Chapter 24
"GOOD LUCK TO THE BRIDE"
"Do you think it is very funny, Tom?" inquired Phil. She and Madge, Lillian, Eleanor and the four motor launch boys were on the deck of the "Sea Gull." They were gliding down the Rappahannock toward the great Chesapeake Bay. Moving gracefully behind the motor boat was the familiar form of the "Merry Maid." A group of older people sat out on her deck, gazing along the sun-lit shores of the river. The cruise of the houseboat was almost over.
Tom Curtis hesitated at Phil's question. "I ought not to say it is funny," he returned, "but I really think it is."
"Don't any of you dare to let Miss Betsey know you think so," warned Madge.
Eleanor looked aggrieved. "I am sure I don't know what there is funny about it," she protested. "I think it is lovely. Only it wasn't nice in Miss Betsey not to let us be her bridesmaids." Eleanor gazed across the little space of water to where Mr. and Mrs. John Randolph sat together on the deck of the "Merry Maid" with the blind child, Alice.
Madge laughed softly. "Miss Betsey said she felt enough like a fool, being married at her age, without having a lot of young girls standing around to laugh at her. But John Randolph wouldn't let her take care of him unless she did marry him, and she had no idea of separating him from his grandchild," concluded Madge.
"What a lot of things have happened this summer," remarked Lillian. "Who would have thought that we should leave David Brewster in Virginia! Mr. Preston says that if David will work for him he will help him go to college."
"David is a bully fellow!" declared Tom. "I don't think we understood him just at first."
"Yes, and Tom Curtis is another," teased Madge; "only he won't blow his own horn, unless it is his fog-horn. Tom offered to pay David's expenses at college if he would come home with us, but David said he thought it would be better for him to earn his own way."
Miss Jenny Ann waved frantically from the deck of the houseboat.
"Tie up along shore, Tom; it is growing late. Remember, this is our last supper party together this summer," she called out.
It was the first week in September. The evening had grown unexpectedly cool when Tom ran the two boats up by the river bank. In the morning they were to put into shore at a nearby town, and the little company of friends would disband to travel to their homes in various parts of the country. So for to-night they had planned to have a wonderful feast on land, and to make it their good-bye memory of their summer cruise.
Tom had selected a line of open shore, with a grove of chestnut trees just back of it.
Each member of the party went on land, bearing boxes, lunch-hampers and baskets of fruit. Tom staggered under a particularly large box that was very tall and round, as though it contained a new Easter bonnet with feathers standing straight up on it.
Madge and Phil marched behind him, urging him to be careful every foot of the way.
"Girls!" cried Miss Betsey excitedly, coming up beside them with her bonnet over one ear and her long cape flying out behind her, "I have a confession to make to you; I had better out with it before I forget it. You remember those small sums of money that I vowed I had lost when we were first aboard the houseboat?"
Both girls nodded, though their faces clouded at the recollection.
"Well, they were not stolen at all," announced Miss Betsey shamefacedly. "I am an old woman, children, in spite of my present performances. I had tucked that money away in the little table drawer in my cabin on the houseboat; I suppose I meant to use it for something, and then forgot it. I have a short memory for some things and a long one for others," Miss Betsey's eyes twinkled as her husband came up to join her.
Harry Sears and George Robinson made a huge campfire near the spot where the voyagers had chosen to have their supper. Miss Jenny Ann got out the big coffee pot. The rest of the party started in to spread the feast on a big damask table cloth that Miss Betsey had arranged on the grass.
"Madge, you and Tom Curtis go off to some place to find water for the lemonade," ordered Miss Betsey. Madge and Tom each seized a large tin bucket. Not far off they could see a funny little log house that must belong to one of the river men, it was set so close to the river. They would find water there.
"I have something important to tell you, Madge," said Tom. He began searching diligently in his coat pocket for something, pulled out half a dozen letters, his knife and pocket-book, then with a blank look he exclaimed, "Jiminy! I hope I haven't lost it. Mother will never forgive me if I have."
"Lost what?" demanded Madge.
"Why, Mother sent you a present, and I have forgotten to give it to you. Now I am afraid I have lost it somewhere."
"Tom Curtis, put down that wretched bucket and hunt for it until you find it," insisted Madge. "What's that sticking out on the front pocket of your coat?"
Tom smiled in a relieved fashion as he handed Madge a box about four inches square. "It's Mother and it's a beauty," he announced.
Madge opened the box to find an exquisite miniature of her friend, Mrs. Curtis. It was painted on ivory and was about the size of a locket. Around it were exquisite pearls, and it hung on a slender gold chain.
The little captain's eyes filled with tears as she looked at it. "I would rather have it than anything in the world," she murmured. In the lining of the box Madge found a note, written on a card: "For my Madge," it read, "whom I shall never cease to wish to have for my daughter."
"I have something to tell you, too," added Tom. "My sister, Madeleine, is going to be married."
Madge nearly dropped her gift in her excitement. "Married! Madeleine! What do you mean? Whom is she going to marry? Why didn't you tell me before?" she demanded, all in one breath. "Do hurry and tell me."
Tom laughed. "You'll never guess. She is going to marry the Judge Hilliard who rescued you and Phil the night that that wretched Mike Muldoon put you out of his sailboat. Judge Hilliard has always been a friend of ours, you know. At first Madeleine was just grateful to him for what he did for her. Afterward"--Tom colored--"I suppose she fell in love with him. I am not quite sure as to what it means to 'fall in love.' But Madeleine isn't going to be married for a year. Then she wants the four houseboat girls to be her bridesmaids."
Madge clasped her hands in rapture. "Won't it be fun!" she exclaimed. "But do hurry on, Tom, or we shall never get the water for the lemonade."
They were almost back with their other friends when Tom had finished his mother's message: "When Madeleine is married, Mother means to ask you again to be her adopted daughter, Madge," continued Tom; "and you know how much I want you."
Madge shook her auburn head, her face pale with emotion. "It is too soon to talk about it, Tom," she answered. "You see, when I finish school I am going first to hunt for my father."
"Madge and Tom, do hurry here this minute!" scolded Phil from her seat on the grass. "The lemonade is all ready, except pouring on the water, and we are waiting supper for you."
The two boat parties were in a great circle about the big table cloth, with Mr. and Mrs. John Randolph at the head as the guests of honor of the feast.
It was growing dark, but the bushes and trees nearby were strung with lanterns borrowed from the two boats. The feast was almost over when Madge whispered something in Tom's ear and Phil nodded emphatically.
Tom slipped away, to return bearing the big box which he had carried so tenderly up from the houseboat.
Between them Madge and Phil lifted out a mammoth wedding cake and placed it, with a flourish, in the center of the feast. "You wouldn't have a wedding supper at Mrs. Preston's, Miss Betsey--Mrs. Randolph, I mean," announced Madge, "so we have made you have it here." Madge handed her a knife, saying, "You must cut your own wedding cake."
"I can't cut it," protested Mrs. Randolph; "it is too lovely." On top of the cake was an exquisite frosted ship, made to represent the houseboat. Six tiny dolls danced about it, Phil, Lillian, Eleanor, Madge, Miss Jenny Ann and Miss Betsey! On it was written in icing: "Good luck to the Bride."
It was too dark to see the bride's radiant old face as she cut into her wedding cake, but her hand trembled.
A minute later Eleanor gave a little cry of surprise. In biting her cake she had come across a small gold ring.
"Eleanor will be married first, but I shall be the richest," announced Lillian, as she held up a bright silver dime. "Who will be the old maid?"
Nobody spoke, but Madge produced a small, bent thimble. "I am going to be the old maid, of course. Haven't I always said so?" she inquired.
"_Not_ if I know it!" whispered Tom into Madge's unheeding ears.
"Come on, children, to the boats," ordered Miss Jenny Ann, a little later. "Night has come on. We must say good-bye. We won't have any farewells, even in the morning. They are too dismal. But pleasant dreams on the houseboat and the motor launch. And may we meet again!"
Miss Jennie Ann's wish was prophetic. There were other happy times in store for the four girls and their teacher on board their beloved "Ship of Dreams," the "Merry Maid." What happened to them during a summer at Cape May and how Madge kept her vow to find her father are fully set forth in "MADGE MORTON'S VICTORY," the record of another summer vacation spent at the seashore which no friend of the little captain and her chums Lillian, Phyllis and Eleanor, not to mention Miss Jenny Ann Jones, can afford to miss reading.
THE END.
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Transcriber's Note:
Page 14 Yet is was impossible to _changed to_ Yet it was impossible to
Page 26 Phillis was a little girl _changed to_ Phyllis was a little girl
Page 63 as she re-appeared on deck _changed to_ as she reappeared on deck
Page 137 fullstop removed after chapter heading ELEANOR GETS INTO MISCHIEF
Page 234 David found an unexpected champon _changed to_ David found an unexpected champion
End of Project Gutenberg's Madge Morton's Trust, by Amy D. V. Chalmers