II.
THE PACKET BOAT.
THE day was one of the best days in June, with warm sunshine and a coolbreeze from the east, for when Betty Leicester stepped from a hot car tothe station platform in Riverport the air had a delicious sea-flavor.She wondered for a moment what this flavor was like, and then thought ofa salt oyster. She was hungry and tired, the journey had been longerthan she expected, and, as she made her way slowly through the crowdedstation and was pushed about by people who were hurrying out of or intothe train, she felt unusually disturbed and lonely. Betty had traveledfar and wide for a girl of fifteen, but she had seldom been alone, andwas used to taking care of other people. Papa himself was very apt toforget important minor details, and she had learned out of her lovingyoung heart to remember them, and was not without high ambitions tomake their journeys as comfortable as possible. Still, she and herfather had almost always been together, and Betty wondered if it had notafter all been foolish to make a certain decision which involved notseeing him again until a great many weeks had gone by.
The cars moved away and the young traveler went to the ticket-office toask about the Tideshead train. The ticket-agent looked at her with asmile.
"Train's gone half an hour ago!" he said, as if he were telling Bettysome good news. "There'll be another one at eight o'clock to-morrowmorning, and the express goes, same as to-day, at half past one. Isuppose you want to go to Tideshead town; this road only goes to thejunction and then there's a stage, you know." He looked at Bettydoubtfully and as if he expected an instant decision on her part as towhat she meant to do next.
"I knew that there was a stage," she answered, feeling a little alarmed,but hoping that she did not show it. "The time-table said there was atrain to meet this"--
"Oh, that train is an express now and doesn't stop. Everything's got tobe sacrificed to speed."
The ticket-agent had turned his back and was looking over some papersand grumbling to himself, so that Betty could no longer hear what he waspleased to say. As she left the window an elderly man, whose face wasvery familiar, was standing in the doorway.
"Well, ma'am, you an' I 'pear to have got left. Tideshead, you said, ifI rightly understood?"
"Perhaps there is somebody who would drive us there," said Betty. Shenever had been called ma'am before, and it was most surprising. "Itisn't a great many miles, is it?"
"No, no!" said the new acquaintance. "I was in considerable of a hurryto get home, but 't isn't so bad as you think. We can go right up on thepacket, up river, you know; get there by supper-time; the wind's haulinground into the east a little. I understood you to speak about getting toTideshead?"
"Yes," said Betty, gratefully.
"Got a trunk, I expect. Well, I'll go out and look round for Asa Chickand his han'cart, and we'll make for the wharf as quick as we can. Youmay step this way."
Betty "stepped" gladly, and Asa Chick and the handcart soon led the wayriverward through the pleasant old-fashioned streets of Riverport. Hernew friend pointed out one or two landmarks as they hurried along, for,strange to say, although a sea-captain, he was not sure whether the tideturned at half past two or at half past three. When they came to theriver-side, however, the packet-boat was still made fast to the pier,and nothing showed signs of her immediate departure.
"It is always a good thing to be in time," said the captain, who foundhimself much too warm and nearly out of breath. "Now, we've got a goodhour to wait. Like to go right aboard, my dear?"
Betty paid Asa Chick, and then turned to see the packet. It was a queer,heavy-looking craft, with a short, thick mast and high, pointedlateen-sail, half unfurled and dropping in heavy pocket-like loops.There was a dark low cabin and a long deck; a very old man and a fat,yellow dog seemed to be the whole ship's company. The old man wassmoking a pipe and took no notice of anything, but the dog rose slowlyto his feet and came wagging his tail and looking up at the newpassenger.
"I do' know but I'll coast round up into the town a little," said thecaptain. "'T ain't no use asking old Mr. Plunkett there any questions,he's deef as a ha'dick."
"Will my trunk be safe?" asked Betty; to which the captain answered thathe would put it right aboard for her. It was not a very heavy trunk, butthe captain managed it beautifully, and put Betty's hand-bag and wrapinto the dark cabin. Old Plunkett nodded as he saw this done, and thecaptain said again that Betty might feel perfectly safe abouteverything; but, for all that, she refused to take a walk in order tosee what was going on in the town, as she was kindly invited to do. Shewent a short distance by herself, however, and came first to a bakery,where she bought some buns, not so good as the English ones, but stillvery good buns indeed, and two apples, which the baker's wife told herhad grown in her own garden. You could see the tree out of the backwindow, by which the hospitable woman had left her sewing, and theywere, indeed, well-kept and delicious apples for that late season ofthe year. Betty lingered for some minutes in the pleasant shop. She wasvery hungry, and the buns were all the better for that. She lookedthrough a door and saw the oven, but the baking was all done for theday. The baker himself was out in his cart; he had just gone up toTideshead. Here was another way in which one might have gone toTideshead by land; it would have been good fun to go on the baker's cartand stop in the farm-house yards and see everybody; but on the wholethere was more adventure in going by water. Papa had always told Bettythat the river was beautiful. She did not remember much about itherself, but this would be a fine way of getting a first look at solarge a part of the great stream.
It was slack water now, and the wharf seemed high, and the landing-stagealtogether too steep and slippery. When Betty reached the packet's deck,old Mr. Plunkett was sound asleep; but while she was eating her buns thedog came most good-naturedly and stood before her, cocking his headsideways, and putting on a most engaging expression, so that theylunched together, and Betty left off nearly as hungry as she began. Theold dog knew an apple when he saw it, and was disappointed after thelast one was brought out from Betty's pocket, and lay down at her feetand went to sleep again. Betty got into the shade of the wharf and satthere looking down at the flounders and sculpins in the clear water, andat the dripping green sea-weeds on the piles of the wharf. She wasalmost startled when a heavy wagon was driven on the planks above, and aman shouted suddenly to the horses. Presently some barrels of flour wererolled down and put on deck--twelve of them in all--by a man and boy whogave her, the young stranger, a careful glance every time they turned togo back. Then a mowing-machine arrived, and was carefully put on boardwith a great deal of bustle and loud talking. There was somebody ondeck, now, whom Betty believed to be the packet's skipper, and after awhile the old captain returned. He seated himself by Mr. Plunkett andshook hands with him warmly, and asked him for the news; but there didnot seem to be any.
"I've been up to see my wife's cousin Jake Hallet's folks," heexplained, "and I thought sure I'd get left," and old Plunkett noddedsoberly. They did not sail for at least half an hour after this, andBetty sat discreetly on the low cabin roof next the wharf all the time.When they were out in the stream at last she could get a pretty view ofthe town. There was some shipping farther down the shore, and some tallsteeples and beautiful trees and quaintly built warehouses; it was verypleasant, looking back at it from the water.
A little past the middle of the afternoon they moved steadily up theriver. The men all sat together in a group at the stern, and appeared tofind a great deal to talk about. Old Mr. Plunkett may have thought thatBetty looked lonely, for after he waked for the second time he came overto where she sat and nodded to her; so Betty nodded back, and then theold man reached for her umbrella, which was very pretty, with a roundpiece of agate in the handle, and looked at it and rubbed it with histhumb, and gave it back to her. "Present to ye?" he asked, and Bettynodded assent. Then old Plunkett went away again, but she felt a senseof his kind companionship. She wondered whom she must pay for herpassage and how much it would be, but it was no use to ask so deaf afellow-passenger.
He had put on a great pair of spectacles and waswalking round her trunk, apparently much puzzled by the battered labelsof foreign hotels and railway stations.
Betty thought that she had seldom seen half so pleasant a place as thisNew England river. She kept longing that her father could see it, too.As they went up from the town the shores grew greener and greener, andthere were some belated apple-trees still in bloom, and the farm-houseswere so old and stood so pleasantly toward the southern sunshine thatthey looked as if they might have grown like the apple-trees and willowsand elms. There were great white clouds in the blue sky; the air wasdelicious. Betty could make out at last that old Mr. Plunkett was theskipper's father, that Captain Beck was an old shipmaster and a formeracquaintance of her own, and that the flour and some heavy boxesbelonged to one store-keeping passenger with a long sandy beard, and themowing-machine to the other, who was called Jim Foss, and that he was afarmer. He was a great joker and kept making everybody laugh. Old Mr.Plunkett laughed too, now that he was wide awake, but it was onlythrough sympathy; he seemed to be a very kind old man. One by one allthe men came and looked at the trunk labels, and they all asked whetherBetty hadn't been considerable of a traveler, or some question very muchlike it. At last the captain came with Captain Beck to collect thepassage money, which proved to be thirty-seven cents.
"Where did you say you was goin' to stop in Tideshead?" asked CaptainBeck.
"I'm going to Miss Leicester's. Don't you remember me? Aren't you MaryBeck's grandfather? I'm Betty Leicester."
"Toe be sure, toe be sure," said the old gentleman, much pleased. "Iwonder that I had not thought of you at first, but you have grown asmuch as little Mary has. You're getting to be quite a young woman.Command me," said the shipmaster, making a handsome bow. "I am glad thatI fell in with you. I see your father's looks, now. The ladies had ahard fight some years ago to keep him from running off to sea with me.He's been a great traveler since then, hasn't he?" to which Bettyresponded heartily, again feeling as if she were among friends. Thestorekeeper offered to take her trunk right up the hill in his wagon,when they got to the Tideshead landing, and on the whole it wasdelightful that the trains had been changed just in time for her to takethis pleasant voyage.