The Castaways of Pete's Patch

by Carroll Watson Rankin

  CHAPTER XV

  Doctor Dave

  AT daybreak the next morning the barking of a dog wakened the sleepingcamp. Mr. Black pulled on his clothes and went sleepily down to thewater's edge, where Onota, Dave's yellow dog, was running madly about,uttering excited yelps.

  "Heem glad for got home," explained Dave, who had beached his canoe andwas gathering up its contents.

  "What have you got?" asked Mr. Black.

  Dave displayed a small doe, not yet skinned.

  "Dose bigges' one--som' beeg buck, Ah'm t'ink--she ees bus' up matrap," Dave complained, "so Ah'm snare dose li'le doe. He ees goodmeat, all right."

  "Dave, you scalawag, you ought to be in jail. I'll wager there isn't agame law that you haven't broken."

  "He ees mos' all for you," assured Dave, ingratiatingly. "You got finedinner off heem ver' soon--I skeen heem for you, bam-bye. She's goodmeat, dose young-lady deer."

  "I _ought_ to tell the game warden on you. Don't you _know_ that you'rebreaking game laws?"

  "Ah'm t'ink maybe Ah'm crack dose law som'," admitted Dave; "but me, Ahmus' eat li'le deer meat som' tam', halso dose par_tridge_, maybe som'duck, too."

  "Well," warned Mr. Black, helplessly, "don't expect me to help youout if you get caught. And now, Dave, I wish you'd stay right herefor awhile; I've got a job for you. I want you to go to Lakevilleto-day--we've a sick boy up there and we need a doctor."

  "Seeck boy?" queried Dave. "W'ere you got her from? W'at she ees seeckon herself wit'?"

  Mr. Black explained.

  "Dat's all right," Dave said. "Bad cold on her long (lung). Ah cook yousom't'ing w'at feex her pooty good."

  "No, no," protested Mr. Black, "we want a doctor and a lot of otherthings. You _must_ go to Lakeville. I'll--yes, I'll give you twodollars."

  "Maybe Ah go behind dinner," promised Dave, uncertainly. "Ah mus'sleep, me, for two-t'ree hour--Ah'm chase dose deer hall night. Telldose Jean, dose Bet_tee_, dose Mabelle, and dose Henriette, eef he eescom' roun' pooty soon, Ah show heem how to skeen dose deer."

  Notwithstanding the fact that his medical services had been declined,Dave began almost at once to search for herbs, dig for roots, andgather certain pungent leaves and twigs. These he covered carefullywith water and placed over a slow fire in a most repulsive saucepan.By half-past eight o'clock, by which time the castaways were eatingbreakfast, Dave had obtained about half a pint of a queer-smelling,most unattractive-looking, greenish-black fluid. He carried thisstrange brew carefully to the clearing, peered cautiously into Mrs.Crane's unguarded tent, entered noiselessly, and dropped the flap.Then, kneeling beside the helpless lad, the half-breed raised himgently and poured the contents of his blackened tin cup, a little at atime, down the boy's throat. This accomplished successfully, Dave, muchpleased with himself, emerged just in time to meet startled Mrs. Crane,returning to look at her charge.

  "Dave," she shrieked, noting the empty, not over-clean cup, "what_have_ you done?"

  "Das all right, Mees Crane," assured Dave. "Dose boy, she swallow good.Ev'rybody wait fi--seex hour. Dose boy sweat lak' horse bam-bye--wakeup weak like babee--open hees eye. Maybe she's dead then, maybe she'sget well. You geeve her queek som' brot'--bouillon--w'at you callheem--soup, hey?--behin' dos beeg sweat. For mak' her strong, doseseeck boy."

  "Dave," moaned Mrs. Crane, who had seized the cup and was smelling it,"you've surely killed that poor child!"

  "Nong, nong," protested Dave. "Dose ees ver' goo' medicine--Ah'm gother off ma gran'modder."

  "Well," growled Mr. Black, finding it difficult to be stern, with fiveamused little girls giggling at his back. "If you get any more medicineoff your grandmother I'll throw you into the lake."

  "Hee ees been dead long tam'--dose gran'modder."

  "Took her own medicine, I suppose," said Mr. Black. "Was she French orIndian?"

  "Ojibway; som' squaw--som' Injun lady; ma fadaire, he French, fromCanadaw--speak no Englise. Ma modder Injun, sam' lak ma gran'modder; hemak' dose medicine, too. Bot' dead, dose fadaire, dose modder."

  "No wonder," breathed Henrietta.

  "Mees Bet_tee_," said Dave, turning to go, "you breeng dose oddergirl--Ah show you how to skeen som' deer. Maybe Ah'm geeve you dosetail. Dose liver--vaire fine meat, dose liver--ees for Jean."

  At this the girls found it hard not to laugh outright, because, asthey very well knew, Jean heartily disliked liver of any kind. Butgentle-mannered Jean, who was always careful not to hurt any otherperson's feelings, managed to say, prettily:

  "Thank you, Dave; you're very good to me."

  "You pooty nice girl," returned Dave. "Ah mak' som' med'cine for dosesunburn hon your face."

  "Thank you," faltered Jean, "but I--but I _like_ to be sunburned. I'llbe such a fine color after I've lost _all_ my skin."

  "Dear me," groaned Mrs. Crane, when the girls had trooped away atDave's heels, "I was almost sure, this morning, that that boy wasbetter. I put my hand on his forehead very early--when Dave's dogbarked, and it felt cool and even a little damp--as if the fever hadleft him for just a moment or two. And now Dave has probably finishedhim. That boy must have had a fine constitution to start with or thatfever would have ended him yesterday. That horrible medicine on top ofeverything else he's gone through----"

  "Well," returned Mr. Black, "we won't gain anything by worryingabout it. We'll get Dave started after a real doctor as soon aspossible--I'll write a note to Doctor Bennett, so he can bring theproper medicines with him. Make out your list and put the girls attheirs as soon as they return--I'll go after them presently. Thatrascal said he'd start 'behind dinner.'"

  It was considerably "behind" the noon meal when Dave was ready tobegin his long walk; but at last, with a little food tied in a soiledred handkerchief that dangled from a stick resting on his shoulder,he departed. Although Dave never looked particularly clean, althoughhe was not especially handsome, there were moments when, because ofhis picturesqueness, he decidedly pleased the eye. Now, with thetouch of dangling scarlet at his back, all the rest of him except hisrather long black hair an even, woodsy brown, Dave and the landscape,harmoniously combined, made a truly attractive picture. But not forlong. The leaves at the edge of the grassy clearing closed suddenlybehind him; the castaways could not discover his trail; but Dave musthave guessed that they were trying to find it, for his laugh, alwaysan unexpectedly musical sound, floated back to the searchers.

  "I hope," said Jean, "that he won't be gone as long _this_ time. Mrs.Crane is almost as worried about this boy as she was about Rosa Mariewith the measles--perhaps more, because she had the doctor to help herthen."

  "Dave helped her this time," said Marjory.

  "_I_ hope he'll hurry, too," returned Henrietta. "It seems a _year_since I ate the last crumb of candy out of my box."

  "And we can't make any," mourned Marjory, "because the sugar's all butgone."

  "There's only a little butter," added Bettie, "and less than half aloaf of rye bread; but luckily we've plenty of flour and cornmeal.Biscuits and johnny-cake help a lot."

  "It's a good thing," said Mabel, "that Mrs. Crane thought of sendingfor that old tin oven. I'd hate to be obliged to go hungry with thekind of appetite I've got _now_. I believe I could eat raw potatoesthis minute."

  "You won't have to," assured Jean. "There's plenty of oatmeal and riceand a lot of things in packages. Oh, yes, and _beans_--a great big bagof dried ones."

  "Wouldn't it be nice," suggested Bettie, "to surprise Mr. Black andMrs. Crane with baked beans for supper!"

  "But they'd see us cooking them," objected Jean.

  "We could build a stone oven, the way Dave showed us, on the beach,"said practical Bettie. "Of course, if we used the tin one here in theclearing, they'd see what we were doing. Marjory, you're so small theywon't notice you, so you slip into the provision tent and get thebeans. How many? Why--I don't know."

  "Seven hundred," said Henrietta, promptly. "A hundred apiece--Anthonyprefers fish-tails."

  "I guess," protested Marjory
, "I'm not going to _count_ thosebeans--they come in _pounds_, not dozens."

  "They swell a lot," said Bettie. "I think that about four cupfuls wouldbe enough--bring them down in one of those round pudding pans--we'llbake 'em in that."

  "It seems to me," said Jean, when Marjory had successfully captured thebeans, "that we ought to wash them. But we haven't any colander--one ofthose things with holes in it."

  "Never mind," said Henrietta, "we'll use the lake--it's big enough,anyway. I'll wade in with the beans----"

  "I guess not," retorted Mabel. "Your feet and beans all in together!"

  "That's so," agreed Henrietta. "Well, we'll dig out a basin in the hardclean sand and wash them in that."

  The basin grew larger than the girls meant to make it, and the slipperywhite beans, turned loose in this little pond, proved remarkablyelusive. But finally the last one was captured and placed in a pan ofwater with a pinch of salt; the pan was placed in the oven that thegirls had built, and a fire was started under it.

  "They'll be surprised, won't they?" giggled the happy conspirators, farfrom suspecting that they themselves were to be the surprised persons;for this was their first experience with cooking dried beans, and ofcourse, since they couldn't consult Mrs. Crane without betraying thesecret, there was no one to ask for very necessary instructions.