Raftmates
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RAFTMATES
A Story of the Great River
by
KIRK MUNROE
Author of
"Dorymates" "Campmates" "Canoemates" Etc.
Illustrated
[Frontispiece: "Winn dashed away with the speed of a deer."]
New York and London
Harper & Brothers Publishers
1902
Copyright, 1893, by Harper & Brothers.
All rights reserved
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
I. THE RAFT
II. WINN ASSUMES A RESPONSIBILITY
III. A MUD-BESPATTERED ARRIVAL FROM CALIFORNIA
IV. BILLY BRACKETT STARTS DOWN THE RIVER
V. HOW THE VOYAGE WAS BEGUN
VI. MR. GILDER AND HIS RUDE RECEPTION
VII. A GANG OF "RIVER-TRADERS"
VIII. DISAPPEARANCE OF THE RAFT
IX. ALONE ON THE ISLAND
X. A NIGHT OF STRANGE HAPPENINGS
XI. BILLY BRACKETT'S SURPRISING SITUATION
XII. THE TRAPPERS TRAPPED
XIII. WINN'S LONELY CRUISE
XIV. A PEAL OF GIRLISH LAUGHTER
XV. "CAP'N COD," SABELLA, AND THE "WHATNOT"
XVI. BIM MAKES AN ENEMY
XVII. THE TRUTH, BUT NOT THE WHOLE TRUTH
XVIII. FOLLOWING THE TRAIL
XIX. A CURIOUS COMPLICATION
XX. BIM GROWLS
XXI. EVERY ONE EXPLAINS
XXII. A "MEWEL" NAMED "REWARD"
XXIII. REWARD RUNS AWAY WITH THE PANORAMA
XXIV. WINN DISCOVERS HIS LONG-LOST RAFT
XXV. THE RAFT AND SHOW-BOAT CHANGE CREWS
XXVI. A DISASTROUS COLLISION
XXVII. IS THIS OUR RAFT OR NOT?
XXVIII. THE RESCUE OF SABELLA
XXIX. BIM BRINGS ABOUT A JOYFUL MEETING
XXX. IN CLOD'S CABIN
XXXI. CAMPMATES TURN RAFTMATES
XXXII. THE "RIVER-TRADERS" ATTEMPT TO REGAIN POSSESSION
XXXIII. WHERE IS BIM?
XXXIV. A BLAZE ON THE RIVER
XXXV. BIM'S HEROISM
XXXVI. THE MASTER OF MOSS BANK
XXXVII. BIM'S COON
XXXVIII. THE GREAT RIVER AND ITS MISCHIEF
XXXIX. HURLED THROUGH THE CREVASSE AND WRECKED
XL. A MEETING OF MATES
ILLUSTRATIONS.
"WINN DASHED AWAY WITH THE SPEED OF A DEER" . . . _Frontispiece_
"WINN SECURED ONE END OF THE CABLE TO THAT
PART OF THE BOOM RESTING AGAINST THE SNAG"
"'WHY, THE RAFT HAS GONE!' EXCLAIMED ELTA"
"'HOLD ON, YOUNG MAN! ONE AT A TIME IS ENOUGH'"
"A BROAD STREAM OF WHEAT RUSHED OUT ON DECK"
"'WATCH HIM, BIM!'"
"'WHO'S THERE?' CRIED THE OLD MAN"
"BILLY BRACKETT UTTERED A CRY OF AMAZEMENT"
WINN'S INTRODUCTION TO SABELLA
BILLY BRACKETT IS A FRIEND IN NEED
"THE MULE WAS PURCHASED THAT AFTERNOON"
"WITH A PRODIGIOUS LEAP HE LANDED SQUARELY ON REWARD'S HEAD"
"'THE RAFT HAS GONE, AND WE ARE AFTER IT'"
THE RESCUE OF SABELLA
"THE NEXT INSTANT HE SPRANG TO HIS FEET WITH A CRY"
"THE STRONG ARMS LIFTED HIM AS THEY WOULD A CHILD"
"LIKE YOUNG TIGERS THE BOYS TUGGED AT THE HEAVY SWEEPS"
"'YO' CALLIN' DAT AR PLANTASHUN MOSS BACK?' EXCLAIMED SOLON"
"THE LANTERNS OF THE WORKING GANG GLANCING HERE AND THERE
LIKE FIRE-FLIES"
A REUNION OF "MATES"
RAFT MATES.
CHAPTER I.
THE RAFT.
Although the _Venture_ was by no means so large a raft as many that
Winn Caspar had watched glide down the Mississippi, he considered it
about the finest craft of that description ever put together. He was
also a little more proud of it than of anything else in the whole
world. Of course he excepted his brave soldier father, who had gone to
the war as a private, to come home when it was all over wearing a
major's uniform; and his dear mother, who for four weary years had been
both father and mother to him, and his sister Elta, who was not only
the prettiest girl in the county, but, to Winn's mind, the cleverest.
But outside of his immediate family, the raft, the _Venture_, as his
father had named it, was the object of the boy's most sincere
admiration and pride. Had he not helped build it? Did he not know
every timber and plank and board in it? Had he not assisted in loading
it with enough bushels of wheat to feed an army? Was he not about to
leave home for the first time in his life, to float away down the great
river and out into the wide world on it? Certainly he had, and did,
and was. So no wonder he was proud of the raft, and impatient for the
waters of the little river, on a bank of which the Caspar's lived, to
be high enough to float it, that they might make a start.
Winn had never known any home but this one near the edge of the vast
pine forests of Wisconsin. Here Major Caspar had brought his New
England bride many years before. Here he had built up a mill business
that was promising him a fortune in a few years more at the time when
the war called him. When peace was declared, this business was
wellnigh ruined, and the soldier must begin life again as a poor man.
For many months he struggled, but made little head-way against adverse
fortune. The mill turned out lumber fast enough, but there was no
demand for it, or those who wanted it were too poor to pay its price.
At length the Major decided upon a bold venture. The Caspar mill was
but a short distance from the Mississippi. Far away down the great
river were cities where money was plenty, and where lumber and farm
products were in demand. There were not half enough steamboats on the
river, and freights were high; but the vast waterway with its ceaseless
current was free to all. Why should not he do as others had done and
were constantly doing--raft his goods to a market? It would take time,
of course; but a few months of the autumn and winter could be spared as
well as not, and so it was finally decided that the venture should be
undertaken.
It was not to be a timber raft only. Major Caspar did not care to
attempt the navigating of a huge affair, such as his entire stock of
sawed material would have made, nor could he afford the expense of a
large crew. Then, too, while ready money was scarce in his
neighborhood, the prairie wheat crop of that season was unusually good.
So he exchanged half his lumber for wheat, and devoted his leisure
during the summer to the construction of a raft with the remainder.
This raft contained the very choice of the mill's output for that
season--squared timbers, planks, and boards enough to load a ship. It
was provided with two long sweeps, or steering oars, at each end, with
a roomy shanty for the accommodation of the crew, and with two other
buildings for the stowing of cargo. The floors of these structures
were raised a foot above the deck of the raft, and were made
water-tight, so that when waves or swells from passing steamboats broke
over the raft, their contents would not be injured. In front of the
central building, or "shanty," was a bed of sand six feet square,
enclosed by wooden sides, on which the camp-fires were to be built.
Much of the cooking would also be done here. Besides this there was a
small stove in the "shanty" for use during cold or wet weather.
The "shanty" had a door and three windows, and was in other ways made
unusually comfortable. The Major said that after four years of
roughing it, he now meant to take his comfort wherever he could find
it, even though it was only on a raft. So the _Venture's_ "shanty" was
very different from the rude lean-to or shelter of rough boards, such
as was to be seen on most of the timber rafts of the great river. Its
interior was divided into two rooms, the after one of which was a tiny
affair only six by ten feet. It was furnished with two bunks, one
above the other, a table, two camp-chairs, and several shelves, on one
of which were a dozen books of travel and history. This was the
sleeping-room that Winn was to share with his father.
A door from this opened into the main living-room of the "shanty."
Here were bunks for six men, a dining-table, several benches, barrels,
and boxes of provisions, and the galley, with its stove and ample
supply of pots, pans, and dishes. The bunks were filled with fresh,
sweet-smelling wheat straw, covered with heavy army blankets, and the
whole affair was about the most comfortable "shanty" ever set up on a
Mississippi timber raft. To Winn it seemed as though nothing could be
more perfect or inviting, and he longed for the time when it should be
his temporary home.
For a whole month after the raft was finished, loaded, and ready to set
forth on its uncertain voyage, it remained hard and fast aground where
it was built. To Winn's impatience it seemed as though high-water
never would come.
"I don't believe this old raft is ever going to float any more than the
mill itself," he remarked pettishly to his sister Elta one day in
October, as they sat together on the _Venture_ and watched the sluggish
current of the little river.
"Father thinks it will," answered Elta, quietly.
"Oh yes. Of course father thinks so; but he may be mistaken as well as
other folks. Now if I'd had the building of this craft, I would have
floated all the material down to the mouth of the creek. Then
everything would have been ready for a start as soon as she was
finished."
"How would you have loaded the wheat?" demanded Elta.
"Why, boated it down, of course."
"And so added largely to its cost," answered the practical girl. "You
know, Winn, that it was ever so much cheaper to build the raft here
than it would have been 'way down there, and, besides, father wasn't
ready to start when it was finished. I heard him tell mother that he
didn't care to get away before the 1st of November. Anyhow, father
must understand his own business better than a sixteen-year-old boy,
even if that boy's name is Winn Caspar."
"Oh, I never saw such a girl as you are!" exclaimed Winn, impatiently.
"You are always making objections to my plans, and telling me that I'm
only a boy. You'd rather any time travel in a rut that some one else
had made than mark out a track for yourself. For my part, I'd much
rather think out my own plans and try new ways."
"So do I, Winnie; but--"
"Oh, don't call me 'Winnie,' whatever you do! I'm as tired of pet
names and baby talk as I am of waiting here for high-water that won't
ever come."
With this the petulant lad rose to his feet, and leaping ashore,
disappeared among the trees of the river-bank, leaving Elta to gaze
after him with a grieved expression, and a suspicion of tears in her
brown eyes.
In spite of this little scene, Winn Caspar was not an ill-tempered boy.
He had not learned the beauty of self-control, and thus often spoke
hastily, and without considering the feelings of others. He was also
apt to think that if things were left to his management, he could
improve upon almost any plan proposed or carried out by some one else.
He had mingled but little with other boys, and as "man of the family"
during his father's four years of absence in the army, had conceived a
false estimate of his own importance and ability.
Absorbed by pressing business cares after resuming the pursuits of a
peaceful life, Major Caspar had been slow to note the imperfections in
his boy's character. He was deeply grieved when his eyes were finally
opened to them, and held many an earnest consultation with his wife
concerning the son, who was at once the source of their greatest
anxiety and the object of their fondest hopes.
CHAPTER II.
WINN ASSUMES A RESPONSIBILITY.
It was during one of these conversations with the boy's mother that
Major Caspar decided to take Winn with him on his raft voyage down the
Mississippi.
"If I find a good chance to place the boy in a first-class school in
one of the large cities after the voyage is ended I shall do so," said
the Major. "It is only fair, though, that he should have a chance to
see and learn something of the world first. After all, there is
nothing equal to travel as an educator. I honestly believe that the
war did more in four years towards educating this nation by stirring
its people up and moving large bodies of them to sections remote from
their homes than all our colleges have in fifty."
"But you mean that Winn shall go to college, of course?" said Mrs.
Caspar, a little anxiously.
"If he wants to, and shows a real liking for study," was the reply;
"but not unless he does. College is by no means the only place where a
boy can receive a liberal education. He may acquire just as good a one
in practical life if he is thoroughly interested in what he is doing
and has an ambition to excel. I believe Winn to be both ambitious and
persevering; but he is impulsive, easily influenced, and impatient of
control. He has no idea of that implicit obedience to orders that is
at the foundation of success in civil life as well as in the army; and,
above all, he is possessed of such an inordinate self-conceit that if
it is not speedily curbed by one or more severe lessons, it may lead
him into serious trouble."
"Oh, John!" expostulated the mother. "Do you realize that you are
saying these horrid things about our own boy--our Winn?"
"Indeed I do, dear," answered the Major, smiling; "and it is because he
is our boy, whom I love better than myself, that I am analyzing his
character so carefully. He has the making of a splendid fellow in him,
together with certain traits that might easily prove his ruin."
"Well," replied Mrs. Caspar, in a resigned tone, "perhaps it will do
him good to go away and be alone with you for a while. It is very hard
to realize, though, that my little Winn is sixteen years old and almost
a man. But, John, you won't let him run any risks, or get into any
danger, will you?"
"Not knowingly, my dear, you may rest assured," answered the Major.
But he smiled as he thought how impossible it was to keep boys from
running risks and getting into all sorts of dangerous positions.
So it was decided that Winn should form one of the crew of the
_Venture_ whenever the raft should be ready to start on its long
voyage; and ever since learning tins decision the boy had been in a
fever of impatience to be off. So full was he of anticipations
concerning the proposed journey that he could talk and think of nothing
else. Thus, after a month of tiresome delay, he was in such an
uncomfortable frame of mind that it was a positive trial to have him
about the house. For this reason he was encouraged to spend much of
his time aboard the raft, and was even allowed to eat and sleep there
whenever he chose. At length he reached the point of almost
quarrelling with his sister, whom he loved so dearly; but he had hardly
plunged into the woods, after leaving her on the raft, before he
regretted his unkind words and heartily wished them unsaid. He
hesitated and half turned back, but his "pride," as he would have
called it, though it was really nothing but cowardice, was too strong
to permit him to humble himself just yet. So, feeling very unhappy, he
tramped moodily on through the woods, full of bitter thoughts, angry
with himself and all the world. Yet if any one had asked him what it
was all about, he could not have told.
Winn took a long circuit through the silent forest, and by the time he
again reached the river-bank, coming out just above the mill, he had
walked himself tired, but into quite a cheerful frame of mind. The
mill was shut down for the night, its workers had gone home, and not a
sound broke the evening stillness. The boy sat on a pile of slabs for
a few minutes, resting, and watching the glowing splendor of sunset as
reflected in the waters of the stream at his feet. At length he
started up and was about to go to the house, where, as he had decided,
his very first act would be to ask Elta's forgiveness. The house stood
some distance from the river-bank, and was hidden from it by the trees
of a young apple orchard. As Winn rose to his feet and cast a
lingering glance at the wonderful beauty of the water, he noticed a
familiar black object floating amid its splendor of crimsons and gold.
"I wonder how that log got out of the boom?" he said, half aloud.
"Why, there's another--and another! The boom must be broken."
Yes, the boom of logs, chained together end to end and stretched
completely across the creek to hold in check the thousands of saw-logs
that filled the stream farther than the eye could see, had parted near
the opposite bank. The end thus loosened had swung down-stream a
little way, and there caught on a snag formed of a huge, half-submerged
root. It might hold on there indefinitely, or it might get loose at
any moment, swing wide open, and set free the imprisoned wealth of logs
behind it. As it was, they were beginning to slip through the narrow
opening, and those that had attracted Winn's attention were sliding
downstream as stealthily as so many escaped convicts.
The boy's first impulse was to run towards the house, calling his
father and the mill-hands as he went. His second, and the one upon
which he acted, was to mend the broken boom and capture the truant logs
himself. "There is no need of troubling father, and I can do it alone
better than any number of those clumsy mill-hands," he thought.
"Besides, there is no time to spare; for if the boom once lets go of
that snag, we shall lose half the logs behind it."
Thus thinking, Winn ran around the mill and sprang aboard the raft that
lay just below it. Glancing about for a stout rope, his eye lighted on
the line by which the raft was made fast to a tree. "The very thing!"
he exclaimed. "While it's aground here the raft doesn't need a cable
any more than I need a check-rein, and I told father so. He said there
wasn't any harm in taking a precaution, and that the water might rise
unexpectedly. As if there was a chance of it! There hasn't been any
rain for two months, and isn't likely to be any for another yet to
come."
While these thoughts were spinning through the boy's brain, he was
casting loose the cable at both ends and stowing it in his own little
dugout that was moored to the outer side of the raft. Then with strong
deep strokes he paddled swiftly upstream towards the broken boom.
After fifteen minutes of hard work he had secured one end of the cable
to that part of the boom resting against the snag, carried the other to
and around a tree on the bank, back again to the boom, and then to the
inshore end of the broken chain. Thus he not only secured the boom
against opening any wider, but closed the exit already made.
[Illustration: "Winn secured one end of the cable to that part of the
boom resting against the snag."]
"That's as good a job as any of them could have done," he remarked to
himself, regarding his work through the gathering gloom with great
satisfaction. "Now for the fellows that got away."
It was a much harder task to capture and tow back those three truant
logs than it had been to repair the boom. It was such hard work, and
the darkness added so much to its difficulties, that almost any other
boy would have given it up in despair, and allowed the three logs to
escape. But Winn Caspar was not inclined to give up anything he had
once undertaken. Having determined to do a certain thing, he would
stick to it "like a dog to a root," as one of the mill-hands had said
of him. So those logs had to go back inside of that boom, because Winn
had made up his mind that they should; but they went so reluctantly,
and gave him so much trouble, that it was long after dark and some
hours past supper-time before the job was completed.
When Winn at length returned to the raft he was wet, tired, and hungry,
though very proud of his accomplished task. He was shivering too, now
that his violent exertions were ended, for the sky had become overcast,
and a chill wind was moaning through the pine-trees.
"I wonder if I can't find something to eat here?" he said to himself.
"I'm good and hungry, that's a fact, and they must have had supper up
at the house long ago." Entering the "shanty," and feeling carefully
about, the boy at length found matches and lighted a lamp.
Hello! There was plenty to eat; in fact, there was a regular spread at
one end of the table, with plate, cup and saucer, knife, fork, and
napkin, all neatly arranged as though he were expected. "What does it
mean?" thought Winn; and then his eye fell on a bit of folded paper
lying in the plate. It was a note which read as follows:
"DEAR BROTHER,--As you didn't come home to supper, I thought perhaps
you were going to spend the night on the raft, and so brought yours
down here. You can heat the tea on the stove. I'm awfully sorry I
said anything to make you feel badly. Please forget it, and forgive
your loving sister,----ELTA."
"Bless her dear heart!" cried the boy. "She is the best sister in the
world. The idea of her asking my forgiveness, when it is I who should
ask hers. And I will ask it, too, the very minute I see her; for I
shall never be happy until we have kissed and made up, as we used to
say when we were young ones. I guess, though, I'll eat the supper she
has brought me first. And that's a good idea about heating the tea,
too. I can get dry by the stove at the same time. I'll have a chance
to see Elta before bedtime, and she'd feel badly if I didn't eat her
supper anyway."
All of which goes to show how very little we know of what even the
immediate future may bring forth, and that if we put off for a single
hour doing that which ought to be done at once, what a likelihood there
is that we may never have a chance to do it.
CHAPTER III.
A MUD-BESPATTERED ARRIVAL FROM CALIFORNIA.
Acting upon the suggestion contained in Elta's note, Winn lighted a
fire in the galley stove, and was soon enjoying its cheery warmth.
When the tea was heated, he ate heartily of the supper so thoughtfully
provided by the dear girl, and his heart grew very tender as he thought
of her and of her unwearying love for him. "I ought to go and find her
this very minute," he said to himself; "but I must get dry first, and
there probably isn't any fire up at the house."
To while away the few minutes that he intended remaining on the raft,
Winn got one of the books of exploration from a shelf in the little
after-room, and was quickly buried in the heart of an African forest.
Completely lost to his surroundings, and absorbed in tales of the wild
beasts and wilder men of the Dark Continent, the boy read on and on
until the failing light warned him that his lamp was about to go out
for want of oil.
He yawned as he finally closed the book. "My! how sleepy I am, and how
late it must be," he said. "How the wind howls, too! It sounds as if
we were going to have a storm. I only hope it will bring plenty of
rain and high-water. Then good-bye to home, and hurrah for the great
river!"
By this chain of thought Winn was again reminded of Elta, and of the
forgiveness he had meant to secure from her that evening. "It is too
late now, though," he said to himself. "She must have gone to bed long
ago, and I guess I might as well do the same; but I'll see her the very
first thing in the morning."
With this the tired boy blew out the expiring flame of his lamp, and
tumbled into his bunk, where in another minute he was as sound asleep
as ever in his life.
In the mean time the high-water for which he hoped so earnestly was
much nearer at hand than either he or any one else supposed. The storm
now howling through the pines had been raging for hours about the
head-waters of the creek, and the deluge of rain by which it was
accompanied was sweeping steadily down-stream towards the great river.
Even as Winn sat by the stove reading, the first of the swelling waters
began to rise along the sides of the raft, and by the time the storm
broke overhead the _Venture_ was very nearly afloat.
Although Winn slept too soundly to be disturbed by either wind or rain,
the storm awoke Major Caspar, who listened for some time to this
announcement that the hour for setting forth on his long-projected
journey was at hand. He had no anxiety for the safety of the raft, for
he remembered the stout cable by which he had secured it, and
congratulated himself upon the precaution thus taken. "Besides, Winn
is aboard," he reflected, "and he is almost certain to rouse us all
with the joyful news the minute he finds that the raft is afloat."
Thus reassuring himself, the Major turned over and went comfortably to
sleep.
Elta knew nothing of the storm until morning, but hearing the rain the
moment she awoke, she too recognized it as the signal for the
_Venture's_ speedy departure. From her window she had heretofore been
able to see one corner of the raft; but now, peering out through the
driving rain that caused the forest depths to appear blue and dim, she
could not discover it. With a slight feeling of uneasiness, she
hastily dressed, and went to Winn's door. There was no answer to her
knock. She peeped in. Winn was not there, nor had the bed been
occupied.
"He did spend the night on the raft, then, and so of course it is all
right," thought the girl, greatly relieved at this discovery. "The
_Venture_ must be afloat, though. I wonder if father knows it?"