The Merryweathers

by Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards

  CHAPTER V.

  KITTY AND WILLY

  "MA!" said Willy Merryweather.

  "Baa!" replied his mother, without looking up from her writing.

  Willy fidgeted, and looked over his shoulder. "Mammy, I wish you wouldspeak to Kitty."

  "Speak to Kitty? certainly. How do you do, Kitty?"

  Willy looked uncomfortable, but went on.

  "I spoke for the Rangeley boat, and now she wants it. She always wantsit, and it isn't fair."

  "I don't always want it, Willy! I haven't been in it for two days. Ithink you are very unkind."

  By this time Mrs. Merryweather had finished her sentence; she lookedup, and surveyed the two children with a half-abstracted gaze.

  "Who are you?" she asked, abruptly. "I thought Kitty and Willy werehere."

  Kitty took hold of the hem of her apron, and Willy felt of the knife inhis pocket.

  "Who are you?" repeated Mrs. Merryweather in a tone of wonder. "Youshould always answer a question, you know."

  "We are Kitty and Willy ourselves!" murmured the children, the redbeginning to creep around their ears.

  "Oh, no!" said Mrs. Merryweather, reprovingly. "Don't say such things asthat, my dears. I know Kitty and Willy perfectly well; they are brotherand sister, two cheerful, affectionate children, who love each other. Idon't know anything about you two; run away, please, for I am busy."

  As the children moved slowly away, she called after them: "If you shouldsee Kitty and Willy, you might send them to me, if you please!"

  Round on the other side of the big oak-tree, sheltered from the eyesthat looked so abstractedly over their glasses, Willy rubbed hisshoulders uncomfortably against the bark, while Kitty kicked a bit ofstick to and fro.

  "There isn't any use in talking to Mammy when she does that way!" saidWilly, half to himself, but with a side glance at Kitty. "If she wouldhave only listened to me--"

  "She never will!" said Kitty, responding to the half glance. "She alwayssays there is no need of quarrelling, and she doesn't see why she shouldhave to hear disagreeable remarks."

  "Other children scrap," said Willy. "I don't see why we can't now andthen."

  "Well, she just won't have it, Will, so where's the use? Never mindabout the Rangeley; you may have it, and I'll take the _Wobbler_."

  "I don't care!" said Willy. "You may have her."

  "So may you!"

  Silence. Willy rubbing his shoulders, Kitty kicking her bit of stick.

  Presently Kitty looked up brightly, and shook her curls back. "I've gotover mine, Willy!" she announced. "Are you getting over yours?"

  "Ye-es!" said Willy, slowly. "I--s'pose I am."

  "Why don't we go together?" asked Kitty. "Then we can both have theRangeley."

  "All right!" said Willy, brightening at once. "Where shall we go? Wemight play Pirate a bit--"

  "And then go for the milk! That would be great!"

  "All right, come on, Kit."

  "Oh! but, Willy--"

  "Well?"

  "We must go and tell Mammy first."

  Once more the two children presented themselves before their mother, whowas still writing busily. At the first "Mammy!" she looked up quickly.

  "Well, dears!" she said, "I was wondering where you were. What are yougoing to play this afternoon?"

  "We thought perhaps we might have the Rangeley together, and playPirate!" said Willy.

  "And then go for the milk!" said Kitty.

  "To be sure!" said Mrs. Merryweather. "Yes, Papa said you might have theboat if you wanted it. That will be very nice, only be careful, dears.Give Mammy a kiss, and have a great good time."

  * * * * *

  "Run her up!" said the Pirate Captain.

  "Ay, ay, sir!" replied the mate.

  The Jolly Roger fluttered up to the mast-head: skull and crossbonesblack as ink could make them, ground very nearly white; it was asplendid flag. The Captain was a terrible figure, clad in yellowoilskins many sizes too big for him, with ferocious mustaches curling upto his eyes. His belt contained a perfect armory of weapons; item, apistol that had lost its barrel; item, three wooden daggers, assortedsizes; item, one tomahawk, home-made. The mate was scarcely lessterrifying, for though a blue petticoat showed beneath his oilskinjacket, and curls flowed from under his sou'wester, he made up for it bya mass of oakum beard and whisker that was truly awe-inspiring. Also, hehad the truncheon which used to be a curling stick, and a deadly weaponof singular appearance which was understood to be a boomerang.

  "Look out, Bill! avast there! dost see any foes about?"

  "Ay, ay, sir! I see a craft on the jib boom--"

  "_Lee bow_, Kitty!--I mean Bill; not jib boom! You are always sayingthat."

  "''TIS NOT A PLATE SHIP!'"]

  "I meant lee bow!" said Bill, anxious to please. "Anyhow, I see a craft,your Honor. I think she is a plate ship from the Spanish Main. Shall werun her down?"

  "Give me the glass!" exclaimed the Pirate Captain: and through thatinstrument, which the ignorant might have mistaken for a battered tinhorn, he scrutinized the "craft," which lay on the water at somedistance.

  "'Tis not a plate ship!" he announced at length. "I think we have hadenough plate ships lately. This is a Dutch lugger from Samarcand, ladenwith raisins and fig-paste and lichi nuts and cream dates. I shouldn'twonder if she had narghiles too, and scimitars,--I need a newscimitar,--and all sorts of things. Up helm, and crowd on all sail inpursuit!"

  "Ay, ay, sir! stunsels?"

  "Stunsels, balloon-jibs, topgallant spinnakers, royal skyscrapers,everything you can think of. Ha! we are off! Row hard now, Bill! Thelubbers are asleep, and we shall run them down easily. Are the cutlassesready?"

  "Ay, ay, sir!"

  "Ho! we are gaining on them. Ho, ho! bend to your oars, my hearties!grappling-chains ready there! ho! on to the chase!"

  Now Phil was very busy making a fly for lake trout, and explaining themanufacture of it to Peggy; and Peggy was absorbed in watching him, andin counting the number of separate aches she felt after her first lessonin rowing. Moreover, the bloody pirates had conducted their conversationin a half-whisper, and the wind was the other way. But suddenly, Peggylooked up and saw them, now at only a few yards distance.

  "Good gracious!" she cried. "What is it? Do look, Phil!"

  Phil looked hastily around; chuckled, and fell into an attitude ofabject terror. "Mercy! mercy!" he cried; cowering down in his seat.("It's the kids; please be frightened!) Oh! what will become of us? Weare lost!"

  "Oh! save me, spare me!" cried Peggy, following suit, and clasping herhands in supplication.

  The pirate bark ran alongside, and grappling-irons were tossed aboardthe ill-fated merchantman. The Pirate Captain, standing in the stern ofhis vessel, surveyed them with baleful looks.

  "What ship is this?"

  "The _Weeping Woodchuck_, Captain Zebedee Moses of Squedunk, please yourHonor's Worship!"

  "Well I am Captain England, and this is the _Gory Griffin_. If you havea cargo of raisins and fig-paste and cream dates, hand them over;otherwise, prepare to walk the plank this instant!"

  "Oh, spare us! spare this tender maiden!" cried Phil. "I have nofig-paste, but wouldn't fresh doughnuts do as well, O man of blood?Life is sweet--and fish is needed for supper!"

  At these remarks the pirate's ferocious scowl relaxed somewhat. "Handover your doughnuts!" he said, briefly. "This once I spare ye, but crossnot my path again! I jolly well forgot about tea," he added, as Philtossed him some doughnuts; "I suppose it must be about time to go forthe milk, perhaps, is it?"

  Phil looked at his watch. "Well, I should say it jolly well was!" hereplied. "You'd better be off, young ones--I mean Scourges of the Deep!"

  * * * * *

  It was quite a pull over to the point where the milk-cans were waiting,but Kitty and Willy were both good oars, and the doughnuts were crispand fortifying.

  "Let's take the point by storm!" suggested t
he gallant England, who hadnot had his fill of glory. "The cans might be treasure, you know, andwe can creep up silently."

  "But there's no one to hear us be silent!" said Kitty.

  "Oh, that's nothing! We can hear ourselves, and, anyhow, it is goodpractice. Come on, now! Be silent as the grave!" Leaving the boat on theshore, they crept up the beach, pounced on the milk-can,--a tall"separator" which held the whole provision for the family supper andbreakfast,--and bore it in triumph to the boat. But, alas! for thegallant pirates! In getting aboard, one of them slipped; the otherstumbled; between the two, neither could tell just how, the tall cantoppled, and fell into the boat; the stopper flew out--"Then all themighty floods were out!"

  * * * * *

  "But where _can_ the children be?" asked Mrs. Merryweather, for thetenth time.

  The horn had blown for supper, the fish were fried, the campers werehungry and thirsty; and the milk had not come.

  "Where _can_ they be?" said every one.

  Mr. Merryweather put down the glass with which he had been sweeping thelake. "They are out there!" he said. "I see them, but they don't seem tobe rowing. Give me the megaphone, will you, Jerry? Thanks!"

  A calm roar went out across the lake. "Come--in--to--tea!"

  A faint pipe was heard in reply. "Don't--want--any--tea!"

  The second roar was still calm, but peremptory. "_Come--in!_"

  Slowly, very slowly, the oars rose and fell, and the boat crept over thewater. What could be the matter with the children?

  "Too much bloodshed has upset the gallant England!" said Phil. "When itcomes to Willy's not wanting his tea!"

  "They have had some accident!" said Mr. Merryweather. "Broken an oar,probably, or lost a rowlock. No. They are both rowing. Well, here theycome."

  The whole family started for the wharf, but a piteous wail arose fromthe now approaching boat.

  "Please don't everybody come down! we want just Papa and Mamma."

  "Stay here, dear people, please!" said Mrs. Merryweather; and bothparents hurried down to the wharf, toward which two dejected littlefigures were now tugging a very heavy boat.

  "What's the matter, Will?" said Mr. Merryweather. "Speak up, son."

  "We--spilt the milk!" said Willy, in a carefully measured tone.

  "Oh, my dears! all of it?" inquired their mother.

  "Every drop!" said Willy, grimly.

  "Oh, Mammy, we are so sorry!" cried Kitty. "The old can--just--upset!and we are so wet, and it keeps splashing all over my legs!"

  "There! there! come ashore; never mind about the milk!" said Mr.Merryweather.

  "Never mind!" echoed Mrs. Merryweather, heartily. "My poor chicks, wherehave you been all this time? Why didn't you come straight home?"

  "We were--afraid!" sobbed Kitty. "We have been rowing around for everand ever so long, and we are so tired, and hungry, and--wet--"

  But by this time Kitty was near enough for her father to bend down andlift her bodily out of the boat, and put her, all dripping milk as shewas, into her mother's arms. On her mother's shoulder she sobbed out therest of the pitiful little story. Kitty was twelve, and not speciallysmall of her age; but she was the baby, and Mrs. Merryweather sat downon the wharf and rocked to and fro, hushing her.

  "There! there!" she said, soothingly. "My lamb! as if all the milk inthe world were worth your crying about! and crying into the spilt milk,too, and making the boat all the wetter! Hush! hush! Run along, Papa andWilly--dear little boy, it really is only funny, so don't fret, not onelittle scrap. Kitty and I will come in about two minutes."