CHAPTER XVIITHE FUND GROWS
They parted from Brose Wilkins half an hour later. The work of fixing up thePequot Queenfor Miss Comfort’s accommodation seemed shorn of all difficulties. They were to start in the morning on the gangway between boat and shore, Bob supplying the material and Brose the tools. “Better get that up first,” said the latter, “so’s you can get aboard without wading. You don’t need to bring much material, fellers. There’s a pile of second-hand stuff over on our wharf we can make use of. Don’t forget the spikes, though. I ain’t got any spikes. Well, see you fellers again.”
Brose pushed off the launch with a foot, jumped nimbly aboard, and waved a long, lean hand. And just then Laurie remembered something.
“Hold on,” he called. “We haven’t paid you!”
“To-morrow,” said Brose. “It won’t be butseventy-five cents, anyway; just the worth of that hawser. That tow ain’t going to cost anything now I know who I done it for!”
The launch broke into sound and disappeared momentarily around the stern of thePequot Queen. When they saw it again Brose was draped over the little engine, squirting oil.
I fear that Laurie begrudged Kewpie the two sessions of pitching-practice that day. Certain it is that the afternoon session was shortened to a scant thirty minutes, after which four boys set forth on a shopping expedition, armed with a list that Laurie had made after dinner. Still later they joined Polly and Mae at the shop. Progress was reported and plans for the next day laid. Then Bob treated the crowd, Kewpie virtuously choosing a ginger-ale.
To their disappointment, a light rain was falling that Thursday morning when the four boys set forth for thePequot Queen. Ned trundled a wheelbarrow laden with lumber, and the others each carried a couple of two-by fours or planks. Ned’s load also included a paper bag of iron spikes, two hammers, and a hatchet. They chose Ash Street in preference to the busier thoroughfaresand, because the lumber on the wheelbarrow was continually falling off and the burdens on the boys’ shoulders required frequent shifting, their progress was slow. The rain wasn’t hard, but it was steady, and Ned, who had arisen in a depressed state of mind, grumbled alternately at the weather and the wheelbarrow. They scarcely expected to find Brose Wilkins on hand when they reached the boat, but there he was awaiting them. Laurie introduced Ned and Kewpie, and work began.
By eleven o’clock a gangway led from the bank to the deck of thePequot Queen. Or, if you liked, you could call it a bridge. It was twenty-six feet in length and thirty-two inches wide, and it was supported midway by two posts which Brose had driven into the sand. It was railed on each side so that, even in the dark, Miss Comfort could traverse it safely. Later it was to be painted, the planking green and the hand-rails white. At least, that was what Brose said, and since Brose seemed to have taken command of operations no one doubted the assertion. Ned and Kewpie, who had been to Walnut Street on an errand, arrived just as the last plank was laid, and the five drewup on the bank and admired the gangway. Of course, as the material was all second-hand, the job didn’t possess the fine appearance that new lumber lends. A stern critic might even have sneered at the joinery, for Brose Wilkins worked with speed rather than accuracy, and the gangway reminded Laurie a little of Brose’s launch. But it was strong and practical, and none of the admirers were inclined to be fastidious. On the contrary the boys were loud in commendation, even Laurie and Bob, who had wielded saw and hammer under Brose’s direction, praised the result highly. Then they all walked along it to the deck and solemnly and approvingly walked back again to the shore. As Bob said proudly, it didn’t even creak.
They spent an hour clearing the boat of the worst of the dirt and rubbish, preparatory to the more careful going over to follow in the afternoon, and finally they parted from Brose and climbed the hill again.
There was no pitching-practice that forenoon.
Shortly after half-past one they went to Mrs. Deane’s, reported progress to Miss Comfort, borrowed two pails, a broom, a scrubbing-brush, anda mop, and returned to the scene of their labors. Brose was again ahead of them. He had taken down the smoke-stack and was covering the hole in the roof with a piece of zinc sheeting. “I was thinking,” he explained, “that she might want to use this place for something, and there was a lot of water coming in around that old funnel. After I paint around the edges of this it’ll be tight.” Brose drove a last flat-headed nail and swung his legs over the side of the boiler-room. “I was thinking that maybe she’d like to keep a few hens in here.”
“Hens!” cried the quartet below in incredulous chorus.
Brose nodded. “Yeah, she was always fond of hens, Miss Pansy. Used to have quite a lot of ’em until her fences got sort of bad and they took to wandering into other folks’ yards. There wouldn’t be much trouble here, I guess. They could go ashore and wander as much as they pleased and not hurt anything.”
Ned broke into laughter. “Can’t you see Miss Comfort’s hens filing ashore every morning with a big red rooster in the lead?”
“Sure,” agreed Brose. “Put up half a dozennests and a couple of roosts across here and you’d have a fine chicken-house. Anyhow, no harm in stopping the leak.”
“I dare say she can use it for something, anyhow,” said Laurie.
“If it was me,” said Kewpie, “I’d keep ducks. Look at all the water they’d have!”
For better than an hour dust flew from bow to stern on thePequot Queen, and the scrape of the scrubbing-brush and the slap of the mop sounded from cabin, deck, and wheel-house. To introduce water into the boiler room would have made matters only worse there, for the floor and even the walls were black with coal-dust. They cleaned out the fire-box and used the broom repeatedly and closed the doors on the scene. But by four o’clock the rest of the boat was thoroughly clean, and only sunlight and warmth were needed to complete the work. The rather worn linoleum on the cabin floor looked very different after Bob’s scrubbing brush and Kewpie’s mop had got through with it. Even the paint in there had been won back to a fair semblance of whiteness. By that time Polly and Mae, released from school,had also arrived, and thePequot Queenresounded to eager voices. The rain had ceased and beyond the hills westward the gray clouds were breaking when, carrying pails and mop, broom and brush, the party of six went back to the shop in merry mood.
It had been very hard to keep Miss Comfort away from her new home thus far, and, since they wanted to have everything in shape before she saw it, they didn’t recount to her all that had been accomplished. “You see, ma’am,” said Laurie, “she was pretty dirty, and—”
“But I’ll attend to the cleaning,” declared Miss Comfort eagerly. “Land sakes, I don’t expect you boys to do that!”
“No, ma’am, well, now you take that hen—I mean boiler-room. That wouldn’t be any sort of work for you.”
“But it doesn’t seem right to let you young folks do so much. Why, just look at the boy’s shoes! They’re soaking wet!”
“Oh, Kewpie doesn’t mind that, Miss Comfort. Besides, I guess it’s just outside that’s wet. Isn’t it, Kewpie?”
Kewpie moved his foot once or twice experimentally and obtained a gentle squishing sound. He nodded. “That’s all,” he said.
“But,” resumed Laurie, “I guess we’ll have everything ready for you by Saturday noon. I thought we might get the stove down that morning and put it up. Then, maybe, on Monday you could move in!”
“You don’t think I could get settled Saturday?” pleaded Miss Comfort. “I’d so love to spend Sunday in my—my new home.”
Laurie silently consulted the others and read assent. “Why, yes, ma’am, I think we could have everything all ready by, say, half-past ten or eleven.”
“That would be much nicer,” exclaimed Polly, “for then we could all help get the things arranged.”
“Oh, thank you,” cried Miss Comfort gratefully. “To-morrow I’ll engage Peter Brown to move my things Saturday morning. And to think that it won’t be to the poor-farm! I told Mr. Grierson yesterday about it. He’s one of the overseers, you know. He seemed—almost—almost put out, and I thought for a moment he wasgoing to insist on my going to that place after all.” Miss Comfort laughed softly. “He said he had been ‘counting on me.’”
“Yes, ma’am,” said Laurie, “you go ahead and arrange for the team for Saturday at about ten thirty, and we’ll see that the place is all ready, won’t we, Polly?”
“Yes, indeed, we will, Miss Comfort, even if we have to—to work all night! Mae and I don’t have to go to school again for a week after to-morrow, and we can do lots of things for you, I’m sure.”
“You’ve done so much already, my dear, all of you!” Miss Comfort sighed, but it was a happy sigh. “I don’t know how to thank you, I’m sure. It does seem as if—as if—” She faltered then, and before she could continue Laurie got to his feet somewhat noisily and the others followed suit.
“Got to go along,” he said hurriedly. “Change Kewpie’s feet—shoes, I mean. Might take cold. See you in the morning, folks.”
Laurie made his escape, followed by the others, sighing relief. Outside on the bricks, Kewpie’s shoessquishedbeautifully, but Kewpie wasfrowning. “I like the old soul,” he announced, “but, say, she’s awful leaky around the eyes!”
“So you’d be if you were seventy years old and folks were—were kind to you and—and all that sort of thing,” replied Laurie gruffly and vaguely. “Folks get that way when they’re old; sort of grateful and tearful. They can’t help it, I guess!”
It was still well short of supper-time, and so they stopped at Bob’s to see the tennis-court. The surface layer was almost finished, and two sturdy posts for the net, startlingly, shiningly green, had been sunk. While they admired, Mr. Starling joined them from the house, and Laurie thanked him for his assistance with the quarry company.
“Glad to have helped, Laurie,” replied Bob’s father. “And that reminds me. Seen the pear-trees?”
“Pear-trees? No, sir. Not to—to notice them.”
“Come and look at them.” Mr. Starling led Laurie around the corner of the new court and along the further walk to where a few fruit-trees, their branches still bare, occupied one corner ofthe garden. Laurie viewed the trees interestedly, but failed to note anything remarkable, and he turned to his guide for enlightenment. Mr. Starling was selecting two bills from a long black wallet, keeping his back to the others. He thrust the bills into Laurie’s hand.
“We’d like to help a little, my sister and I,” he said. “Use that in any way you like, Laurie, but you needn’t say where it came from. If you need more, let me know.”
“But we don’t really need it, sir,” protested the boy. “We’ve got twelve dollars, and I don’t believe—”
“Put it in your pocket,” insisted Mr. Starling. “You can find some way of using it for Miss Comfort’s—er—comfort!” He raised his voice. “Look promising, don’t they? Lots of fruit this year, I guess. Thomas is quite a gardener, if you take his word for it.” He turned Laurie about with a hand on his shoulder and paced back toward the others. “We feel sort of sorry for that little woman,” he added, lowering his voice again. “Hard to pull up stakes at her age, I guess. Ought to do what we can for her, Laurie. Come to me again if you need some more.”
At supper Dr. Hillman asked the twins to come to his study, and there he produced a pink slip of paper from a desk drawer and handed it to Laurie. “My sister and I have wanted to help ever since we first learned of Miss Comfort’s—ah—embarrassment, but have been somewhat at a loss to know how to do so. She is greatly averse to anything resembling charity, as you probably know. To-day we heard of your interest in the matter, Laurence, and of your—ah—ingenious solution of the lady’s problem, and it occurred to us that if we handed a small contribution to you you would doubtless be able to use it to advantage and at the same time—ah—consider it confidential.”
“Twenty-five more!” exclaimed Laurie when they were back in No. 16. “Forty from Mr. Starling. Seventy-seven in all! What’ll we do with it?”
“Blessed if I know!” replied Ned, “unless we install steam heat and open plumbing!”