More Jonathan Papers Part 22

Why, wont it go in?

Go! It wouldnt go in two boats.

I came down the plank. Well, lets eliminate.

We eliminated. We took out extra shoes and coats and town clothes, we cut down as far as we dared, and expressed a big bundle home. The rest we got into two sailors dunnage bags, one waterproof, the other nearly so, and one big water-tight metal box. Then there were the guns, and the provisions, and the charts in a long tin tube, and there was a lanterna clumsy thing, which we lashed to a seat. It was always in the way and proved of very little use, but we thought we ought to take it.

While we worked, some loungers gathered on the wharf above and watched us with that tolerant curiosity that loungers know so well how to a.s.sume. As we got in and took up our oars, one of them called out, Now, if you only had a little motor there in the stern, youd be all right.

Dont want one, said Jonathan.

What? Why not?

Go too fast.

Eh? What say?

Gotoofast.

He heard you, I said, but he cant believe you really said it.

The oars fell into unison, there was the dip of their blades, the grating chunk of the rowlocks_dip-ke-chunk, dip-ke-chunk_. As we fell into our stroke the little boat began to respond, the water swished at her bows and gurgled under her stern. The wharf fell away behind us, the houses back of it came into sight, then the wooded hills behind. The whole town began to draw together, with its church steeples as its centers.

She does go! remarked Jonathan.

I told you! Look at us now! Look at that buoy!

_Dip-ke-chunk, dip-ke-chunk_the red buoy swept by us and dropped into the blue background of dancing waves.

Are we really off? Is it really happening? I said joyously.

Do you like it? said Jonathan over his shoulder.

No. Do you? To such unwisdom of speech do people come when they are happy.

But there were circ.u.mstances to steady us.

What Im wondering, said Jonathan, is, whats going to happen nextwhen we get out there. He tilted his head toward the open bay, broad and windy, ahead of us. Theres some pretty interesting water out there beyond this lee.

Oh, sh.e.l.l take it all right. Its no worse than Nantucket water. It couldnt be. Youll see.

We did see. In half an hour we were in the middle of upper Narragansett Bay, trying to make a diagonal across it to the southwest, while the long rollers came in steadily from the south, broken by a nasty chop of peaked, whitecapped waves. We rowed carefully, our heads over our right shoulders, watching each wave as it came on, with broken comments:

Thats a good one comingbring her up nowthereall right, now let her off againhold her sotheres another comingsee?that big one, the fifth, the fourth, awayrow, nowwe beat itthere it goes off asternsee it break! Heres anotherlook out for your oarwe cant afford to miss a strokeoh, me! Did that wet you too? My right shoulder is soakedmy left isntnow it is!

But half an hour of this sort of thing brought about two resultsconfidence in the little boat, which rode well in spite of her load, and confidence in each others rowing. We found that the four oars worked together, our early training told, and we instinctively did the same things in each of the varied emergencies created by wind and wave.

There was no need for orders, and our talk died down to an exclamation now and then at some especially big wave, or a laugh as one of us got a drenching from the white top of a foaming crest.

It was not an easy day, that first one. It seems, sometimes, as if there were little imps of malignity that hovered over one at the beginning of an undertakinglittle brownies, using all their charms to try to turn one back, discouraged. If there be such, they had a good time with us that long afternoon. First they had said that we shouldnt load our boat. Then they sent us rough water. Then they set the boat a-leak.

For leak it did. The soaking over night had done no good. It had, indeed, been thoroughly overhauled and p.r.o.nounced seaworthy, but there was the water, too much to be accounted for as spray, swas.h.i.+ng over the bottom boards, growing undeniably and most uncomfortably deeper. The imps made no offer to bale for us, so we had to do it ourselves, losing the much-needed power at the oars, while one of us set to work at the dip-and-toss, dip-and-toss motion so familiar to any one who has kept company with a small boat.

I wish my mother could see me now hummed Jonathan.

I wouldnt wish that.

Why not?

What would they all think of us if they could see us this minute?

Just what they have thought for a long time.

I laughed. How true that is, teacher! I said.

Finding us still cheerful, the imps tried again.

Jonathando you knowI do believemy rowlock socket is working loose.

He cast a quick look over his shoulder without breaking stroke. Then he said a few words, explicit and powerful, about the man who had overhauled the boat. He ought to be put out in it, in a sea like this, and left to row himself home.

Yes, of course, but instead, here we are. It wont last half an hour longer.

It did not last ten minutes. There it hung, one screw pulled loose, the other barely holding.

Take my knifeyou can get it out of my hip pocketand try to set up that screw with the big blade.

I did so, and pulled a few strokes. ThenIts come out again. Its no use.

We make blamed poor headway with one pair of oars, said Jonathan.

He meditated.

Where are the screw-eyes? he said after a moment.

Oh, good for you! Theyre in the metal box. Ill get them.

I drew in my useless oars, turned about and cautiously wriggled up into the bow seat.

Look out for yourself! Dont bullfrog out over the bow. I cant hold her any steadier than this.

Oh, Im all right.

With one hand I gripped the gunwale, with the other I felt down into the box and finally fished out the required treasures. I worked my way back into my own seat and tried a screw-eye in the empty, rusted-out hole.

Does it bite?

I dont know about biting, but its going in beautifullynow it goes hard.

Perhaps I can give it a turn.