Chapter 45

IN WHICH PHIL UNDERTAKES A HEAVY JOB.

"How big is this house, Phil?" asked Lieutenant Jackson, as I rowed him up to Paradise Island.

"It is thirty feet long and fifteen wide."

"I haven't heard anything said about the manner of transporting it," added the officer.

"We must raft it down. We have taken up all the ropes we have. Mr. Gracewood told me how to handle the grand piano."

"The grand piano," laughed Mr. Jackson. "That's a pretty plaything to have away back here in the woods."

"Mr. Gracewood sets his life by that piano. He used to smoke and play upon it by the hour together. He is very fond of music."

"I should think he must be, to bring a grand piano out here. How heavy is it?"

"It weighs about eight hundred pounds. Mr. Gracewood told me to have it put in the box, and leave it here till some steamer can be hired to bring it down."

"Tho rain and dampness will spoil it."

"He told me to wrap it up in the oil-cloth that belongs with it; but, if you are willing, Lieutenant Jackson, we will astonish him by taking it down with us."

"I think it would astonish me as much as him to see it done."

"We can do it."

"I hear that you are an engineer, Phil," added my passenger. "Morgan says you engineered the job of transporting the gun."

"The grand piano is not more than two or three hundred pounds heavier than the twelve-pounder."

"That is adding a third, and the gun was on wheels."

"No matter for that; we had but three to do that, and now we have a dozen."

"How will you do it, Phil?"

I explained my plan, and Mr. Jackson thought it was practicable.

"I suppose Mr. Gracewood and his family intend to remain at the clearing after we have moved the house," continued my companion in the barge.

"I don't know. I don't believe his wife and daughter will be content to stay a great while in this lonely place. They may live here during the summer; but in winter we don't see anybody or anything for months."

"What do you do in winter?"

"I have been studying for several years."

"I thought you talked very well for a boy brought up in the woods."

"I don't have anything to do for six months in the year but take care of the horses, and do the housework. I read and study about twelve hours a day in winter. I took up Latin and French last season."

"Indeed! You will make a learned man if you keep on. Have you no desire to see more of the world?"

"Sometimes I have. I don't think I shall stay here many years longer."

"I shouldn't think you would. Why do you study Latin and French?"

"Only because I like them. It is a very great pleasure to me to puzzle out the sentences. Mr. Gracewood is a great scholar, and has plenty of books on the island. I believe I have read them all, except the dictionaries. He had given me a lot of books, which he sent to St. Louis for."

"I should think you would want to know something about your family--your father and mother," added the lieutenant, to whom Mr. Gracewood had related the substance of my history.

"I do, sometimes; but I am almost sure I should learn that one or both of them were lost in the steamer."

"Perhaps not. Mr. Gracewood thinks your foster-father did very wrong in not causing some inquiries to be made for your parents."

"I think so myself; but I can excuse him when I consider how much he did for me, and the reason why he kept still," I replied, as I ran the barge upon the shore at the lower end of the island.

"Have you any of the clothing, or other articles, found upon you?"

"I don't know of any."

"Almost every little child has a necklace, a ring, or some other ornament upon it, especially when travelling."

"Matt Rockwood never said anything to me about such matters. He has a chest at the Castle, which he always kept locked, and I don't know what there is in it."

"Didn't you open it after he was killed?"

"No; the key was buried with him, and I did not exactly like to break it open yet. Besides, I have been so driven about since we buried him that I haven't had much time to think about it."

"I would open it, if I were you."

"I shall," I replied, as we walked up the slope towards the house.

"Perhaps there is something valuable in it."

"I know there is money in it, for we have sold a great deal of wood, and he always put the gold into that chest."

"You may be a rich man yet, Phil."

"I don't know that the money belongs to me. I suppose Matt had friends and relatives somewhere, though I don't know where they are."

"You have done as much as Matt, of late years, to earn this money, and it would be a hard case to have it taken from you by his relations."

"I think it would. Matt did most of the chopping, and I did all the hauling. But I meant to be honest, and the money shall go wherever it belongs."

"Have you any idea how much there is?"

"Not the least; but I don't suppose there is a great deal," I replied, as we reached the house.

"If I can help you, Phil, call upon me at any time. I shall be at the fort above for a year or two, probably."

"Thank you, Mr. Jackson. You have been very kind to me. I shall always remember you."

The soldiers had removed most of the boards on the sides of the house, and were now taking off the roof. The lieutenant ordered some of his men to bring up the piano box, which was in a rude shanty used as a storehouse for supplies. All the force that could get hold of the piano then placed it sidewise upon four chairs, and we took off the legs. The instrument was then wrapped in the oil-cloth, and placed in the box, where it could not be injured by a falling board or timber. Raising the case upon three rollers, which I had prepared for the purpose, we easily slid it out of the house on a track of boards.

"Now, Mr. Jackson, if you will let Morgan help me, we will move this box down to the river," said I, when it was ready.

"But you want half a dozen men," added he.

"No, sir. Let all the rest of the men take down the house. We can do this alone. It is a long job, and we must have it moving at once."

"Just as you say, Phil," laughed the officer.

The distance to the river was about eighty rods. The forest was open enough, the greater part of the way, to permit the passage of the box, and only near the river should we be obliged to cut away the young trees. We demolished the old shanty, and taking half a dozen of the boards, laid down a track towards the river. The ground was nearly level for a short distance, and we used levers to propel the box forward. As fast as one roller ran out in the rear, we placed it forward, and thus managed to keep both ends of the box up all the time.

"Why couldn't we move the house without taking it to pieces, Phil?" said the lieutenant, laughing, as he watched the operation.

"We could, sir, if the trees were not in the way. It would be more work to cut a track through the woods wide enough for the house than to take it to pieces and put it together."

"Do you really think you could move the house, without taking it to pieces, if the trees were not in the way?"

"I know I could."

"You have a good deal of confidence in yourself."

"I was brought up in the woods, where we have to do our own thinking."

"How would you take it down the river?"

"There are hundreds of cotton-wood sticks, from forty to sixty feet long, on the shore. We could make a raft of them, that would keep the building right side up."

"But, after your raft got started, how could you stop it, and haul it in at the mouth of Fish River? The current here is not less than four miles an hour."

"That would be the greatest difficulty about the job. I should have some sweeps on the raft, and a dozen men could crowd it over against the north shore, where we could send a couple of ropes on shore, and check it by catching a turn around the trees."

"Very likely you would do it, Phil; but it's lucky we haven't the job on our hands."

"I wish we had, for I should enjoy the fun, if I were boss of the job."

We continued to roll the box on its way down to the river, carrying the boards forward as we passed over them, until we came to the downward slope, when the heavy weight was inclined to travel faster than was safe for it. But I had a rope on the case, for I had already provided for the emergency. Making it fast to the rear end of the box, I passed it round a tree, and while Morgan eased it down the slope, I shifted the rollers. When the whole length of the line had been run out, we changed it to another tree.

As the descent increased, we found that the rope canted the box, so that it was in danger of running off the board track. Morgan cut down a tree about thirty foot high, and trimmed off its branches. We placed the stick across the track behind the box, and above two trees. Passing the rope around this timber, we had our purchase in the right place. When we shifted the cross stick down the hill, the box was held by a couple of props. In this manner we descended the slope. It was dinner time then, and we halted in our triumphant progress to refresh ourselves with boiled bacon and johnny-cake.

After dinner we resumed our labor. Taking the axes, we cleared a road through the young wood near the river. We had occasionally been obliged to use the shovels to level off the ground, and the axes to remove a stump, or a small tree. Our course had been rather devious also, in order to obtain the smoothest path. A couple of hours more enabled us to reach the river. We placed the box near a convenient place to embark it. We then prepared a dozen logs for the foundation of the great raft we were to make of the lumber, and returned to the house.

I found the soldiers growling at the idea of lugging all the boards and timbers down to the river.

"Don't do it," said I to Mr. Jackson.

"They must do it, or leave them here."

"No, sir, I think not. There is not a board nor a timber here that is more than twelve feet long. We can make three or four piles of the boards, and roll them down to the river, as we did the grand piano."

"Bully for you, Phil!" said a lazy soldier, in a low tone.

"You may try it, Phil," replied Mr. Jackson.

Morgan and I made a pile of boards eight feet long, three feet wide, and three feet high. We were careful to "break joints" in laying up the pile, and it was a compact mass when finished. We started it for the river, on the rollers.