on she got the book and reread the following passage:
"Oh, how fine a thing it is to be a winged horse! Sleeping at night, ashe did, on a lofty mountain-top, and passing the greater part of theday in the air, Pegasus seemed hardly to be a creature of the earth.Whenever he was seen, up very high above people's heads, with thesunshine on his silvery wings, you would have thought that he belongedto the sky, and that, skimming a little too low, he had got astray amongour mists and vapors, and was seeking his way back again. It was verypretty to behold him plunge into the fleecy bosom of a bright cloud,and be lost in it for a moment or two, and then break forth from theother side."
Once they went through a low-hanging cloud. Nan felt the drops of wateron her face.
"Why, it is raining!" she cried.
"No, that was a cloud we dipped through," laughed her companion. "Areyou cold?"
"Cold? I don't know! I have no sensation but joy."
The young man smiled. There was something about Nan's drawl that madepersons want to smile anyhow.
"You forgot your hat and goggles," she said as she noticed his blue eyesand the closely cropped brown hair that looked as though it had to bevery closely cropped to keep it from curling.
"That's so! Some day maybe I shall go back after them. Now shall we flyto 'Frisco? How about High Olympus? Remember we are on Pegasus now andhe can take us wherever we want to go."
"Breakfast first," drawled Nan. "Come with me and I can feed you onnectar and ambrosia."
"Oh what a wonderful wood nymph! She understands that mortal man cannotfeed on poetry alone."
They glided to the plateau and landed again by the great rock.
"This is a wonderful place to light," said the birdman. "And now, fairmountain nymph, please tell me who you are when you are not a nymph--andwhat you are doing on the top of a lonely mountain before the sun isup."
"Nan Carter! And if you think this is a lonely mountain, you ought totry to get by yourself for a few minutes on it. Before sunrise, on thetip top point, is the only place where one can be alone a minute----"
"And then great creatures come swooping down out of the clouds and carryyou off. It was very kind of you to go with me."
"Kind of me! Oh, Mr. Bellerophon, I never can thank you enough fortaking me. I have never been so happy in all my life. It is perfect, allbut the noise-- I do wish it wouldn't click and buzz so. I know Pegasusdid not make such a fuss--only the swish of his wings could be heard andsometimes, as the maiden said, the brisk and melodious neigh."
"Don't you want to know my name, too, Miss Nan Carter? I have a name Iuse sometimes when I am not mounted on Pegasus."
"I don't want to know it at all, but perhaps my mother, who ischaperoning the camp and who is rather particular, might think Mr.Bellerophon sounded rather wily Greekish."
The young man laughed. Such a nice laugh it was that Nan could not helpthinking it sounded rather like a melodious neigh. He was possessed ofvery even white teeth and a Greek profile, at least it started out tobe Greek but changed its mind when it got to the tip of his nosewhich certainly turned up a bit. On the whole he was a very pleasant,agreeable-looking young man, tall and broad-shouldered, clean-limbed andathletic-looking. What Nan liked most about him were his eyes and hishands.
"I hate to tell you my name, wood nymph. It sounds so commonplace afterwhat we have done this morning. I am afraid when you hear it you willsimply knock on one of these great oak trees and a door will open andyou will disappear from my eyes forever."
"Not before breakfast," drawled Nan. "But you must tell me your namebefore breakfast because I shall have to introduce you to the others."
"What others? Not more wood nymphs!"
"More Carters--and week-enders!"
"You don't mean I have actually landed at Week-End Camp? Why, that iswhat I have been looking for, but I had no idea of striking it the firstthing, right out of the blue, as it were. I heard about the camp at theUniversity, and want to come board there for a while."
"Well, I am the one to apply to," said Nan primly.
"Apply to a wood nymph for board! Absurd!"
"Not at all! Of course, I can't take you to board without knowing yourname and--er--number."
"Well, if you must, you must--Tom Smith is my name--as for mynumber--there is only one of me."
"I mean by your number, where you live."
"Oh, I live in the air mostly. Sometimes I come down to have somewashing done and to vote--at least, I came down once to vote--that waslast June, but as no elections were going on just then and as my havingarrived at the age of twenty-one did not seem to make them hurry, Iwent up in the air again. When I do vote, though, it will be out inLouisville, Kentucky. That's where I have my washing done. You don'tsay what you think of such a name as Tom Smith."
"It is not very--romantic, but it must have been a nice name to go toschool with."
"Great! There were so many of us that the lickings didn't go round."
The girl was leading the way down the mountain path and they came to thespring where she had performed her ablutions earlier.
"This is the fountain of Pirene."
"Ah! I fancied we would come to it soon," and he stooped and drank hisfill, shaking the drops from his crisp curls as he got up.
"I love to drink that way," cried Nan. "I had a big deep drink as I wentup the mountain."
"Of course you drink that way! How else could a wood nymph drink? Youmight make a cup of your little brown hand, but even that is almost toomodern. Ah, there is the camp! How jolly it looks! Are there any peoplethere? It looks so quiet."
"Any people there? Quiet! It is running over with people. They are allasleep now, that is the reason it is so quiet. There will be noiseenough later."
As she spoke there were shouts from the shower bath where some of theyouths from the camp had assembled for a community shower, and as thecold mountain water struck them they certainly made the welkin ring.
"There is father! Come, and I'll introduce you."
Mr. Carter was coming from the kitchen bearing a cup of coffee for hiswife, who stuck to the New Orleans habit of black coffee the first thingin the morning, and Mr. Carter loved to be the one to take it to herbedside.
"Father, this is Mr. Bel--Smith. He flew over here this morning," andNan suddenly remembered that she was not a wood nymph and that thismountain in Albemarle was not Helicon. Also that it was not a very usualthing for well-brought-up young ladies to go flying with strange youngmen before breakfast, even if strange young men did almost have Greekprofiles. For the first time that morning Nan blushed. Her shynessreturned. She could hardly believe that it was she, Nan Carter, who hadbeen so bold. Her Bellerophon was plain Tom Smith and Pegasus was a verymodern flying machine lying up in Josephus's pasture, that pasture ontop of a prosaic mountain in Albemarle County and not Mount Helicon.The fountain of Pirene was nothing but the spring that fed thereservoir from which they got the water supply for the shower bathwhere those boys were making such an unearthly racket. She was not awood nymph--there were no wood nymphs--but just a sentimental littlegirl of sixteen who no doubt needed a good talking to and a reprimandfor being so very imprudent. What would her mother say to such anescapade?
With all of Mrs. Carter's delicate spirituelle appearance there wasnothing poetical in her make-up. She would never understand this talk offorgetting that one was not a wood nymph. There was more chance of thefather's sympathy. Nan took the bull by the horns and plunged into herconfession.
"Father, I have been up in Mr. Bel--Smith's flying machine. I don't knowwhat made me do it except I just--it was so early--I--I forgot it wasn'ta flying horse."
Mr. Carter looked at his little daughter with a smile of extremetenderness. He had taken flights on P
egasus himself in days gone by. Heseldom mounted him now--the burden of making a living had almost madehim forget that Pegasus was not a plough horse--not quite, however, andnow as his little girl stood in front of him, her hair all ruffled byher flight, her cheeks flushed and in her great brown eyes the shadow ofher dream, he understood.
"It is still early in the morning, honey, for you--no doubt theaeroplane is Pegasus. I envy you the experience. Everyone might notsee it as I do, however, so you and Mr. Belsmith and I had better keepit to ourselves," and he shook the birdman's hand.
"Smith is my name--Tom Smith," and the young man smiled into the eyes ofthe older man.
"I am very glad to see you, and just as soon as I take this coffee tomy wife, I will come and do the honors of the camp," and Robert Carterhastened off, thinking what a boon it would be to be young again inthis day of flying machines.
Nan found her tent about as she had left it. The inmates were stillasleep. "How strange," she said to herself, "that I should have been tothe top of Helicon and taken flight with Bellerophon on Pegasus whilethese girls have slept on not knowing a thing about it! I wonder wheretheir astral bodies have been! Douglas looks so happy, poor dear, Ifancy hers has been in heaven."
Aloud she cried: "Get up, girls! Wake up! It is awfully late--the campis stirring and there is a lot to do. I have found a new boarder! Hedropped from the clouds and is starved to death."