The Voyage of the Hoppergrass | Page 6

one or two trials (which nearly upset the tender) managed to climb
in. He stood up in the stern, and raised his hand toward the sky, again,
as if he were "speaking a piece" in school.
"Safe! Safe, at last!" he cried.
At this instant the painter became taut; the small boat gave a sudden
jerk, and he went overboard again like a flash, head first.
Captain Bannister turned his head to see how the young man was
getting on. Of course the boat was empty.

"Where'n the nation has he got to, now?" exclaimed the bewildered
Captain.
We were all doubled up laughing, but we managed to gasp out: "He's
gone overboard again!"
"What's he done that for?"
"He--he--fell over!"
"Fell over? What'n the dickens did he do that for? Where is he,
anyhow?"
At this moment the sandy head, and astonished face came up, once
more, in our wake. He brushed the water out of his eyes, looked at us,
and began to smile again.
"Say, you!" shouted the Captain, "be you comin' on this boat, or what
be you goin' to do?"
The swimmer gasped.
"If you keep on at that rate," he called, "I'm probably NOT coming. If
you'll wait a bit, though, I'll--"
Here he swallowed a mouthful of water, and stopped speaking. He
waved one arm at us, however, and seemed to smile cheerfully.
"Well, I'll come back once more,--d'yer hear?" This from the Captain.
"An' when yer get aboard, STAY aboard, will yer?"
The "Hoppergrass" turned again, and the same performance was gone
through. The pink-shirted man climbed into the tender, but this time he
sat down cautiously in the stern, and waited for the painter to become
taut. It had not slackened however, so there was no chance for another
such accident as that which knocked him overboard before. He watched
the painter for a moment, and then shook his fist at it.
"Fooled you that time, you old rope!"

Jimmy and Ed pulled the tender alongside, and the wet man stepped
gingerly aboard the "Hoppergrass." His clothes stuck tight to him, and
his shoes made a squshy sound, wherever he stepped. But he insisted
on shaking hands with us, all around.
"If you hadn't come just when you did," he remarked solemnly, "I
should have been devoured by sharks. Already I had noticed a black fin
circling about the island--I mean a LEAN, black fin,--or is it a low,
rakish, black fin? No; that's a craft,--a low, rakish, black craft. It was a
LEAN, black fin--"
Captain Bannister gave a great snort of disgust.
"SHARKS!" he exclaimed, "there aint no sharks in this river!"
"No? Well, probably you are more familiar with it than I am."
"Guess I ought to know something 'bout it," the Captain returned; "I've
been on it longer than most folks 'round here."
"On it LONGER, no doubt," said the young man, politely, "but have
you gone into it any deeper than I?"
The Captain smiled.
"Well, no; I guess not. You've got me there, all right."
The stranger perched himself on the house, and there was a moment's
silence until the Captain spoke again.
"But how in the nation did yer git on that there sand-bar, anyway?
Where'd yer come from?"
"I came from--what was the name of that place where I got off the train?
I thought I'd remember it,--I remembered it by gammon and
spinach--yes, that's it,--it's in that, somehow--"
' Rowley, Powley, Gammon and Spinach,--Heighho! says Anthony--'"

"Rowley!" we all exclaimed.
"That's it! that's it! Rowley. Think of living at a place so famous as that!
It sounds like great fun. But nobody does live there. When I got off the
train there was only one man in sight, and he was standing on a wharf
watching a steamboat go up the river, or down the river, or whatever it
is. That was MY boat,--I was going to Duck Island in her. But she'd
gone, and the man said he'd let me take a canoe, for half a dollar, and I
thought that was very trusting of him, for how did he know I'd ever
bring it back? But he said I could leave it with a man named Pike, who
lives on Little Duck Island, and he'd get it tomorrow. So I gave him
half a dollar, and then I came away in the canoe. Aren't they wabbly? I
never was in one before."
"Did you paddle down here in a canoe? And you'd never been in one
before?"
"Yes. That is, I didn't do much with the paddle,--except push off from
the bank every now and then. The canoe seemed to come along pretty
well. How that river does twist! And it's very narrow,--I should think
the steamboat would stick."
The Captain opened his