A Busy Year at the Old Squire'sStephens, C. A. (Charles Asbury)
History
A Busy Year at the Old Squire's
Stephens, C. A. (Charles Asbury)
Domestic fiction, American; Farm life -- Maine -- Fiction; Maine -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
At last we put him into the bunk and covered him as best we could with
our own coats, which we did not miss, since the camp was now as hot as
an oven. For more than an hour longer, however, his tremors continued in
spite of the heat. Addison and I took turns rushing outside to cut wood
from dry spruces to keep the stove hot. A little later, as I came in
with an armful, I found Addison watching Tom.
"Sh!" he said. "He's asleep."
The afternoon was waning; a cold, windy night was coming on.
"What shall we do?" Addison whispered in perplexity. "I don't believe we
ought to take him out; his clothes aren't dry yet. We shall have to stay
here all night with him."
"But what will the folks at home think?" I exclaimed.
"Of course they will worry about us," Addison replied gloomily. "But I'm
afraid Tom will get his death o' cold if we take him out. We ought to
keep him warm."
Our own wet clothes had dried by that time, and, feeling hungry, we ate
a part of our luncheon. Night came on with snow squalls; the wind roared
in the forest. It was so bleak that we gave up all idea of going home;
and, after bringing in ten or a dozen armfuls of wood, we settled down
to spend the night there. Still Tom slept, but he breathed easier and
had ceased to shiver. Suddenly he sat up and cried, "Help!"
"Don't you know where you are?" Addison asked. "Still dreaming?"
He stared round in the feeble light. "Oh, yes!" he said and laughed.
"It's the old camp. I tumbled into the brook. But what makes it so
dark?"
"It's night. You have been asleep two or three hours. We shall have to
stay here till morning."
"With nothing to eat?" Tom exclaimed. "I'm hungry!"
In his haste to set off from home with Ellen he had neglected to take
any luncheon. We divided with him what we had left; and he ate hungrily.
While he was eating, we heard a sound of squalling, indistinct above the
roar of the wind in the woods.
"Bobcat!" Tom exclaimed. Then he added, "But it sounds more like an old
gander."
"May be a flock of wild geese passing over," Addison said. "They
sometimes fly by night."
"Not on such a cold night in such a wind," Tom replied.
Soon we heard the same sounds again.
"That's an old gander, sure," Tom admitted.
"Seems to come from the same place," Addison remarked. "Out on Papoose
Pond, I guess."
"Yes, siree!" Tom exclaimed. "A flock of geese has come down on that
pond. If I had my gun, I could get a goose. But my gun is in Wild
Brook," he added regretfully. "I let go of it when I fell in."
The squalling continued at intervals. The night was so boisterous,
however, that we did not leave the camp and after a time fell asleep in
the old bunk.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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