The Settlers at Home Part 15

"How he cries after you!" exclaimed Mildred. It was the first time Roger had ever known anybody to be sorry for his going away. The child was certainly crying after him. He half turned back, but turned again, saying--

"Can't you tell him I will come again by-and-by? I must be off now."

The truth was, Roger had never forgotten the chest--the oaken chest which looked so tempting when he saw it floating down, and Oliver would not stop to catch it,--the stout chest which he knew to be now safe and sound somewhere about the house, unless harm had happened to it during the night. Oliver agreed that it was of importance to bring this chest on sh.o.r.e: and the boys lost no time in doing it. Mildred came out with George to watch their proceedings, and found that Oliver had already made one trip, and brought over some articles of use and value. He came up to his sister, with something which he held carefully covered up in both hands. He said gravely--

"Here, dear, put this in some safe place,--where no one will know of it but you and me."

"A watch!--mother's watch!"

"I found it, with several things in her cupboard, thrown down by the wall breaking."

"It does not seem to be hurt," observed Mildred. "And how often you have wished for a watch!"

"I think I shall never wish for anything again," said Oliver. Mildred saw his face as he turned away, and began to consider where she could put the watch, so that it might be safe, and that Roger might not see it, nor Oliver be reminded of it.

Ailwin and Roger were meantime disputing about which should have the raft first,--Roger wanting to secure the chest, and Ailwin insisting that it was high time the cow was milked. Oliver said he was master here in his father's absence, and he would have no quarrels. All three should go on the raft. Roger should be landed at the staircase, where he could be collecting what he wanted to bring over, while Oliver proceeded to set Ailwin ash.o.r.e beside the cow. By working to the number of three, in harmony, far more would be gained than by using up strength in fighting and disputing. He did not care how many times he crossed the water this day, if those whom he rowed would but keep the peace. He would willingly be their servant in rowing, though he chose to be their master in deciding.

Ailwin stared at Oliver. It had struck her, and Mildred too, that Oliver seemed to have grown many years older since the flood came. He was no taller, and no stronger;--indeed he seemed to-day to be growing weaker with fatigue; but he was not the timid boy he had always appeared before. He spoke like a man; and there was the spirit of a man in his eyes. It was not a singular instance. There have been other cases in which a timid boy has been made a man of, on a sudden, by having to protect, from danger or in sorrow, some weaker than himself. Roger felt something of the truth; and this had as much to do with making him quiet and tractable to-day as his interest about George, or his liking to live in a tent with companions, rather than in the open air and alone.

Ailwin was but a short time gone. She came up the bank to Mildred, swinging her empty milk-pail, and sobbing, as if from the bottom of her heart. Mildred did not think she had ever seen Ailwin cry so before; and she could imagine nothing now but that Oliver was lost. She turned so giddy in a moment that she could not see Ailwin, and so sick that she could not speak to her.

"So you have heard, Mildred,--you have heard, I see by your being so white. Oliver says she has been dead ever so many hours. I say, if we had gone the first thing, instead of staring and poking about yon tumble-down house, we might have saved her. I shall never milk her again,--not a drop!--nor any other either, so far as I see; for there is no saying that we shall ever get away. Here I have not a drop of milk to give you, my dear, though you are as white as the wall."

"Never mind," gasped Mildred, "if it is only the cow. I thought it had been Oliver."

"Oliver! Bless your heart! There he is as busy about the house and things, as if nothing had happened; and just as provoking as you for caring nothing about the poor cow. There she lies, poor soul! Dead and cold, half in the water, and half out. She was worth you two put together, for some things,--I can tell you that."

"Indeed I am very sorry," said Mildred; and as she saw George pulling about the empty can, she melted into tears, which would come faster and faster till Oliver again stood by her side. She tried to tell him what she had been afraid of, and how she thought she should not have cried but for that;--or, at least, not so much; but she really could not explain what she felt, her sobs came so thick.

"I do not know exactly what you mean, dear," said Oliver; "but I understand that you must be crying about the cow. I am very sorry,-- very. I had rather have lost anything we have left than the cow, now George is so ill."--Here he bit his lip, and looked away from George, lest he should cry like his sister. He went on, however, talking rather quickly at first, but becoming more composed as he proceeded. He said, "I have been thinking that it will never do for us who may be near losing everything we have, and our lives, after all, to grieve over each separate loss as it happens. When you said your prayers the first night of the flood..."

"How long ago that does seem!" exclaimed Mildred.

"It does, indeed!" replied Oliver, glad to hear her say something distinctly. "When we said our prayers that night, and whenever we have said them since, we begged that we might be able to bear dying in this flood,--to bear whatever it pleased G.o.d to do. Now, our right way is to make up our minds at once to everything, and just in the way it pleases G.o.d. Let us try to bear it cheerfully, whether we lose the cow or anything else first; or whether we all die together. That is the way, Mildred!--And if you and I should not die together, that must be the way too."

"I hope we shall though."

"I think it is very likely; and that before long. And then how useless it will have been to be unhappy about anything we can lose here! People who may be so near to death need not be anxious about this and that, like those who seem to have long to live. So come, dear, and see this chest; and help us to settle what should be done with it."

There was nothing about the outside of the chest to show whose it might be. Everybody agreed that it ought to be opened immediately, lest all that it contained should be spoiled by the wet. But how to open it was the question; for it had a very stout lock, and strong hinges. After many attempts, it was found that nothing short of proper tools would answer the purpose: and Oliver went to see if his could be reached.

Through piles of rubbish, and a puddle of slimy water, he got to the spot where he had left them,--hidden behind straw, that the Redfurns might not discover and spoil them. The straw was washed away, and his beautiful lump of alabaster reduced to slime; but his tools were there,--in no very bright condition, but safe. He hastened away from the spot; for thoughts crowded upon his mind of the day when he had last used these tools, and the way of life in which he and Mildred had been so happy, and which seemed now to be over for ever. He thought of the beautiful stone carvings over the doorway, and of what Pastor Dendel had said to him about them. They had fallen; and who knew what had become of kind Pastor Dendel? The garden, with all its fresh green and gay blossoms, was now a muddy stream; rank smells and thick mists now came up from what had been meadows and corn-fields; and his father, whose manly voice had been daily heard singing from the mill, where was he?

It would not do to stay thinking of these things; so Oliver hastened back with his tools, and with the heavy kitchen hammer, which he also found.

None of these would open the chest. The party managed it at last by heating a large nail, which they drew out from a shattered door-post, and burning holes in the wood of the chest, close by the nails which fastened the hinges, so as to loosen them, and make them drop out. The lid being raised, a great variety of articles was found within, so nicely packed that the wet had penetrated but a very little way.

Mildred had looked on thoughtfully; and she saw that Oliver paused when the contents lay open to view. She looked in her brother's face, and said--

"I wonder who this chest belonged to?"

"I was just thinking so," observed Oliver.

"Never mind that," said Ailwin. "We may know, some day or other, or we may not. Meantime, it is ours. Come, make haste, and see what there is to wrap up poor baby in, on cold nights."

"We will look for something of that sort,--I am sure we might use such a thing as that," said Oliver: "but..."

"But," said Mildred, "I don't think these other things are ours, any more than they ever were. n.o.body ever gave them to us. They have belonged to somebody else;--to somebody that may be wondering at this moment where they are."

"Nonsense, Mildred!" exclaimed Ailwin. "Who gave you the harness that braces the raft, or the meal you have been living on these two days, I wonder: and how do you know but somebody is hungry, and longing for it, at this minute?"

"I wish they had it, then," replied Mildred. "But, Oliver, were we wrong to use the meal? I never thought of that."

"Nor I: but I think we were right enough there. The meal would all have been spoiled presently; and meal (and the harness too) is a sort of thing that we can pay for, or make up for in some way, if ever we can meet with the people who lost that chest."

"And George, and all of us, might have starved without it."

"Yes: we must take what we want to eat, when it comes in our way, and there is n.o.body to ask leave of: and, if ever we get out of this place, we can inquire who lost a meal-chest or set of harness, and offer to pay for what we took. But I do think it is different with these things."

"So do I," said Mildred. "Those table-cloths, and that embroidered cap,--somebody has taken pains to make them, and might not like to sell them. And look! Look at Roger! He has pulled out a great heavy bag of money."

"Now, Roger, put that bag where you found it," said Oliver. "It is none of yours."

"How do I know that I shall find it again, the next time I look?"

replied Roger, walking off with the bag.

Mildred was afraid of Oliver's following him, and of another quarrel happening. She put her arm within her brother's, and he could easily guess why.

"Don't be afraid, dear," he said. "If Roger chooses to do a dishonest thing, it is his own affair. We have warned him; and that is all we have to do with it. We must be honest ourselves,--that is all."

"Then I think we had better not look any further into the chest," said Mildred; "only just to find something warm to wrap Geordie in. The clothes look so nice--we might fancy we wanted things that we can very well do without."

"I am not much afraid of that," replied her brother: "and it would be a pity the things should spoil with the damp. They would be dry in an hour in this warm sun; and we could pack them away again before night."

"Roger will never let you do that," declared Ailwin. "Not a rag will he leave to anybody that you don't stow away while he is out of sight.

Never did I see such perverse children as you, and so thankless for G.o.d's gifts. I should be ashamed to be no more grateful than you for what He puts into your very hands."

Mildred looked at her brother now with a different face. She was perplexed and alarmed; but she saw that Oliver was not.

"Roger cannot carry off anything," he replied. "He may bury and hide what he pleases; but they will all be somewhere about the Red-hill; and we can tell anybody who comes to fetch us off whatever we know about the goods."

"n.o.body will ever come and fetch us off," said Ailwin, beginning to cry.

"The people at a distance don't care a straw what becomes of us; and you children here at hand are so perverse and troublesome, I don't know how to bear my life between you."

"If n.o.body comes to save us," said Oliver, calmly, "I do not see what good this money and these fine clothes will do to Roger and you."

"Roger and me! Pray what do you mean by that?"

"I mean that you and he are for taking these things that do not belong to us; and Mildred and I are against it. Only tell me this one thing, Ailwin. Do you believe that your cloak and stockings were sent in Nan Redfurn's way, that she might take them? And do you think it would have been perverse in her not to run away with them?"

"Now, Oliver, what nonsense you talk! As if I wanted a rag of these things for my own wear! As if I would touch a penny that was not honestly got!"