Bevis: The Story of a Boy
Page 4
shoes and stockings to wade in and seize thecraft by main force; then, changing his mind, shouting to Bevis to minda boulder in the brook, and pointing out the place.
The raft swept with steady, easy motion down the straight broad reach;Bevis did not need his pole, he stood without its help, all aglow withjoy.
The raft came to another bend, and Bevis with his pole guided it round,and then, looking up, stamped his foot with vexation, for there was anancient, hollow willow right in front, so bowed down that its headobstructed the fair way of the stream. He had quite hoped to get downto the Peninsula, and to circumnavigate it, and even shoot the cataractof the dam below, and go under the arch of the bridge, and away yetfarther. He was not fifty yards from the Peninsula, and Mark had runthere to meet him; but here was this awkward tree, and before he couldmake up his mind what to do, bump the raft struck the willow, then itswung slowly round and one side grounded on the bank, and he was at astandstill.
He hit the willow with his pole, but that was of no use, and called toMark. Bevis pushed the willow with his pole, Mark pulled at a branch,and together they could shake it, but they could not move it out of theway; the stream was blocked as if a boom had been fastened across it.The voyage was over.
While they consulted, Polly came down, having failed to make them hearfrom the garden, and after she had shook them each by the shoulderbrought them to reason. Though she would have failed in that too hadnot the willow been there, not for dinner or anything would Bevis haveabandoned his adventure, so bent was he always on the business he had inhand.
But the willow was obstinate, they could not get past it, so reluctantlyhe agreed to go home. First Polly had to fetch his hat, which was twohundred yards away on the grass by the drinking-place; then Mark had toput his shoes and stockings on, and take one off again because there wasa fragment of stone in it. Next, Bevis had to step into the raftagain--a difficult thing to do from the tree--in order to get the cordfastened to the staple to tie it up, not that there was the least riskof the raft floating away, still these things, as you know, ought to bedone quite properly.
After he had tied the cord or painter to a branch of the willow asfirmly as possible, at last he consented to come. But then catchingsight of the carter's lad, he had first to give him his sixpence, andalso to tell him that if he dared go near the raft, even to look at it,he would be put in the brook. Besides which he had to wash his hands,and by the time Mark and he reached the table the rest had finished.The people looked at them rather blackly, but they did not mind ornotice in the least, for their minds were full of projects to remove thewillow, about which they whispered to each other.
Pan raced beside them after dinner to the ha-ha wall, down which theyjumped one after the other into the meadow. The spaniel hesitated onthe brink, not that he feared the leap, which he had so often taken, butreflection checked him. He watched them a little way as they ran forthe brook, then turned and walked very slowly back to the house; for heknew that now dinner was over, if he waited till he was remembered, aplateful would come out for him.
Volume One, Chapter III.
THE MISSISSIPPI.
They found the raft as they had left it, except that petals of themay-bloom, shaken from the hawthorn bushes by the breeze, as they camefloating down the stream had lodged against the vessel like a white lineon the water. Already, too, the roach, which love a broad shadow toplay about its edge, had come underneath, but when they felt the shakingof the bank from the footsteps turned aside, and let the current driftthem down. Bevis fetched his hatchet from the Peninsula and began tohack at the willow; Mark, not without some difficulty, got leave toclimb into the raft, and sit in the centre. The chips flew, some fellon the grass, some splashed into the brook; Bevis made a broad notchjust as he had seen the men do it; and though his arm was slender, thefire behind it drove the edge of the steel into the wood. The willowshook, and its branches, which touched the water, ruffled the surface.
But though the trunk was hollow it was a long way through, and whenBevis began to tire he had only out in about three inches. Then Markhad to work, but before he had given ten strokes Bevis said it was of nouse chopping, they could never do it, they must get the grub-axe. Sothey went back to the house, and carried the ungainly tool down to thetree.
It was too cumbrous for them, they pocked up a little turf, and justdisturbed the earth, and then threw the clumsy thing on the grass. Nextthey thought of the great saw--the cross-cut--the men used, one at eachend, to saw though timber; but that was out of their reach, purposelyput up high in the workshop, so that they should not meddle with it orcut themselves with its terrible teeth.
"I know," said Mark, "we must make a fire, and burn the tree; we aresavages, you know, and that is how they do it."
"How silly you are!" said Bevis. "We are _not_ savages, and I shall notplay at that. We have just discovered this river, and we are going downit on our raft; and if we do not reach some place to-night and build afort, very likely the savages will shoot us. I believe I heard oneshouting just now; there was something rustled, I am sure, in theforest."
He pointed at the thick double-mound hedge about a hundred yardsdistant.
"What river is it?" said Mark. "Is it the Amazon, or the Congo, or theYellow River, or the Nile--"
"It is the Mississippi, of course," said Bevis, quite decided and atease as to that point. "Can't you see that piece of weed there. Mypapa says that weed came from America, so I am sure it is theMississippi, and nobody has ever floated down it before, and there's noone that can read within a thousand miles."
"Then what shall we do?"
"O, there's always something you can do. If we could only get a beavernow to nibble through it. There's always something you can do. Iknow," and Bevis jumped up delighted at his idea, "we can bore a hole,and blow it up with gunpowder!"
"Lot us fetch an auger," said Mark. "The gimlet is not big enough."
"Be quick," said Bevis. "Run back to the settlement, and get the auger;I will mind the raft and keep off the savages; and, I say, bring a spearand the cutlass; and--I say--"
But Mark was too far, and in too much of a hurry to hear a word. Bevis,tired of chopping, rolled over on his back on the grass, looking up atthe sky. The buttercups rose high above his head, the wind blew andcooled his heated forehead, and a humble-bee hummed along: borne by thebreeze from the grass there came the sweet scent of green things growingin the sunshine. Far up he saw the swallows climbing in the air; theyclimbed a good way almost straight up, and then suddenly came slantingdown again.
While he lay there he distinctly heard the Indians rustling again in theforest. He raised himself on one arm, but could not see them; thenrecollecting that he must try to conceal himself, he reclined again, andthought how he should be able to repel an attack without weapons. Therewas the little hatchet, he could snatch up that and defend himself.Perhaps they would sink the raft? Perhaps when Mark returned they hadbetter tow it back up stream, and draw it ashore safely at home, andthen return to the work of clearing the obstruction. As he lay with hisknees up among the buttercups he heard the thump, thump of Mark's feetrushing down the hill in eager haste with the auger. So he sat up, andbeckoned to him to be quiet, and explained to him when he arrived thatthe Indians were certainly about. They must tow the raft back to thedrinking-place. Bevis untied the cord with which the raft was fastenedto the willow, and stepped on board.
"Don't pull too quick," he said to Mark, giving him the cord; "orperhaps I shall run aground."
"But you floated down," said Mark. "Let me get in, and you tow; it's myturn."
"Your turn?" shouted Bevis, standing up as straight as a bolt. "This is_my_ raft."
"But you always have everything, and you floated down, and I have not;you have everything, and--"
"You are a great story," said Bevis, stamping so that the raft shook andthe ripples rushed from under it. "I don't have everything, and youhave more than half; and I gave you my engine and that box of gu
n-capsyesterday; and I hate you, and you are a big story."
Out he scrambled, and seizing Mark by the shoulders, thrust him towardsthe raft with such force that it was with difficulty Mark saved himselffrom falling into the brook. He clung to the willow--the bark gave wayunder his fingers--but as he slipped, he slung himself over the raft anddropped on it.
"Take the pole," said Bevis, still very angry, and looking black asthunder. "Take the pole, and steer so as not to run in the mud, and notto hit against the bank. Now then," and putting the cord over hisshoulder, off he started.
Mark had as much as ever he could do to keep the raft from striking oneside or the other.
"Please don't go so fast," he said.
Bevis went slower, and towed steadily in silence. After they had