CHAPTER VII.

CHARLIE PLANS A SURPRISE FOR SALLY.

There was a certain article of household use that Charles had for a long time been desirous of making for his mother; but he wanted to surprise her with it. This seemed to him almost an impossibility, as she never went from home; but the opportunity now presented itself.

When they were all seated at the supper-table, John said to Ben, “Father sent me over to see if you and Sally would come home to Thanksgiving,--it’s Thursday,--and stay over Sabbath, and have a good visit.”

“I should like above all things to go,” said Sally; “but I don’t see how I could leave home so long.”

“Yes, you can leave,” said Ben; “you haven’t stepped off this island since we came on it. It will do you good, and do us all good.”

“O, do go, mother,” said Charlie, who had his own reasons for wishing to get her out of the house, and was rejoiced at the prospect of accomplishing it; “it will soon be so rough that there will be no getting over, at least for women folks, this winter.”

“But who will take care of you?”

“Take care of me! I’ll take care of myself, and everything else, too. I can milk, and cook, and see to everything.”

“But would you not be afraid to stay here all alone?”

“Afraid! Poor vagabond children, like me, don’t have any fears; they can’t afford to. It’s rich people’s children, that are brought up nice, have fears. Such wanderers as I am, if they only have enough to eat, and a place to put their head in, they are all right.”

“What a speech that is!” said Joe. “I’ve always heard that a barrel might have as large a bung-hole as a hogshead, and now I believe it.”

“I’ll come over and stay with him,” said John; “I’m sure I would rather be here than at home.”

“Father and mother wouldn’t agree to that, John; but you may tell them we’ll come and stay over Sabbath.”

The next Wednesday morning, to Charles’s great delight, they started, and Joe with them, as he was going home to Thanksgiving. The moment they were out of sight, Charlie commenced operations. He went up chamber, where was some clear stuff,--boards and plank,--which now would be worth eighty dollars a thousand, if indeed such lumber could be procured at all, and taking what he needed, brought it down to the bench in the front room. He then went up on the middle ridge, cut down a black cherry tree, and taking a piece from the butt, split it in halves, and brought it into the house. As he now had all his material, he made up a good fire and went to work. His saw and hammer went all the time, except when he was asleep, or doing the necessary work. As for cooking, he lived most of the time on bread and milk, because he did not wish to take the time from his work to cook. He had, indeed, abundance of time to do what he was intending, a regular mechanic would have done in a third part of the time; but Charlie was a boy, and though very ingenious, had to learn as he went along, and stop very often and think a long time how to do a thing; and sometimes he made a mistake and did it wrong, or made a bad joint, and then away it went into the fire.

“If I make a blunder,” said Charles, “nobody shall be the wiser for it.” Charles was by no means the only apprentice who has spoiled lumber in learning, as the stove in many a joiner’s shop would testify, if it could speak.

Ben and Sally had a most delightful time. They staid Wednesday night at Captain Rhines’s; Thursday they went to meeting, and Sally saw all her old friends, and the girls she knew before she married, and had to tell over the story about the pirates I don’t know how many times.

But there was a little incident that took place at meeting that mortified Ben very much. He entertained a very great respect for religion, and would not for the world have done anything in a light or trifling manner in the house of God. It was the fashion in those days to wear very large watches, and very large seals attached to a large chain. Ben had a watch-seal that was made in Germany, in which was a music-box, that, being wound up, would play several very lively tunes. After being wound up, it was set in operation by pressing a spring. In the morning, before they went to meeting, Ben, in order to gratify John and Fred Williams, who were in to go to meeting with him, had been playing with it, and Uncle Isaac coming in, he left it wound up, and went to meeting. While the minister was at prayer, Ben, in leaning against the pew, pressed the spring, and off started the music-box into a dancing tune. There was no such thing as stopping it till it ran down. It is useless to attempt to describe the effect of such unwarranted and unhallowed sounds breaking upon the solemn stillness of an old-time congregation.

Ben’s face was redder than any fire-coal, while his body was in a cold sweat. Sally felt as though she should sink through the floor. Mrs. Rhines looked up to see if the roof was not about to fall and crush them all; while the young people, totally unable to suppress their merriment, tittered audibly. Ben stood it a few moments, and then left the assembly, the seal playing him out.

After stopping a night at the widow’s, they went over to Uncle Isaac’s, as he declared, unless they spent a night with him, he would never step foot on the island again. He invited John Strout and all the Rhineses to tea. John had a great many inquiries to make of Ben, in respect to Charles, who told him about his being caught in the snow squall.

“He’s good grit--ain’t he?” said John.

“Yes, John; he’s a good, brave, affectionate boy as ever lived; and I love him more and more every day.”

“There, Uncle Isaac!” cried John Rhines, “what have I always told you? You’ll give up now--won’t you?”

“Yes, John; I’ll give up. I suppose you feel better now--don’t you?”

“Yes, Uncle Isaac, I do feel better; for I never could like anybody as I want to like Charlie, that you had any doubt about. I don’t believe in liking at the halves.”

Upon their return Charles met them at the shore, delighted to see them, and evidently bursting with some great secret.

“Charles has been doing something special, I know,” said Sally; “just look at him.”

The boy was hopping and skipping along before them, scarcely able to contain himself.

They went to the end door, which Charles flung open with a great air. Behold, there was a sink under one of the windows. It had a wooden spout that went through the logs out doors, a shelf on top to set the water-pails on, and another long shelf over it on which to keep milk-pans or pails, or any other things, which, being in constant use, it was important to have always at hand. Underneath the sink was a closet, with a door hung on the neatest little wooden hinges that you ever saw, of a reddish color, polished so that they shone, and wooden buttons to close it. In addition to this, he had made a little wooden trough of cherry tree, that would hold about a quart, with a handle on one side, that was made out of the solid wood: this was to keep the soap in that was used about the sink.

Sally screamed outright with joy. “O, how glad I am!” she said, and gave Charlie a kiss, that more than paid him for all his labor. “I shall have such a nice place to keep all my kettles under the sink, and my milk-pails and other things on this long shelf. I can wash my dishes right in the sink, and shan’t have to run to the door with every drop of water, and let so much cold in every time I open it. A sink in a log house! O, my! I never thought I should arrive at that. There’s not another one in town. If anybody wants to see a sink, they have got to come on to Elm Island. How came you to think of that, you good boy?”

“Why, the people in England have sinks, and I meant you should. There’s not a woman in England so good as you are.”

Ben stopped up the sink-spout, and turned in two pails of water. He then examined the joints. It didn’t leak a drop. After this he turned his attention to the hinges.

“What did you make these hinges of, Charles? They are almost as handsome as mahogany.”

“Of cherry tree.”

“How did you know that cherry tree was a handsome wood?”

“Because I saw a gun-stock John had, that he said was made of it; and he showed me the tree.”

“How did you give them such a polish?”

“I rubbed them with dogfish skin, and oiled them.”

“Where did you get a dogfish this time of year?”

“Uncle Isaac gave me the skin.”

“Where did you get an auger small enough to bore these hinges?”

“I borrowed it of Uncle Isaac.”

“How long have you had this in your head?”

“Ever since the time you let me go over to see John. I wanted to do something, and I thought of this.”

Ben was highly gratified, not merely with the excellence of the work, but at the evidence it afforded that Charlie had a grateful heart.

Charlie knew very well that Ben’s object in sending him over with the fish was not so much for the sake of selling the fish, and obtaining the groceries, as to afford him an opportunity to see John, and do him a kindness; and he longed in some way to repay it.

Sally, in the mean while, had been looking with great curiosity at the table, which was set back close against the wall, evidently covered with dishes that contained something, which, whatever it might be, was concealed by two large table-cloths.

“What is on that table, Charles?” said she.

“My! that’s guessing, mother.”

He removed the cloth, and there were a chicken-pie, and two apple-pies, and a baked Indian pudding.

“Didn’t I tell you I could cook, mother?” said Charlie, greatly delighted at her astonishment.

“Well, Charlie,” said Ben, “that is as good a piece of work as any joiner could make. You could not have employed your time better than you have in making that sink. It will be a great help to your mother in doing her work, and a daily convenience and comfort to all of us. There is but one thing it lacks; that is a moulding where the closet joins the sink, to cover the joints, and make a finish.”

“Yes, father; I had not time to make that, because I wanted to get dinner, that mother might not come home, and have to go right to cooking the moment she got in the house.”

“To make it look just right, there should be a bead on the edge, or something of the kind; but I have no tool that it can be done with.”

“I have, father; I borrowed one of Uncle Isaac.”

“You must have got well into the good graces of Uncle Isaac, for he don’t like to lend his tools. But how did you bring these tools, that I have never seen them?”

“You know when I went over to see John, Uncle Isaac sent you a bag of apples.”

“Yes.”

“Well, I put them in there; and when I came to the shore I hid them in the woods, in a hollow tree, on the western point.”

“I know how you feel. I suppose you would not like very much to have anybody see it in an unfinished state, or till you get that moulding on.”

“I shouldn’t like to have Uncle Isaac or John see it; and I should like to get it all done, if I could, before Joe gets back, because he’s a real judge of things, and would be apt to make some queer speech, if it was not finished.”

“Well, then, you may finish it to-morrow; and take all the time you want, and make it as nice as you please.”

“O, thank you, father; I am ever so much obliged to you.”

“Come,” said Sally, “let us see what this boy’s pies and cookery tastes like. O, you rogue! I see now what you was so anxious to get me away from the island for. But what have you lived on, Charlie; I don’t see as you have cooked much.”

“I couldn’t afford the time to cook; so I lived on bread and milk, and bread and butter; but I am going to make it up now.”

They had a real social meal, and pronounced Charles’s cookery excellent. They also told him all the news,--where they had been, what they had seen, and what John was doing. They said that there was a great quantity of alders in a little swale near the house, almost as large as a man’s leg; that they made a real hot fire, and would burn well when they were green; that John was cutting these, and hauling them with his steers, on a sled, for there was snow on the main land, though there had been none to last any time on the island. It was often the case, that, when it was snowing on the main land, it rained upon the island. It also, when it fell, thawed off much sooner, as the sea-water kept the temperature down. Thus, all the snow that came during the storm Charles was caught in, had already disappeared from the island, while on the main John Rhines could haul wood.

As Charles was in a great measure cut off from all society of his own age, he was never happier than when working with tools, seeming to take the greatest delight in making those things that were useful. Ben permitted him to have the stormy days to himself, when he was always at work at the bench, and did not set him to making shingles or staves, except occasionally, in order that he might learn the art; for it is quite an art to shave shingles well and fast. Joe Griffin was the boy for that.

Saturday night brought Joe, and the work in the woods was resumed.