More Tish | Page 5

portable stove and
the provisions. We each were obliged to pack a suitcase and carry that.
We started at dawn the next day. Hannah came down to the alley and
didn't think much of Modestine. By the time he was loaded a small
crowd had gathered, and when we finally started off, Tish ahead with
Modestine's bridle over her arm and Aggie and I behind with our
suitcases, a sort of cheer went up. It was, however, an orderly
leave-taking, perhaps owing to the fact that Tish's rifle was packed in
full view on Modestine's back.
I have a great admiration for Tish. She does not fear the pointing finger
of scorn. She took the most direct route out of town, and by the time we
had reached the outskirts we had a string of small boys behind us like
the tail of a kite. When we reached the cemetery and sat down to rest
they formed a circle round us and stared at us.
Tish looked at her watch. We had been an hour and twenty minutes
going two miles!
II
We were terribly thirsty, but none of us cared to drink from the
cemetery well; in fact, the question of water bothered us all that day. It
was very warm, and after we left the suburban trolley-line, where
motormen stopped the cars to look at us and people crowded to the
porches to stare at us, the water question grew serious. Tish had studied
sanitation, and at every farm we came to the well was improperly
located. Generally it was immediately below the pigsty.

Luckily we had brought along some blackberry cordial, and we took a
sip of that now and then. But the suitcases were heavy, and at eleven
o'clock Aggie said the cordial had gone to her head and she could go no
farther. Tish was furious.
"I told you how it would be!" she said. "For about forty years you
haven't used your legs except to put shoes and stockings on. Of course
they won't carry you."
"It isn't my feet, it's my head," Aggie sniffed. "If I had some water I'd
b-be all right. If you're going to examine everything you drink with a
microscope you might as well have stayed at home."
"I'd have died before I drank out of that last well," snapped Tish. "One
could tell by looking at that woman that there are dead rats and things
in the water."
"You are not so particular at home," Aggie asserted. "You use vinegar,
don't you? And I'm sure it's full of wrigglers. You can see them when
you hold the cruet to the light."
We got her to go on finally, and at the next well we boiled a pailful of
water and made some tea. We found a grove beside the road and built a
fire in our stove there, and while Modestine was grazing we sat and
soaked our feet in a brook and looked for blisters. Tish calculated that
as we had been walking for six hours we'd probably gone twenty-two
miles. But I believe it was about eight.
While we drank our tea and ate the luncheon Hannah had put up we
discussed our plans. Tish's original scheme had been to follow the
donkey; but as he would not move without some one ahead, leading
him, this was not feasible.
"We want to keep away from the beaten path," Tish said with a pickle
in one hand and her cup in the other. "These days automobiles go
everywhere. I'm in favor of heading straight for the mountain."
"I'm not," I said firmly. "Here in civilization we can find a barn on a

rainy night."
"There are plenty of caves in the mountains," said Tish. "Besides, to get
the real benefit of this we ought to sleep out, rain or shine. A gentle
spring rain hurts no one."
We rested for two hours; it was very pleasant. Modestine ate all that
was left of the luncheon, and Aggie took a nap with her head on her
suitcase. If we had not had the suitcases we should have been quite
contented. Tish, with her customary ability, solved that.
"We need only one suitcase," she declared. "We can leave the other two
at this farmhouse and pack a few things for each of us in the one we
take along. Then we can take turns carrying it."
Aggie wakened finally and was rather more docile about the suitcases
than we had expected. Possibly she would have been more indignant;
but her feet had swollen so while she had her shoes off that she could
hardly get them on at all, and for the remainder of the day her mind was,
you may say, in her feet.
At four we stopped again and