Goulding Francis Robert
The Young Marooners on the Florida Coast
CHAPTER X
WAKING UP-GOOD RESOLUTIONS-ALARM-MAROONING BREAKFAST-SEARCH FOR WATER-UNEXPECTED GAIN-OYSTER BANK-FATE OF A RACCOON-THE PLUME AND FAN
Shortly after day-light Mary was awaked by feeling Frank put his arm round her neck. She opened her eyes, and seeing the white canvas overhead, started in surprise; then the fearful history of the preceding day rushed into her mind, and her heart beat fast at the recollection. She put her arm softly round Frank's neck, drew him near to her, and kissed him.
"Sister Mary," said he, awaking, "is this you? I thought it was father. Why, sister-what house is this! O, I remember, it is our tent."
Frank drew a long breath, nestled close to his sister, and laid his head on her bosom. He seemed to be thinking painfully. After a minute or two he sprang to his feet, and began to dress. Peeping through the curtain that divided the two sleeping apartments, he said, "Brother and cousin Harold are sleeping yet, shall I wake them?"
"No, no," she replied. "They must be very weary after all their hard work and trouble. Let us just say our own prayers, and go out softly to look at the boat."
The first thing which greeted their eyes, on coming to the open air, was Nanny with her kids. The tide had gone down during the night, leaving the boat aground, and the hungry goat had taken that opportunity to jump out, with her little ones, and eat some fresh grass and leaves.
Mary's mind, as housekeeper, turned towards breakfast. She and Frank renewed the fire, the crackling and roar of which soon roused the others, who joined them, and then went to the boat to see that all was safe.
No change had occurred, other than has been noticed, except that the fulness of the dogs proved that they had fed heartily upon something during the night; and of course that they had proved unfaithful sentinels. The sight of the boat made them sad. It told of their distance from home, and of the dangers through which they had passed. For some minutes no one broke the silence; yet each knew instinctively the other's thoughts. Frank finally came near to Robert, and looking timidly into his face, said, "Brother, do you not think that father will send somebody after us?"
"Yes, indeed; if he only knew where to send," Robert replied in a soothing tone; "and more than that, I think he would come himself."
"I think he will send," said Frank; "for I remember that after he knelt down by the landing and prayed for us, he turned to the man on horse-back, and pointed to us; and then the man went back where he came from as hard as he could gallop."
"Well, buddy," returned Robert, "if father does not come after us, nor send for us, there is one thing we can do-try to get back to him. So there now" – he stooped down, and kissed him affectionately. Then he and Harold walked together on the beach.
During the whole morning, as on the preceding evening, Harold had been unusually grave and thoughtful. "Robert," he remarked, when they were beyond the hearing of the others, "I have been trying ever since we rose to think what we ought to do today; but my mind cannot fix on anything, except what we said yesterday about being thankful, and trying to do better. There is no telling how long it will be before we see Bellevue again, or what dangers we must meet. One thing, however, seems certain, that we ought to try and act like good Christian people; and that part of our duty is to have some kind of worship here, as we have been used to having at your father's."
Robert assented, but asked, "How can we do it? I am not accustomed to conduct these things, nor are you."
"We can at least do this," replied Harold, whose mind was so deeply impressed with a sense of his obligations, that he was neither afraid nor ashamed of doing his duty. "We can read a chapter, verse about, morning and evening, and repeat the Lord's prayer together."
This was so easy, so natural, and so proper, that it was without hesitation agreed to. Mary and Frank were informed of it, and it was immediately put into practice. They gathered round the fire; and as the murmur of their prayer ascended from that solitary beach, the consciousness that this was their own act of worship, without the intervention of a minister, who is the priest of the sanctuary, or of a parent, who is the priest of the household, imparted a deep solemnity to their tones and feelings.
Scarcely had they risen from their knees, before Nanny and her kids were seen to run bleating down the bluff, while Mum and Fidelle, having rapidly ascended at the first alarm, gave signs of more than usual excitement. The boys hurried up the sandy steep, gun in hand, and looked in every direction. Nothing was to be seen, but Fidelle's tail was dropped with fear, and Mum's back was bristling with rage.
"What can be the matter with the dogs?" asked Robert.
"I do not know," Harold replied. "But we can soon find out. Here, Mum, hie on!"
He gave the sign of pursuit, and the two dogs ran together, and began barking furiously at something in an immense mossy live oak near at hand. The boys stood under the tree, and scrutinized every branch and mossy tuft, without discovering anything except a coal black squirrel, that lay flat upon a forked limb. "You foolish beasts!" exclaimed Harold, "did you never see a black squirrel before, that you should be so badly frightened at the sight of one?" then levelling his rifle at its head, he brought it down. It was very fat, having fed upon the sweet acorns of the live oak, and appeared also to be young and tender. Harold took it back to the tent, as an addition to their dinner, remarking, "It is the sweetest meat of the woods." All admired its glossy black skin, and Frank begged for the rich bushy tail, that he might wear it as a plume. This little diversion, though trifling in itself, exerted a very cheering effect upon the elastic spirits of the young people, and made them for a time forget their solitude and comparative helplessness. Had they known the country as well then as they had occasion to know it afterwards, they would not have felt so quiet, or have been so easily satisfied, when they saw the signs of alarm in their brutes.
When they sat down to their simple breakfast, it made Frank laugh to see how awkward everything appeared. There was no table, and of course there were no chairs. All sat on their heels, except Mary, who being the lady was dignified with a seat upon a log, covered with a folded cloak. It was a regular marooning breakfast.
"I think that our first business this morning is to look for water," remarked Harold, while they were sitting together. "The goat seems to be very thirsty, and, as our jug is half empty, it will not be long before we shall be thirsty too. But how shall we manage our company? Shall Mary and Frank continue at the tent, or shall we all go together?"
"O together, by all means," said Mary, speaking quickly. "I do not like the way those dogs looked before breakfast; they frightened me. There may not be anything here to hurt us, but if there should be, what could Frank and I do to help ourselves?"
"Then together let us go," Robert decided. "And Frank, as you have nothing else to do, we will make you dipper master."
They ascended the bluff, and looked in every direction, to ascertain if possible where they might obtain what they wished; but nowhere could they discern the first sign or promise of water. Far to the south as the eye could reach, the country looked dry and sandy. Eastward extended the river, or arm of the sea, but it appeared to have no current, other than the daily tides, and its shore gave no indication of being indented by rivulets, or even by the rains.
"It will put us to great inconvenience if we are not able to obtain fresh water," remarked Harold. "We shall be compelled to move our quarters without delay, for our supply cannot last long. However, there is no such thing as not trying. Which way shall we move?"
"Towards the sea," replied Robert. "There is one fact about a sandy coast, that perhaps you have had no occasion to know-that oftentimes our best water is found on the open beach, just about high-water mark. I have heard father explain this fact by saying that rain water is lighter than that which is salt; and that the rain probably filters through the sandy soil of the coast, and finds its vent just above the ordinary surface of the sea. I think, therefore, our best chance for finding fresh water is on the seashore, in the sand."
They had not proceeded far along the bluff before they heard a loud rushing in the air, and looking up they saw what Mary and Frank supposed to be a gang of enormously large buzzards, flying rapidly towards the forest, and passing very near them. "What can they be!" inquired Robert, in momentary doubt. "Really, Harold, they are turkeys! wild turkeys!"
But as he uttered the words "wild turkeys," bang! went Harold's rifle, and down fluttered a gobler, with his wing broken. "Here, Mum!" he shouted; but Mum knew his business too well to need exhortation, for by the time the bird had scrambled to its legs Mum had seized and held it, until Harold put an end to its struggles by cutting off its head.
"Here now is a fine dinner," said he, lifting it, "only feel how heavy; he is rolling fat."
"Yes, indeed," replied Robert; "and that was a quick shot of yours, Mr. Harold-with a rifle too. I wonder I did not think sooner of shooting; but in truth I was in doubt what they were, and also astonished at their number."
"What a lovely fan his tail will make!" exclaimed Mary, examining the rich stripes of black and brown that marked the end of the feathers. "We must be sure to carry it home for-," she was going to say "mother when she comes," but the thought of their forlorn condition came over her, and she added softly-"if we ever get there."
"Let us leave the turkey, hanging in this tree to bleed, until we return," said Harold; "we must look for water now."
They returned to the beach, and walked along the smooth hard sands. The tide, or rather "half tide" (as it is called on that coast), having an ebb and flow, each of three hours, was nearly down, and they had a full opportunity for the proposed search.
"There is water somewhere here about, you may be sure," said Harold, pointing to tracks of the dogs, made during the night, and partly obliterated by the tide. "Our dogs passed here last night before high water, and they look as if they had had plenty both to eat and to drink."
A quarter of a mile's walk brought them to a place, when Robert called out, "Here is the water! and here are our dogs' tracks, all about and in it. Get out you Mum! – begone Fidelle!" he added, as the dogs trotted up, intending to drink again. The water was good, and in great abundance. They quenched their thirst, and were preparing to return for the bucket to carry home a supply, when Harold suggested to pursue the tracks of the dogs a little further, and learn what they had obtained to eat. "I perceive not far off," said he, "what appears to be an oyster bank, but do dogs eat oysters?"
They proceeded to the spot, and found a large bank of uncommonly fine oysters. It was an easy task for those who knew how to manage it, to break the mouth of one with another and to cut the binding muscle with a pocket-knife. Harold shrunk aghast at the idea of eating an oyster alive; but Robert's example was contagious, and the assurance that this primitive mode of eating them was the most delicious, sufficed to make every one adopt it. Engaged in selecting some of the finest specimens to carry back, the others heard Frank call out, in one of his peculiarly merry exclamations:
"Ohdy! dody! Look here! There is a big, black cat's foot in this oyster's mouth. I wonder if the cat bit off his own foot!"
They hurried to the spot, Mary and Harold laughing at the odd fancy, as they esteemed it, of a cat biting off its own foot, and saw, not a cat's foot indeed, but that of a raccoon, firmly fastened in the oyster's mouth.
"What does this mean?" Harold inquired, with wonder.
"Why, Harold," replied Robert, "did you never hear of a raccoon being caught by an oyster?"
"Never," he answered; "but are you in earnest?"
"Certainly, in earnest as to there being such a report," he replied, "and this I suppose is proof of its truth. It is said that the raccoon is very fond of oysters, and that when they open their mouths, at a certain time of tide, to feed upon the scum of the water, it slips its paw suddenly between the shells, and snatches out the oyster before it has time to close. Sometimes, however, the raccoon is not quick enough, and is consequently caught by the closing shells. Such was probably the case with this fellow; he came to the bank last night to make a meal of the oysters, but was held fast until our dogs came up and made a meal of him."
"But I doubt," said Harold, "whether dogs ever eat raccoons. They will hunt and worry them as they do cats and other animals, which they never eat, at least never except in extremity."
"Then I suppose," added Robert, "we must account for this by another story which is told, that a raccoon, when driven to the necessity, will actually gnaw off its own foot."
"Really," said Harold, "this is a curiosity. I must take this oyster to the tent, and examine it more at my leisure."
The young people gathered as many oysters as they could carry in their hands, and reaching the tent about ten o'clock, began preparing them, together with their game, for the table. Robert cut off the squirrel's tail for Frank; and having drawn out the bone, without breaking the skin, inserted a tough, slender stick, so that when it was properly dried, Frank might use it as a plume. The preparation of the turkey's tail was undertaken by Harold. He cut off the tail-bone, with the feathers attached, and having removed every particle of flesh and cartilage not necessary for keeping the feathers together, he stretched it like a fan, and spread it in the ran to dry.
CHAPTER XI
DISCUSSION OF PLANS-DOUBTS-DIFFERENCES OF OPINION-WHAT WAS AGREED UPON-BAKING A TURKEY WITHOUT AN OVEN-FLYING SIGNAL
"Really this is a fine country!" said Robert, referring, with the air of a feasted epicure, to the abundant marooning dinner from which he had risen. "Wild turkey, squirrel, and oysters! I doubt whether our old friend Robinson Crusoe himself fared better than we."
"It is a fine place indeed," Harold replied; "and so long as our powder and shot last, we might live like princes. But, Robert," he continued, "it is time that we begin to determine our plan of operations. What shall we do?"
"Do!" echoed Robert, "why return home as soon as possible. What else have we to do?"
"To determine how we are to return and in what direction."
"Then I say," Robert replied, "the same way that we came, only a little nearer shore."
"But who can tell me the course?" Harold asked.
"Yonder," replied Frank, pointing to the sea.
"No, buddy," said Robert, "that is only our lastcourse; we came in from sea. Home is yonder," pointing nearly north.
"Now, I think you are both wrong," said Harold, "for according to my judgment home is yonder," pointing nearly east. "At least, I recollect that when I was working at the chain the sun was behind us, for my shadow fell in the water, and I do not recollect that we have changed our course since. So far as I know we started west, and kept west."
"That would have carried us into the open gulf," returned Robert.
"And that is exactly where I think we are," Harold affirmed.
"But there are no islands in the gulf," argued Robert, "nor land either, after you leave Tampa, until you reach Mexico. And we are surely not in Mexico."
"I do not know where we are," said his cousin. "I only know that we left home with our faces to the west, and that the water kept boiling under our bow for ten long hours. How fast we went, or what land we have reached, I know no more than Frank does."
"But we saw islands and points of land to our left," Robert insisted; "it is impossible for us to be in the gulf."
"Then where do you suppose we are!"
"On the coast of Florida, to the south of Tampa. There is no other place within reach, answering the description."
"But how do you know we are not on some island?"
"We may be on an island; but if so, it is still on the Florida coast," Robert replied, "for there are no islands beside these, nearer than the West Indies, and we are surely not on any of them."
Harold shook his head. "I cannot answer your reasoning, for you are a better scholar than I. We may be where you suppose; and I confess that without your superior knowledge of geography I should never have conceived it; but still my impression is, that neither of us know well enough where we are to warrant our going far from land. A voyage in an open boat upon a rough sea is no trifle. I am afraid of it. Put me on land, and I will promise to do as much as any other boy of my age; but put me on sea, out of sight of land, and I am a coward, because I know neither where I am, nor what to do."
"But what shall we do?" Robert inquired; "we cannot stay here for ever."
"No; but we can remain here, or somewhere else as safe, until we better understand our case," answered Harold. "And who knows but in the meantime some vessel may pass and take us home. One passed on yesterday."
Robert mused awhile, and replied, "I believe you are right as to the propriety of our waiting. Father will certainly set all hands to work to search for us. The vessel we saw yesterday will no doubt carry to him the news of their seeing us going in a certain direction at a certain time. He will be sure to search for us somewhere in this neighbourhood; and we had better on that account not move far away."
Mary and Frank were attentive, though silent listeners to this colloquy. Mary's colour went and came with every variation in their prospect of an immediate return. She was anxious, principally, on her father's account. Her affectionate heart mourned over the distress which she knew he must then be feeling; but when she came to reflect on the uncertainty of their position, and the danger of a voyage, and also that her father had probably ere this heard of them through the cutter, she was satisfied to remain. Poor Frank cried bitterly, when he first learnt that they were not to return immediately; but his cheerful nature soon rebounded, and a few words of comfort and hope were sufficient to make him picture to himself a beautiful vessel, with his father on board, sailing into their quiet river, and come for the purpose of taking them all home.
"Before we conclude on remaining here," said Harold. "I think it will be best for us to sail around the island, if it is one, and see what sort of a place it is."
This precaution was so just that it received their immediate assent. They fixed upon the next morning as the time for their departure; and not knowing how far they should go, or how long they might stay, they concluded to take with them all that they had.
"But," inquired Mary, "what shall we do with our large fat turkey?" (a part of it only having been prepared for the table); "shall we cook it here, or carry it raw?"
"Let us cook it here," said Harold; "I will show you how to bake it, Indian fashion, without an oven."
Among the articles put up by William were a spade and a hoe. With these Harold dug a hole in the dryest part of the beach; and, at his request, Robert took Mary and Frank to the tree above, and brought down a supply of small wood. The hole was two and a-half feet deep and long, and a foot and a-half wide, looking very much like a baby's grave. Frank looked archly at his cousin, and asked if he was going to have a funeral, now that he had a grave. "Yes," replied Harold, "a merry one." The wood was cut quite short, and the hole was heaped full; and the pile being set to burning at the top, Harold said,
"There is another little piece of work to be done, which did not occur to me until digging that hole. It is to set up a signal on the beach to attract attention from sea."
"I wonder we did not think of that before," remarked Robert. "It would certainly have been an unpardonable oversight to have left the coast, as we expect to do tomorrow, without leaving something to show that we are here, or in the neighbourhood."
The boys went to the grove, and cutting a long straight pole, brought it to the tent, and made fast to it the sheet which before had served them as a signal; after which the company went together to the sea shore, and planted the signal under the bluff, so that it could be distinctly seen from sea, but would be hidden from the land. This place was selected for the same reason that induced Harold to build his fire under the bluff-to avoid hostile observation. The young people looked up sadly yet hopefully to this silent watchman, which was to tell their coming friends that they were expected; and with many an unuttered wish turned their faces towards the tent.
The fire in the oven had by this time burnt down, but by reason of the dampness of the earth the hole was not hot enough. Another supply of wood was put in, and while it was burning our young marooners went to the oyster bank for another supply of oysters, then to the spring for water, and to the tree for wood. The labours of life were coming upon them.
A sufficient heat having been produced by the second fire, Harold requested Robert to clear the hole of all ashes, smoking brands, and unburnt bits of wood, while he went once more to the grove. He returned with a clean white stick, about a yard long, which he used as a spit for the turkey, resting the two ends in holes made at each end of the oven.
It was now nearly dark. The little company stood around the heated hole, admiring the simple contrivance by which their wild turkey was to be so nicely cooked, when, to the surprise of every one, Mary burst into a hearty laugh. Harold asked what she meant.
"I was thinking," she replied, almost choking with laughter, "how funny it will be tomorrow morning when you visit your grave, and come to take out your nice baked turkey, to find that the dogs had been to the funeral before you."
"That is a fact," said Harold, amused at the conceit. "I did not think of the dogs. But do you all come with me again for a few minutes, and I will make the oven secure from that danger also."
He led the way up the bluff, hatchet in hand, and loaded all with small poles and palmetto leaves. The poles were laid across the oven, and the palmetto leaves spread thickly above the poles. "I had forgotten this part of the ceremony," said Harold. "But this cover is put on not so much to keep the dogs out as to keep the heat in. I will show you at bed time a surer way to manage them."
"O, you will tie them up, hey?" asked Harry.
"Surely," he replied, "that is the cheapest way to keep dogs from mischief."
Buried almost hermetically in its heated cell, the turkey seasoned to their taste, was left to its fate for the night.