CHAPTER XXV.
THE BOYS ON THEIR TRAVELS. A GREAT CITY, AND A GREAT DINNER.
The conductor of that train need not have been much alarmed at fallingin with a "picnic" of any moderate size, for he would have had room inhis train to seat a good part of it, at least.
The boys had no difficulty in getting seats "all together." That is,they found four empty ones, two on each side, right opposite; and whenthey had turned over the front seats, there they were. Ford and Frankwere facing Dabney and Dick on the right; and the two Hart boys werefacing each other on the left, each with a whole seat to himself.
Almost the first thing Joe did, after taking possession, was to leanover, and whisper,--
"Look out, Fuz,--keep your secret."
"Catch me spoiling a good joke."
The other party seemed disposed to keep pretty quiet for a while; thefirst break of any consequence, in the silence, coming when Ford Fosterexclaimed,--
"Dab, it was right along here."
"What was?"
"Where the pig had his collision with my train, first time I was overhere."
"Did you hear him squeal?" asked Frank, as he peered through the window.
"The pig? No; but you ought to have heard the engine squeal, when it sawhim coming."
The story had to be all told over again, of course, and did good servicein getting their thoughts in order for the trip before them. Up to themention of the pig, it had somehow seemed to Dab as if therailway-platform at the station, and all the people on it, had keptcompany with the train; and Frank Harley found himself calculating thedistance between that car and the "mission" at Rangoon in far-awayIndia.
As for Ford Foster, he stood in less need of any "pig" than the rest,from the fact that he had a large-sized idea in his head.
He kept it there, too, until that train pulled up within reachingdistance of one of the Brooklyn ferries. Before them lay the swift tideof the broad East River; and beyond that, with its borders of crowdeddocks and bristling masts, lay the streets and squares, and swarmed themultitudes, of the great city of New York.
"Ford," said Dabney, "you're captain this time. What are we to do now?"
"Well, if I ain't captain, I guess I'd better do a little steering. Wemust give our checks to the expressman, and have our luggage carted overto the Grand Central Depot."
"Will it be sure to get there in good time?"
"Of course it wouldn't if we were in any hurry; but our train doesn'tleave until three o'clock, and the express won't fail to have it therebefore that."
Ford was all alive with the responsibilities of his position, as theonly boy in the party who had been born in the city, and had travelledall over it, and a little out of it.
"Joe and Fuz," he said, "will want to take the night boat for Albany.They've more time on their hands than we have. Joe?--Fuz?--why can't youcome along with us after you've checked your trunks? We'll be gettingdinner before long."
The Hart boys promptly assented, after a look at each other, and a sortof chuckle.
"Might as well keep together," said Joe. "We'd like to take a look atthings."
"Come along. I'll show you."
Frank Harley had seen quite a number of great cities, and he couldhardly help saying something about them while they were going over onthe ferryboat. They were all as far forward as they could get.
"Did you ever see any thing just like this?" asked Dab.
"Well, no, not just like it"--
"In India, or in China, or in London, or in Africa?" said Ford.
"It's a little different from any thing I ever saw."
"Well, isn't it bigger?"
That was a question Frank might have undertaken to answer if there hadbeen proper time given him; but just then the boat was running into her"slip," away down town, and Ford exclaimed,--
"Hurrah, boys! Now for Fulton Market and some oysters."
"Oysters?" said Dab.
"Yes, sir! There's more oysters in that old shanty than there are inyour bay."
"I don't know about that," said Dab, staring at the queer, huge, ricketyold mass of unsightly wood and glass that Ford was pointing at, afterthey got ashore. "I'm hungry, anyhow."
"Hungry? So am I. But no man ought to say he's been in New York tillhe's tried some Fulton-Market oysters."
"Let's take 'em raw," said Fuz. "Then we can go ahead."
Dick Lee had been in the city before, but never in such company, nor insuch very good clothes; and there was an expression on his face a gooddeal like awe, when he actually found himself standing at an"oyster-counter," in line with five well-dressed young white boys.
The man behind the counter served him, too, in regular turn; and Dickfelt it a point of honor to empty the half-shell before him as quicklyas any of the rest. There was no delay about that, anywhere along thatline of boys.
"Dick," said Ford, "where's your lemon? There it is!"
Ford had already explained to the rest that it was "against theconstitution and by-laws of Fulton Market to eat a raw oyster withoutthe lemon-juice," and Dick would have blushed if he could.
"Dat's so. I forgot um!" and then he added, with great care, "Yes, Mr.Foster, the lemon improves the oyster."
"I declare!" muttered Ford. "He's keeping it up!"
The oysters were eaten, and then it was "Come on, boys;" and away theywent up Fulton Street to Broadway. They walked two and two, as well asthe streams of people would let them, but the Hart boys kept a little inthe rear.
"What do you think of it, Joe?"
"Think of what?"
"Walking over New York with Dick Lee, just as if he was one of us?"
"Guess nobody'll think we're walking with him. Anybody can tell what weare, just by looking at us."
"Dick's face shows just what he is too. I don't care for this once, butit's awful."
If any such thought were troubling Ford Foster, he made no confession ofit, and was even specially careful, now and then, to turn around andaddress some remark or other to "the member from Africa," as he calledhim.
"Dick," said Dab in an undertone, as they were leaving the market, "youlook out, now: you must have as good a time as any of us, or I won'tfeel right about it."
"Jes' you sail right ahead, Cap'n Dab. I's on hand."
Ford was determined to "do the honors," and he led them down Broadway tothe Battery before he started "up town;" and he had something to sayabout a great many of the buildings. Dab felt his respect for city boysincreasing rapidly, and Dick remarked,--
"Ef he don't know dis coas' mos' as well as I know de bay!"
It looked like it, and he also seemed to be on terms of easyacquaintance with some of the human "fish" they fell in with. Not thathe spoke to any of them; but he pointed out the severalkinds,--policemen, firemen, messenger-boys, loafers, brokers,post-office carriers, a dozen more, with a degree of confidence whichfairly astonished his friends.
"I could learn to tell all of them that wear uniforms, myself," saidDabney; "but how do you know the others?"
"How do I know 'em? Well, it's just like knowing a miller or ablacksmith, when you see him. They all have some kind of smut on themthat comes from their trade."
There may have been something in that, or it may be barely possible thatFord now and then mixed his men a little, and pointed out brokers as"gamblers," and busy attorneys as probable pickpockets. He may have beentoo confident.
On they went, till the brains of all but Ford and Frank were in a sortof whirl. Even Dab Kinzer was contented to look without talking; andDick Lee, although he had not a word to say, found unusual difficulty inkeeping his mouth shut. It positively would come open, every time Fordpointed out another big building, and told him what it was.
They were not travelling very fast, but they were using a good deal oftime in all that sight-seeing; and walking is hungry business, and a fewraw oysters could not last six hearty boys very long.
"I say, Ford," sung out Joe from the rear, "isn't it getting pretty neartime for us
to think of getting something to eat?"
"We're 'most there now. We're going to have our dinner at theMagnilophant to-day."
"What's that?" said Frank.
"Never heard of it? Oh! You're the member from India. Well, it's thegreatest restaurant in the known world, or in Paris either. Beats anything on Long Island. Serve you up any thing there is, and no living mancan tell what he's eating."
Ford was in high spirits, and seemed all one chuckle of self-confidence.It was indeed a remarkably elegant establishment in its line, into whichhe led them a few minutes later.
There certainly was nothing like it on Long Island, whatever might betrue of Paris and other places outside of the "known world."
Dab Kinzer felt like walking very straight as he followed his "leader,"and Dick Lee had to use all the strength he had to keep himself fromtaking his hat right off when he went in.
There was any amount of glitter and shine, in all directions; and Dabhad a confused idea that he had never before believed that the worldcontained so many tables. Ford seemed wonderfully at home and at ease;and Dick found voice enough to say, half aloud,--
"Ain't I glad he's got de rudder, dis time? Cap'n Dab couldn't steert'rough dis yer."
The "steering" was well done; and it brought them nearly to the fartherend of the great, splendid room, and seated them at a round table thatseemed as well furnished as even Mrs. Foster's own. They all imitatedFord in hanging their hats on the appointed pegs before sitting down.
"Now, boys, what shall we have?" he said, as he gazed learnedly up anddown the printed bill of fare. "Speak up, Joe, Fuz, what's yourweakness?"
Every boy of them was willing to let Ford do his best with that part ofthe dinner; and he was hard at work deciding what soup and fish he hadbetter pick out, when the tall waiter who had bustled forward to receivethe coming "order," bent over his shoulder, and pointed to Dick Lee,inquiring,--
"Beg pardon, sah! Is dis young colored gen'l-man of youah party? It's'gainst de rules ob de establishment, sah."
Dab Kinzer felt his face flush fiery red; and he was on the point ofsaying something, he hardly knew what, when Ford looked calmly up intothe mahogany face of the mulatto waiter, with,--
"You refer to my friend from Africa? We'll talk about that after dinner.Gumbo soup and Spanish mackerel if you please. Sharp, now!"
"But, sah"--
"Don't be afflicted, my friend. He's as white as anybody, except onFridays: this is his black day. Hurry up the soup and fish."
Joe and Fuz were looking as if they were dreadfully ashamed ofsomething; but poor Dick was sitting up as straight as a ramrod, underthe influence of a glance that he had taken at the face of Dab Kinzer.
"I isn't goin' back on him and Ford," he said to himself. "I'd follerdem fellers right fru' dis yer eatin'-house."
Frank Harley seemed to be getting some information. In the country hehad lived in nearly all his life, "colored people" were as good asanybody if they were of the right sort; and a man's skin had little todo with the degree of respect paid him, although even there it was anexcellent thing to be "white."
As for the mulatto waiter, after a moment more of hesitation, he tookFord's order, and walked dignifiedly away, muttering,--
"Nebber seen de like afore. Reckon I isn't g'wine to tote soup and fishfor no nigger: I'll see de boss."
That meant an appeal to the lordly and pompous but quite gentlemanly"head waiter," a man as white as Ford Foster. A word or two to him, afinger pointed towards the upper end of the hall, and the keen eyes ofthe "man in authority" took it all in.
"Six of them,--five white and one black. Well, Gus, do they look as ifthey could pay their bill before they go?"
"Yes, sah, dey does. De young gen'lman wid de bill ob fare in his han',he's got moah cheek, an' moah tongue, an' moah lip, sah"--
"Well then, Gus, you just tramp right along. If he and the rest don'tcare, I don't. It'll be time enough for me to make a fool of myself whensomebody offers to pay me for it. Give 'em their dinner! Sharp!"
"It's jes' a mons'ous outrage," growled the offended waiter, as hestalked away; but he took good care to obey his orders, for he had aconsciousness that the eyes of his "master" were on him. He could hardlyhave guessed how completely his errand had been understood by the sixboys, or how closely Ford Foster had "hit it." Said he, in reply to anangry remark from Dab Kinzer,--
"It's all humbug. They run this concern to make money, and they wantsome of ours. Mr. Marigold'll be sent right back with our soup."
He was right; but, before they had eaten their way to the pie andpudding, Ford was dignifiedly informed,--
"If you please, sah, my name isn't Mr. Marigold, sah, it is Mr.Bellerington, sah; an' my first name isn't Coffee, sah, it's Augustus."
"You don't say," replied Ford: "well, Augustus, don't forget the littleremark I made about pie and the other things."
It was a capital dinner; and Ford was proud of it, for he had picked outevery item of it, from the soup to the macaroons. Dick Lee had enjoyedit hugely, after he began to feel that his first social victory had beenfairly won for him. Still, he had doubts in his own mind as to whetherhe would ever dare such another undertaking with less than five whiteboys along to "see him through."
Joe and Fuz ate well; but their spirits were manifestly low, for theywere painfully conscious of having forever lost the good opinion of thatmulatto waiter.
"But for Dick Lee's being with us," they thought, "he and everybody elsewould have known we were gentlemen. We'll never be caught in such a trapagain."
It is a very sad matter, no doubt, to lose the intelligent respect ofsuch gentlemen as Mr. Augustus Bellerington, but it sometimes has to bedone; that is, unless their good opinion is to be gained by some nicelittle stroke of sneaking cowardice.
Joe and Fuz stood it out, indeed, mainly because they were in some waymore afraid of Dab and Ford and Frank than they were of even Augustus.
That, too, was strange; for they were older than either of the others,and taller than any but Dabney himself.
The dinner was well eaten, and it was well paid for, as Dabney remarkedwhen he paid his share and half of Dick's; and then they were all in thestreet again, marching along, and "sight-seeing," towards the GrandCentral Railroad Depot.