Rudder Grange | Page 9

in regard to them, but, for some reason or other, he says
nothing.
CHAPTER III.
TREATING OF A NOVEL STYLE OF GIRL.
One afternoon, as I was hurrying down Broadway to catch the five
o'clock train, I met Waterford. He is an old friend of mine, and I used to
like him pretty well.
"Hello!" said he, "where are you going?"
"Home," I answered.
"Is that so?" said he. "I didn't know you had one."
I was a little nettled at this, and so I said, somewhat brusquely perhaps:
"But you must have known I lived somewhere."
"Oh, yes! But I thought you boarded," said he. "I had no idea that you
had a home."
"But I have one, and a very pleasant home, too. You must excuse me
for not stopping longer, as I must catch my train."
"Oh! I'll walk along with you," said Waterford, and so we went down

the street together.
"Where is your little house?" he asked.
Why in the world he thought it was a little house I could not at the time
imagine, unless he supposed that two people would not require a large
one. But I know, now, that he lived in a very little house himself.
But it was of no use getting angry with Waterford, especially as I saw
he intended walking all the way down to the ferry with me, so I told
him I didn't live in any house at all.
"Why, where DO you live?" he exclaimed, stopping short.
"I live in a boat," said I.
"A boat! A sort of 'Rob Roy' arrangement, I suppose. Well, I would not
have thought that of you. And your wife, I suppose, has gone home to
her people?"
"She has done nothing of the kind," I answered. "She lives with me,
and she likes it very much. We are extremely comfortable, and our boat
is not a canoe, or any such nonsensical affair. It is a large, commodious
canal-boat."
Waterford turned around and looked at me.
"Are you a deck-hand?" he asked.
"Deck-grandmother!" I exclaimed.
"Well, you needn't get mad about it," he said. "I didn't mean to hurt
your feelings; but I couldn't see what else you could be on a canal-boat.
I don't suppose, for instance, that you're captain."
"But I am," said I.
"Look here!" said Waterford; "this is coming it rather strong, isn't it?"

As I saw he was getting angry, I told him all about it,--told him how we
had hired a stranded canal-boat and had fitted it up as a house, and how
we lived so cosily in it, and had called it "Rudder Grange," and how we
had taken a boarder.
"Well!" said he, "this is certainly surprising. I'm coming out to see you
some day. It will be better than going to Barnum's."
I told him--it is the way of society--that we would be glad to see him,
and we parted. Waterford never did come to see us, and I merely
mention this incident to show how some of our friends talked about
Rudder Grange, when they first heard that we lived there.
After dinner that evening, when I went up on deck with Euphemia to
have my smoke, we saw the boarder sitting on the bulwarks near the
garden, with his legs dangling down outside.
"Look here!" said he.
I looked, but there was nothing unusual to see.
"What is it?" I asked.
He turned around and seeing Euphemia, said:
"Nothing."
It would be a very stupid person who could not take such a hint as that,
and so, after a walk around the garden, Euphemia took occasion to go
below to look at the kitchen fire.
As soon as she had gone, the boarder turned to me and said:
"I'll tell you what it is. She's working herself sick."
"Sick?" said I. "Nonsense!"
"No nonsense about it," he replied.

The truth was, that the boarder was right and I was wrong. We had
spent several months at Rudder Grange, and during this time Euphemia
had been working very hard, and she really did begin to look pale and
thin. Indeed, it would be very wearying for any woman of culture and
refinement, unused to house-work, to cook and care for two men, and
to do all the work of a canal-boat besides.
But I saw Euphemia so constantly, and thought so much of her, and had
her image so continually in my heart, that I did not notice this until our
boarder now called my attention to it. I was sorry that he had to do it.
"If I were in your place," said he, "I would get her a servant."
"If you were in my place," I replied, somewhat cuttingly, "you would
probably suggest a lot of little things which would