Doctor Jones' Picnic Part 22

They were straining their eyes from the observatory to catch the last glimpse of "Old Glory," when a sudden storm gathered about the island, and it was shut out from view. They involuntarily cast their eyes up to its former place, and they realized that Silver Cloud had been dismantled of her chief beauty and glory.

"This will never do," exclaimed Dr. Jones. "Silver Cloud is like a bird of paradise with its tail feathers all plucked. We must replace that pole and flag as soon as we return to Was.h.i.+ngton."

"It seems like a cruelty to leave them in such a fearful place," said Mrs. Jones. "Think of the awful storms that will gather and howl around them for ages."

"They will outlast them all, praise G.o.d!" replied the Doctor. "As a 'Government of the people, for the people, and by the people shall not perish from the earth,' so shall our flag and staff defy all the Arctic storms that ever blew."

Then they descended to the cabin.

"I think it is about time to see which way we are heading," said the Professor. "We are pointing straight for Alaska, as nearly as I can judge," he said a few moments later.

All retired but Dr. Jones. He said that he really preferred to sit and rest awhile before going to bed. So he sat for several hours, looking occasionally at the barometer, thermometer, etc. Toward morning he called Denison to "take the helm," as he jocosely termed it.

CHAPTER XX.

Battle of Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain.

Will had not neglected to take numerous photographs of Summit Island, the flag and staff; and with his kodak he had stepped outside the circle and taken a "shot" at them as they circled about the mast, protected from cruel Jack Frost by a wall of fire, as they awakened the echoes in these hyperborean regions in the lively strains of North Pole March.

He exhibited this photograph to them on the following day, and all were delighted with it.

"Oh, I wish you would give me several of these, Mr. Mars.h.!.+" cried Mattie. "I wish to give them to my friends."

"You shall have all you want of them, Mattie, upon just one condition,"

he answered.

"And what is that?"

"Don't call me Mr. Marsh again on this trip. No formalities should be allowed among the Children of the Skies."

"Agreed, Mist--Will," replied Mattie, gaily. "You may put me down for one dozen on those terms."

"Well, won't they be a sensation, when we show them in Was.h.i.+ngton?" said Will, viewing the picture critically. "I really think I will make it the subject of an oil painting."

"And I want that painting at any price, if you will ever sell it," cried the Doctor.

"I will paint one for each of the company--except Sing. That apathetic heathen would not care half so much for it as he would for a highly colored chromo."

"Don't be so hard upon poor Sing. I am sure that he would be just delighted with one of those paintings," said Mattie.

"Call him in and let's see. If there is a particle of the aesthetic about him, I have failed thus far to see it," declared Will.

So Mattie called Sing from the kitchen. He looked so neat in his white ap.r.o.n and cap that Will began to fear that he had slandered the poor fellow. He was shown the photograph, and Mattie said:

"You sabe that picture, Sing?"

"Yes, me sabe."

"What is it?"

Sing grinned a moment as he looked slyly around upon, the company, and answered:

"Allee samee makee foolee lound flagpole."

All roared with laughter.

"That is about what we did, and no mistake," said the Doctor, wiping his eyes.

"Well, Sing," said Mattie, looking her very pleasantest at the wily Mongolian, "I have called you in to prove that you heap likee pretty things. Now, you would likee a pretty oil painting, big picture, allee samee that?" pointing to the photograph.

Sing's face was a picture of indifference, and he said,

"Me no care."

"What! not care for beautiful oil painting?" cried Mattie, desperately, seeing Will's eyes twinkling with fun and triumph. "Well, there is something in the world that you think pretty, isn't there Sing?"

"O, yes!" promptly replied Sing, his face breaking out in smiles, "me tinkee Miss Mattie heap pletty. Me heap likee Miss Mattie."

This open avowal of admiration was more than Mattie had bargained for, and she blushed furiously. The whole party clapped their hands and laughed, while Will fell upon the floor and rolled about in an ecstacy of fun and laughter.

"Didn't I tell you, Mattie, that he was an incorrigible case?" cried Will, as he a.s.sumed a sitting posture on the floor.

"And do you mean to say that Sing has no taste at all, simply because he admires me?" said Mattie very severely.

"O, no! Mattie. I really admire Sing's taste, and acknowledge that I have shamefully abused the poor fellow," said Will, rising to his feet.

"But the way he turned the tables on you and made you blush is the best fun I have seen on the trip."

And so they indulged in light hearted conversation, music, reading, painting, chess, etc., as they sped over the frozen seas, homeward bound. Toward evening a strong north wind set in and the Professor declared that they were heading straight for the mouth of the Mackenzie River.

"In two or three days we shall be in the United States if this gale continues," said the Professor. "We are traveling at tremendous speed--nearly sixty miles an hour."

"I only hope that it continues, for I do not doubt that the friends have long since given us up as dead," replied Dr. Jones. "We have been gone now nearly four months, and have had no opportunity to communicate with them since we left. What a glorious time it will be when we get back and tell them how easily and comfortably we accomplished our object."

And so they enjoyed many an hour in antic.i.p.ation of their reception by friends who were mourning them as lost forever. And they were a.s.sured of hearty expressions of admiration from a generous public. And the Government would make proper acknowledgments.

"Doctor," said Fred in the evening after dinner, "I wish you would tell us about the siege of Chattanooga, and Battle of Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain."

"All right," returned the Doctor. "If agreeable to all, I don't mind spinning a war yarn. Let me see; I left off at our entrance into Chattanooga. Well, Bragg's army was sitting upon the surrounding hills and mountains, watching us with eagle eyes. They cut off our lines of communication and supplies, and we soon began to feel the pangs of hunger. I saw stalwart men upon their hands and knees in the mud hunting for grains of corn that had rattled from the army wagons into the road.

I saw horses in a battery adjoining my regiment gnaw nearly through great oak trees in the torments of hunger. And when they were fed their miserable pittance of corn, guards were necessary to keep the gaunt, hungry men from stealing it from the peris.h.i.+ng brutes.

"Desertions became exceedingly frequent; so much so that nearly every roll-call noted one or more missing from each regiment. What with sickness, deaths, and desertions, our ranks were becoming rapidly decimated. A council of war was held. General Sheridan, commanding at that time the 2nd division, 4th army corps, volunteered to make an example of two captured deserters in one of his regiments. His offer was accepted, and a morning or two later the whole army was notified to witness the execution of these deserters. Such extremities had not been resorted to for simply running away home (for they had not attempted to desert to the enemy), and we could not believe that they would be shot.

But we did not know Phil Sheridan.

"Who could have dreamed on that morning that this trim little man, who sat his horse like a centaur as he watched with critical eye the carrying out of the horrible details of this double execution, was soon to take rank among the greatest generals in the world's history?