“Yes, I know; I don’t know just why I hung around here, but it just seemed as if we were meant to.”
“And tolunch, Jack,” she added, in dire dismay. “What made you ask him to a meal?”
“I don’t know. The invitation was out before I thought. But you would have asked him, too. He seems so kind of lonely, and he says he dotes on picnics. You can manage something simple; can’t you?” the boy asked anxiously.
“I’ll try hard, of course. Do you suppose you could catch a few fish in the morning?”
“Probably, and I saw some ripe huckleberries as I came along this afternoon. The youngsters can gather some of those, and we’ll get along all right.”
The children were delighted at the prospect of “company,” and immediately after breakfast, Jack escorted them, armed with a tin pail and a couple of cups, across a field to the berry bushes loaded with blue fruit.
“When the pail is filled, go right back the way we came, and take the berries to Desiré,” he instructed, as he set out in a different direction for the river, with his fish pole. The banks of the sparkling stream were pink with masses of wild roses, freshly opened and wet with dew.
“Desiré would be crazy over these,” he thought. “Guess I’ll take some to her when I go back.”
An hour’s fishing resulted in enough fish for a meal; and after cutting an armful of roses, Jack returned to camp. The children had reached there ahead of him, and were busy making things ready for the eagerly awaited guest.
Desiré had laid on the ground, in a shady spot, a red-bordered tablecloth, anchored it at each corner with a stone concealed by a pile of pine cones. She greeted Jack’s offering with enthusiasm—“Just what we need for the centre of the table. Prissy, get an empty fruit can to put them in, and lay some big ferns around it. I must attend to my biscuits.”
It was wonderful what good things Desiré could cook on the little camp stove, which they really had not felt able to afford when they saw it in Yarmouth. “It will pay for itself very soon,” she had argued; “for we can’t live on cold food all the time; and eating in restaurants is awfully expensive.” Jack had approved; so the stove and even a little oven to set on top of it, when needed, had been added to old Simon’s outfit.
About twelve o’clock a Ford coupé was seen in the distance, and soon came to a stop beside the Wistmores who, one and all, stood in a row in front of the camp. A thin little man with heavy white hair got nimbly out of the car.
“This is my family, Judge Herbine,” said Jack; “Desiré, Priscilla, and René.”
“Very glad, indeed, to know you all,” replied the judge, bowing low with old-fashioned courtesy, but gazing searchingly at each one over the tops of the glasses which he wore so far out on his nose that it was a miracle that they stayed on at all. Priscilla was so fascinated by them that she could hardly keep her eyes off them.
“We’ll have lunch right away,” announced Desiré; “so please take your places at the table. This is yours, Judge,” indicating the side facing the road, where a cushion had been placed. The others sat on the ground.
The fish which Jack had fried over a camp fire, while Desiré finished her biscuits, were done to a turn; and the judge did full justice to them.
“These biscuits are mighty fine,” he commented, “and you say you made them on that little gadget of a stove? Marvelous! Marvelous!”
After the huckleberries and some wafers which Desiré had taken from their stock were disposed of, the guest insisted upon helping clear up. He was a lively little man, and skipped hither and thither, carrying dishes, picking up papers, and making himself generally useful.
“Now for a visit,” he said, settling himself beside a tall pine, leaning back against its trunk, and stretching his legs, clad in cream-colored crash, straight out in front of him.
“So you’re going to try to live in the old Godet house this winter—”
“Oh,arewe?” cried Priscilla, throwing herself on Desiré.
“Oh! Oh!” shrieked René joyfully, not very clear as to what the rejoicing was about, but determined to have his full share in it anyway.
“Have I let the cat out of the bag?” inquired the judge, startled at the effect of his question.
“We had not yet told the children,” replied Jack; “but it’s quite all right, for they would have known soon, anyway.”
“Sorry—sorry. You two youngsters just forget what I said.”
The man talked in a rapid, jerky fashion which reminded Desiré of the way a robin runs along, a few steps very fast, stops up short, and then repeats the process.
“Now, I was going to say, where do you expect to house your team this winter?”
Jack and Desiré looked at each other in dismay.
“I never thought of that,” said the boy slowly.
“Well,Idid. Got an empty barn at my place—no good to me—Ford is lost in it—plenty of room for your horses and wagon—”
“If you’ll let—”
“Now I know just what you’re—going to say—and Iwon’t. But if you’d—feel better about it—let this good sister of yours—make me some biscuits once in a while. Don’t get this kind very often.”
“I’d just love to,” replied Desiré warmly, while Jack tried to express his thanks, to which the old man refused to listen.
“Where are you going from here?” continued the judge.
“Right on to Halifax, then back again,” replied Jack.
“Now I was thinking—while we were eating—know how to make things out of birch bark—and out of pine cones?” turning to Desiré. “No? Then I’ll show you.”
Scrambling lightly to his feet, and followed by the young Wistmores, he darted across the road to a large birch tree; and drawing a knife from his pocket, showed them how to obtain strips of bark without injuring the tree. Returning to the camp, he ordered the two children to gather up a lot of cones. The rest of the afternoon was spent in learning to make boxes, baskets, and picture frames.
“There’re lots of tourists in Halifax—always looking for souvenirs—at railroad station, cab stands, and such. Wharf, too, is a good place to offer this stuff. No reason why you two girls shouldn’t do that—perfectly safe.”
“Now I’m going home,” he announced suddenly at about five o’clock. “Had a good time. See you often this winter. I’ll keep an eye on that boy who is going to fix up your cabin—ready when you come back this way—if you don’t come too soon.”
“Isn’t hefunny?” commented Priscilla, as the Ford drove out of sight.
“But charming,” added Desiré.
“Oh, yes, I like him a lot.”
“Me, too, like him,” echoed René.
“Tomorrow,” said Desiré, “I want to gather lots of bark and cones, and while we’re on the road I can make up baskets and boxes. Then when we get near enough to Halifax, we’ll pick huckleberries to fill some of them, and wild flowers for the rest—”
“And we’ll sell ’em and make heaps of money,” finished the practical Priscilla.
“We’ll get bunches of cat tails, too,” continued Desiré.
“And later in the season, pretty berries,” said Priscilla.
“And wintergreen—”
“And nuts—”
“And soon you won’t need my poor efforts at all,” concluded Jack, with a half smile.
“Oh, don’t, please, Jack, even in fun,” begged Desiré.
“We’d need you even if you never earned a cent!” cried Priscilla, throwing her arms around Jack’s neck.
René, attempting to imitate her, due to the wagon’s passing over a rut, succeeded only in falling violently on his brother’s shoulder. The combined assault nearly forced Jack forward out of the seat.
“I’ll take your word for it, hereafter,” he gasped, when order was once more restored. “Don’t illustrate again, I beg of you!”
A week later the Wistmore family drove into Halifax.
“I shall have to spend most of the day buying supplies,” said Jack, as they passed the citadel. “I’ll put the wagon up somewhere, and you and the children can look about while I’m busy.”
“But—” protested Desiré, “the boxes of berries, and flowers—”
She had carried out the plan formulated at Wolfville, and had a number of really artistic boxes of choice fruit, partly covered with tiny ferns, and several odd baskets in which dainty wild flowers were set in moss.
“I hate to have you hanging around offering things for sale,” objected Jack.
“But we can’t afford to be proud that way, dear. It is a perfectly respectable thing to do, and I do so want to be a help—”
“As if you weren’t always,” ejaculated the boy.
“I should think the station might be the best place to start; so drive us over there like a good boy,” urged Desiré.
So Jack kept René with him, and, with many misgivings, left the girls standing near the steps which lead down from the station to the cab platform. The taxi drivers were too busy trying to outdo one another in securing fares to pay much attention to the girls; for a train had just come in. The first few travelers who hurried through the station to secure a taxi did not even see the little saleswomen. When another group appeared, Desiré stepped forward just as they were getting into a cab.
“Wouldn’t you like—” she began timidly.
A haughty-looking elderly woman, who seemed to be the leader of the party, brushed her aside with a curt “No!”
Scarlet with embarrassment, Desiré shrank back.
“Don’t mind her, Dissy,” said Priscilla, hugging her sister’s arm. “She’s ugly mean.”
“Hush!” was the only word Desiré could utter just then. It took all the courage she was able to muster to approach the next travelers, a fat man and two women.
“Would you care to buy a souvenir?” asked Desiré, her heart beating very fast.
“Bless my soul, no!” replied the man, not unkindly but very definitely. “Too much luggage now.”
Only the thoughts of helping Jack urged the girl to persevere. Trembling, dripping with perspiration, she stopped a couple of women who shook their heads before she could get a word out. Seeing the look of disappointment on her face, the younger of the two held out a coin, saying—“I don’t want your wares, but take this.”
Stung to the quick, but realizing that no injury was intended, Desiré refused and walked away, ready to cry.
“I’d have taken it if I’d been you,” commented Priscilla.
“Of course you wouldn’t, Prissy. We do notbeg. But I guess nobody wants our souvenirs—and I thought them so pretty. We’d better try to find the Public Gardens, where Jack told us to meet him.”
“I think the station is a bad place, anyway,” said Priscilla. “The people are in too much of a hurry, and they did all have a lot of baggage. Maybe we can find somewhere else.”
By asking directions a number of times, they arrived at the Public Gardens—the big iron gates opening into acres of gay flower beds, rare and valuable trees, winding streams, artistic bridges. They were about to enter, when a man who, at a safe distance, had been watching them in the station, and who had followed them to the Gardens, now hurried forward.
Pushing rudely between the two girls, the stranger succeeded, by means of a skillful bit of elbow play, in knocking the souvenirs out of their hands. As if to avoid stepping on the scattered berries and flowers, he took a couple of quick side steps, planting his huge feet directly upon them, and thereby ruining them completely. It was all done so quickly that the girls hardly realized what had happened until they stood looking down at the remains of many days of labor.
Desiré was quite speechless, and seemed momentarily paralyzed. Not so Priscilla, whose quick eyes followed the stranger, striding away over one of the bridges in the Garden.
“Dissy,” she whispered, “it’s thatsame man.”
“Whatsame man?”
“The one who fought Jack.”
“It doeslooka lot like him, but—”
“It’s him all right! The mean old pig!”
“Why, Prissy! It was an accident.”
“Wasn’t either, and now we can’t make any money to take to Jack.” Excitedly she burst into tears.
“Don’t, dear,” begged Desiré. “We mustn’t act like babies every time something goes wrong. We’ll just start over again. These didn’t cost anything, and it will be easy to make new ones.”
“What’s the trouble?” asked Jack, who had come up behind them.
Both girls explained at once.
“Where’s the fellow now?” demanded the boy, his jaw set, his eyes flashing.
“He went over that bridge,” pointed Priscilla.
“Don’t bother about him,” urged Desiré. “You might get arrested. Let’s go back to the wagon.”
Struggling between the wish to avenge the wrong to his little sisters, and the conviction that it was perhaps wiser to avoid conflict in a strange city, he turned abruptly away from the big iron gates.
“Where are we going next?” asked Desiré, as they walked along the street toward the place where the wagon had been left.
“I bought all the stock we need, and I thought, since Simon always did, we’d go on down the South Shore a ways and then come back here to start for—”
“Home!” concluded Desiré, “and what fun we’ll have settling down in it.”
“More fun in a wag’n,” declared René.
“You’d holler all right, when the snow blew in on you,” said Priscilla.
Jack hardly heard what they were saying, so puzzled and disturbed was he over the reappearance of his enemy. Was the man following them, or was the meeting purely accidental? Had he been tampering with the horses the night Priscilla roused them? If the fellow were bent on revenge, they were likely to suffer from the effects of his anger and jealousy almost any time.
The next morning they were following the very irregular South Shore line along the Atlantic; past ragged points, around deep bays, through tangles of woodland, then back beside the yellow sands again. Numerous offshore islands looked so inviting that Priscilla was always wishing they could drive out to them. As they rounded St. Margaret’s Bay, the sunshine was brilliant; but almost without warning, a mile farther on, they were completely enveloped in fog which cut off all view of the ocean.
“Do be very careful, Jack,” pleaded Desiré nervously, as they almost felt their way around an especially blind curve. “Someone might run into us.”
They reached Chester in safety, and spent some time looking about that busy little town. The souvenir shop up the hill above the Lovett House especially attracted Priscilla, and it was with great reluctance that she left it.
“I’d like to have money enough to buy everything I wanted there,” she said, looking longingly back at it.
In a few minutes they missed René, who had been lagging along behind them.
“That boy is hopeless,” groaned Jack, as they retraced their steps to look for him.
Not very far back they discovered him, leaning over the edge of a cobblestone well, trying to lower the heavy bucket.
“I was thirsty,” he explained, as Jack detached him.
“But you might have fallen in!” said Desiré severely.
“I’ll tell you what we can do,” proposed Priscilla; “tie a rope to him, like you do to a little dog, and I’ll lead him. I saw a lady at Halifax with a little boy fastened that way,—”
The proposal called forth a howl from René.
“Won’t be tied like a dog! Won’t have Prissy lead me!”
“Well, let’s go on now before we get into any more difficulties,” said Jack, starting for the shed where he had left the wagon.
“That is Mahone Bay,” he told them, as they gazed out over the large arm of the ocean upon which Chester is located; “and all this section was once a great retreat for pirates. There are so many islands where they hid their booty, and so many little bays and inlets where they could take refuge if pursued.”
“Want to go out there and see pirates,” announced René, as Jack tightened the reins, and Dolly and Dapple began to move.
“There are no pirates there now,” said Priscilla in a disgusted tone.
“Go and see.I’mgoing to be a pirate when I grow up. I think they’refine.”
“It’s a good thing you didn’t give us that piece of information before, Jack,” laughed Desiré, “or we should have been swimming out to find Renny.”
Not very far beyond Chester, they ran into fog again. The road was winding, and very much up and down hill; and as they were about to round a curve near Lunenburg, a heavy automobile loomed up suddenly at their left, out of the grey blanket which enfolded the landscape.
Jack turned aside as quickly and as far as he dared, but the machine struck the side of the wagon, ripped off a wheel, and disappeared into the gloom. The children were thrown violently to the floor of the wagon, and Desiré against the side; but Jack managed to keep his seat. The horses stopped instantly, and stood quiet like the intelligent, well-mannered animals that they were. To the accompaniment of René’s cries, Jack got his little family out of the tilting wagon and took stock of their injuries. Priscilla had a bad nosebleed, and Desiré a bruised arm. René was only badly frightened, and Jack himself entirely uninjured.
“We certainly can be very thankful,” breathed Desiré with relief, after first aid had been given.
“We certainly can,” agreed Jack fervently, going to examine the condition of the wagon; “we were very lucky.”
“What can we do with it?” inquired Desiré.
“Fortunately we’re not very far from Lunenburg,” he replied, “and I suppose I can get it fixed there; but it will mean quite a delay, I imagine. If the fog would only lift so that we could see something.”
“Why not stay right here until it does?” proposed Desiré.
“Should you be afraid to stay here with the children while I walked to town?” began Jack. “It would save time if I could get the work started today—”
“Not afraid for us, Jack; but for you. Something might hit you. Suppose another automobile should come along!” She shuddered.
“Well, then we’ll try to get the wagon just off the road, and make ourselves as comfortable as we can until the fog is gone.”
With much difficulty, and many pauses for rest, they succeeded in getting the wagon off the road.
It was a tiresome afternoon, and seemed many hours longer than it really was. Just about six o’clock the grey blanket was whisked away as suddenly as if someone had picked it up, and the land was flooded with late afternoon sunshine. On one side of them were fields with groups of trees here and there; on the other, a wide beach.
“Why not camp in this field?” asked Desiré, as the children darted across to play in the sand. “If we’re going to be held up for a day or two, this is probably as good a place as any.”
Jack agreed. So after charging the children not to go into the water, they set about making a permanent camp. It was too late to go to town that night, but early the next morning Jack took the broken wheel and started out.
“I can have it the day after tomorrow,” he announced upon his return, which Desiré assured him was “not so bad.”
The two days passed very pleasantly. Twice a day, much to René’s delight, they all went in bathing. Playing in the sand became almost as much of a joy to the older ones as to the children, and they laid out wonderful towns across the beach. In the middle of the day, when it was too hot near the water, they spent their time in the grove, and made friends with the squirrels who were busy laying in their stores for the winter. The little creatures got so tame that they would venture into the very laps of the invaders of their domain.
“Now for the road again!” cried Jack, on the evening of the second day, as he put the new wheel on the wagon. “We’ll go to bed early, and get started as soon as it is light.”
Just after daybreak, he came to the wagon where Desiré was collecting supplies for their breakfast.
“Dissy,” he said, “Dolly is very sick!”
“Sick! Oh, Jack, whatshallwe do!” cried Desiré in dismay. Difficulties did seem to be coming too thick and fast.
“I’ve made her as comfortable as I can, but I don’t know what to do next. I’ll have to go to town for help. Give me a sandwich to eat on the way—I can’t wait for breakfast. You and the children keep away from her until I get back.”
In a few minutes Jack disappeared down the road leading to Lunenburg, puzzling over the finding of a pan half filled with bran mash which he had discovered near Dolly. Since he could not arrive at a satisfactory explanation, he wisely decided to keep the discovery to himself.
Desiré gave the children their breakfast, and sent them out on the sand, she herself remaining where she could watch them and keep an eye on the wagon. It seemed hours after Jack had gone when up the road she could see the broad bulk of a team of oxen plodding slowly toward her. As they came closer, she saw that they were pulling one of the flat wooden wagons used for hauling stone. On the boards sat Jack and another man; the driver was walking at the animals’ heads. Jack got off and came hurriedly toward her, after directing the driver to the end of the field where the sick horse lay.
“The doctor thinks he’ll have to take Dolly to his place; so they brought an ox team along,” he explained. Then before Desiré had time to reply, he dashed off to join the other two men.
Half an hour later poor Dolly, reclining on the ox cart, was ready for her ride to Lunenburg.
“I think she will get well; but not right off. She must have ate something very bad,” said Dr. Myers, a stout German, mopping his brow with a big blue handkerchief. “You come see me—say—next day after tomorrow; then I maybe can tell you how long.” He ran clumsily down the road to join his patient.
Jack sat down beside Desiré, and for a long moment they looked at each other without speaking. The children, who had left their play to become spectators of the moving, had returned to the beach at Desiré’s direction, and were now so busy constructing a sea wall that they were oblivious to all else.
“What next, Jack?” asked Desiré at last, laying her hand over his.
“I wish I knew,” was the boy’s sad reply to his sister’s question.
Fired by the sight of his deep depression, Desiré put her wits to work to find a way out of this latest catastrophe.
“Perhaps I could get some work in the shipyards in town,” began her brother before she had arrived at any solution of the problem.
“But if Dolly gets well in a few days, would that pay?”
“I don’t think she will—at least not so as to be ready for the road. You see, Dissy, it’s going to take an awful lot of what we’ve made so far to pay the doctor; and while we’re held up here, nothing is coming in, and living expenses go on.”
“That’s so.”
“If I could get a job in the yards for two or three weeks, it would mean a lot to us.”
“We would stay here, and you’d go back and forth every day?”
“Yes, that is if you wouldn’t be afraid—”
“Of course I shouldn’t!”
“It’s only half an hour’s walk, and we can camp down here cheaper than living in town. In October we should settle down in Wolfville; for it will be altogether too cold to camp after that time. If I could get work for two or three weeks, then we’ll start back for Halifax, and get to—”
“Ourhouse just about in time,” concluded Desiré gaily.
“How proudly you say that,” smiled Jack.
“Iamproud of it. Well, we’ll follow out your plan then; and while I get dinner you might tell the children what we’ve decided.”
“Better wait until we see whether I get the job or not,” advised her brother. “It will be hard on you, poor kid, having to manage everything here while I’m gone all day long.”
“Not half so hard, dear, as your having to go to work at something you don’t know anything about. I’m used to my work.”
The following afternoon, Jack returned from town, and immediately sought out Desiré who was sitting under a clump of birches mending one of Priscilla’s dresses.
“Good news, Dissy!” he cried, dropping down at her feet. “I’ve got a job.”
“Oh, Jack, that’s great! Tell me all about it.”
“When I first went into town, I stopped at Dr. Myers’ and saw Dolly. She’s lots better, but Doc said she ought to stay there another week. It’s expensive, but it would be more so if we lost her; so I don’t want to take any chances.”
“Of course not.”
“When she’s ready to come back, he’ll bring her out here; and he said to let her roam about the field for another week, and then drive her half a day at a time for a while. After that, he says she’ll be all right again.”
“Well, that’s better than we feared at first.”
“Yes indeed. I thought for a while that poor old Dolly was a goner. And how hard it would have been to tell good old Simon!”
“And what about your job?” For Jack’s eyes were on the expanse of blue ocean, where the sparkling ripples from a distance looked like silver confetti tossed up into the air and then allowed to fall back upon the restless surface of the water.
“Oh, yes. I asked directions from the doctor, and went over to the shipyard. My, but it’s an interesting and busy place, Dissy! Ships just begun, others with their ribs all showing and looking like the carcass of a chicken used to when the kids got through with it; some being painted, some out in the harbor waiting for masts, and others all ready for the deep sea. I found the man who hires the help, and he didn’t seem at all interested in me—said he wasn’t going to take anyone on at present. I’ll admit I was awfully disappointed—”
“Poor old Jack!” murmured his sister sympathetically, laying down her work to put her arms around him, much as she would have done to René.
“Just as I was leaving, who should come lumbering into the office but Dr. Myers. ‘Did you get it?’ he asked. When I said I did not, he grabbed my arm, turned me around, and marched me back to the desk where Mr. Libermann was sitting. ‘I send you this boy to get a job,’ he cried angrily. ‘For why you not gif him one? I know you haf extra work for these few weeks.’ Mr. Libermann seemed a bit taken back, and stammered—‘I did not know he was friend of yours. I’ll see what I can do if—’ ‘You’d better!’ shouted the doctor, shaking his fist under Herr Libermann’s nose. He got up from the desk and disappeared into some quarters at the back of the building, glad to escape, I think, for even a few minutes.
“‘He owe me too many kindnesses,’ grumbled the doctor, ‘for him to refuse what I ask.’ Presently Mr. Libermann returned with the welcome news that I was taken on as an extra hand for three weeks, and could start tomorrow. So once more we are—”
“On the road to prosperity!” finished Desiré, giving him a hug and taking up her sewing again.
“Not exactly prosperity, I’m afraid; but at least the means of existence,” laughed Jack.
“The funny part of the performance,” he went on, “is that Dr. Myers did not tell me to say to Mr. Libermann that he had sent me; and that gentleman didn’t have courage to remind him of the fact when he got so excited over my being turned down.”
The children were delighted when they heard that another three weeks were to be spent in that pleasant spot, but deplored the absence of their playfellow, Jack. Unaccustomed to work of the heavy kind that was required of him in the shipyard, he was naturally very tired when he returned at night; and Desiré tried to prevent the younger ones from making any demands at all upon him. She was careful, too, to keep unpleasant topics and worries from him.
The days were lonely for her; their simple housekeeping was soon done, and she could not play with the children all the time. So in desperation, one day, she took the cover off the box of articles saved from their old home, and hunted through until she found Jack’s first year high school books.
“If I can’t go to school,” she decided, “I can at least study a little by myself. I won’t bother Jack now, but later he will help me over the things I can’t understand.”
After that, the days did not drag so slowly.
The doctor kept an eye on Jack, and at unexpected times dropped into the yards to see him. In spite of the difference in their ages, the two became good friends; and both were genuinely sorry when the end of their companionship arrived.
“The doctor wants me to be on the lookout for a certain kind of ox on the way back to Halifax,” said Jack, the night before they broke camp.
“Halifax?” said Priscilla. “I thought we were going to Bridgeriver.”
“Bridgewater,” corrected Desiré, laughing.
“Well, a river is water,” persisted Priscilla, who was always reluctant to admit that she had made a mistake; and disliked very much to be laughed at.
“Sometimes it is red mud,” suggested Jack mischievously. “Eh, Prissy?” drawing a feathery grass blade across the back of her neck as she sat in front of him sorting shells and stones.
The children had gathered a bushel or more of beach treasures that they “simplymusttake with them,” but Jack had decreed that only one small box could be incorporated in their luggage.
“I thought it best to get back to Wolfville as soon as possible,” explained her brother seriously when she did not respond to his good-natured teasing. “It’s not so very warm now nights.”
“What about the ox?” asked Desiré.
“A friend of the doctor’s, in fact the man who came out here after Dolly, has lost one of his—”
“Lost!” exclaimed Priscilla disdainfully. “How on earth could one lose an ox?”
“The way we nearly lost Dolly,” replied Jack briefly, before continuing his explanation to Desiré. “And naturally he wants to buy a perfect match for the remaining one. He has been around the nearby country, but for some reason—I believe his wife is ill, or something like that—he can’t go far to hunt one up. So the doctor is helping him, and he thought I might just happen to see one on the way to Halifax.”
“How would you know if you did?” demanded Priscilla, with some scorn, still annoyed at having to abandon so many of her marine souvenirs.
“Dr. Myers took me to examine the surviving animal, and I looked him over closely and wrote down a description besides.”
“Read it to us, Jack,” suggested Desiré; “and then we can all be on the watch.”
So Jack read his notes, and when they went to bed they were all hopeful of finding the required animal on their trip back to Halifax.
A couple of days later they were driving along the edge of St. Margaret’s Bay, when Desiré clutched Jack’s arm.
“Look!” she cried.
“Where, and at what?”
“Away over there, in the far corner of that field. Aren’t those oxen? And so many of them.”
Jack stopped the horses and stood up, shading his eyes with his hand.
“Yes, I think they are.”
“Hadn’t you better go and look at them—that is, if they are for sale?”
“Suppose I had, but I wonder how one gets there.”
“There must be a road.”
“I’ll go and see,” offered Priscilla.
“Me too,” chirped René.
“No,” said Jack, “we’ll drive on a bit first.”
A little farther on, a narrow road led far back in the direction of the field in which the oxen were located, and from that side, farm buildings could be seen.
“I don’t believe I’ll try to take the wagon in there,” decided Jack, surveying the road doubtfully.
“You might make a sale,” suggested Priscilla, always with an eye for business.
“And break an axle in one of those holes. No, I’ll walk.”
The children clamored to go too, but Jack refused all company; so they watched him pick his way carefully along until he reached the end of the road which evidently terminated in a barnyard. It was tiresome waiting; so Desiré let the children get out to gather some cat tails which were growing along the edge of a tiny roadside stream.
They were so busy that Jack was right upon them before they were aware of his approach.
“Guess I’ve found what we’re looking for,” he announced jubilantly when he came within earshot.
“Really, Jack!” cried Desiré, almost falling off the seat of the wagon in her excitement, while the children threw themselves on him, flinging the cat tails far and wide.
“As far as I can see, he’s a perfect match. The man raises them for sale. I gave him the doctor’s address, and he promised to get in touch with him at once. However, I’ll write a letter too, and mail it in the first town we come to.”
“Isn’t it nice,” said Desiré, when they were once more on their way, “that you were able to do something for the doctor in return for his kindness to you?”
“Yes; and do you know, Dissy, people have been most awfully kind to us all summer.”
“They surely have. I never dreamed we’d make so many friends.”
“Huh!” said Priscilla bluntly; “some of them weren’t very nice. Those folks in Halifax were just horrid!”
“Hush!” ordered Desiré severely; for she had never repeated to Jack her unpleasant experiences in that city.
Jack looked searchingly at her flushed face, but said nothing more about it until they were alone that evening; then he insisted on hearing the whole story.
“Never again!” he decreed, “shall you or Prissy try to sell things on the street.”
“But we’re all peddlers, Jack dear; you can’t get away from that fact.”
“Dissy,” said her brother, smiling, “you’ll get to be as much of an arguer as Prissy if you’re not careful.”
Halifax was wrapped in a chilly grey fog when the Wistmores drove in a couple of days later. The monotonous tones of the bell buoy in the harbor sounded continuously through the city, and buildings and pavements dripped with moisture.
“Guess we’d better push right on,” decided Jack, “and try to find before night a spot where it is dry enough to camp.”
“Thiscertainly isn’t a very pleasant place today,” shivered Desiré, peering over his shoulder at the gloomy streets.
After they got beyond the limits of the city, the fog lifted somewhat so they could see the road quite clearly, and even some distance on either side. About ten miles outside of Halifax they caught sight of something dark under a tree ahead.
“Maybe it’s a bear!” exclaimed René hopefully.
“Somebody’s old ragbag,” suggested Priscilla.
“No,” concluded Desiré, “it’s a man.”
“Must be sick, or dead tired to sit there on such a day,” observed Jack.
Just as he spoke the words, the interested watchers saw the man attempt to get up, and fall heavily back upon the ground. Urging the horses to greater speed, Jack soon brought the wagon abreast of the unfortunate creature. Face down, he lay perfectly motionless.
“Must be unconscious,” said Jack, as they all got out and stumbled up the bank upon which the man was stretched.
Desiré held her breath as her brother was rolling the figure carefully over. There was something strangely familiar about that heavy form. No mistake, it was their old enemy.
Brother and sister faced each other across the quiet body.
“Oh, it’shim!” said Priscilla, in disgust.
“He’s the man Jack fought with!” squealed René.
“Must be badly hurt,” said Jack; “wonder what we can do for him.”
“Do!Do!” exclaimed Priscilla; “why, leave him here and go on as fast as we can.”
“Prissy!” reproved Jack and Desiré with one accord.
“I’m afraid I can’t carry him to the wagon,” said Jack slowly. “He’s so heavy.”
“Don’t want him in our nice wag’n,” declared René vehemently.
“I can help you,” offered Desiré, striving to conquer her aversion to the man.
At that moment, the object of their concern groaned and opened his eyes. Unseeing, at first, they soon showed recognition of the faces above his.
“What’s the trouble with you?” asked Jack.
“Cracked up somewhere,” was the sullen response.
“How did it happen?”
“Fell over those stones in the fog.”
Desiré turned to glance at the big pile of sharp rocks nearby, and felt that a fall on those could do almost any damage in an unexpected encounter.