CHAPTER VI.
HOW IT ENDED.
Yes, no doubt Prudy would have liked it if her mother had approved; forthen she could have gone with a clear conscience, and also without fear.But Prudy had suffered in her short life a great deal of what we call"discipline," and had learned pretty thoroughly the lesson of obedience.She knew it is never of the least use for little girls, or any one else,to expect to be happy in the wrong way.
"Straight is the line of duty, Curved is the line of beauty; Follow one, and thou shalt see The other ever following thee."
This means, when put into child's English, that if we try aboveeverything else to have a good time, we never have it; but if we tryfirst of all to do right, then the good time will come of itself. Dottycertainly had not tried to do right: now we will see if that beautiful"curved line" of happiness followed her.
She was very young, or she would have known better than to trust herselfon the ocean with a little boy like Solly Rosenberg, even if her motherhad not forbidden it: but Dotty was rash; her bold spirit never feareddanger.
If she, or any of the rest of the party, had only looked at the sky! Butif they had, I dare say they would have made nothing of it. There wereclouds scudding about up there like shadowy sail-boats, and the sun hadto fight his way through them, till by and by he gave it up entirely,and never so much as peeped out. By that time it was decidedly badweather; the light had to be sifted through heavy gray curtains.
This made such a difference with the appearance of everything! Theworld, which had looked, an hour ago, so gay and light-hearted, was nowrather gloomy. The waves, instead of sparkling, only foamed and bubbled;indeed they grew larger every moment, for the wind was blowing a gale.The white sea-gulls hovered over the bay, flapping their wings; andDotty had never liked sea-gulls. She began to grow a very little uneasy.
"It was naughty for _us_ to come," thought she, anxious to divide thesin with her companions; "_we_ ought to have minded our mothers."
If the sky had continued fair, it may be Dotty would not have felt soguilty, though you and I know the weather had nothing to do with thesin; disobedience is disobedience always, whether it rains or shines.
The little Jewess grew very pale, said she was dizzy, and wished tochange places with Dotty.
"Keep still, can't you, girls?" cried Johnny; "if you fuss round so theboat'll be sure to upset."
Johnny looked as dignified as if he had navigated ships across theAtlantic Ocean over and over again; but then, alas! his arms were solittle! I suppose his paddle had nearly as much effect as if it had beenan iron spoon; and he probably knew as much about boating as he didabout the dead languages. Solly and Freddy were several years older, andconsiderably wiser; but the wisdom of all these five children, if ithad been compounded together, would not have amounted to the wisdom ofthe three wise men of Gotham who went to sea in a bowl.
"O, dear!" screamed Dotty.
"O, dear! dear! _dear!_" cried Lina; "the water rolls in over the top!"
"Can't you steer for the shore, Solly Rosenbug?" said Dotty.
"You hadn't oughter made us come," sobbed Lina.
Johnny joined the mournful chorus.
"There goes my hat! You were in pretty business knocking it off my head,Dot Dimple!"
"I never; and I didn't mean to," replied Dotty, too much subdued toretort with her usual spirit.
"Fish it out with the paddle," remarked Solly, coolly.
This was intended as a joke, for the hat was already bounding far, faraway over the waste of waters. Dotty knew she should always be accusedof losing it, though in her secret soul she was sure the wind had blownit off. But a new hat, as we all know, is a mere trifle when we havegone to sea in a bowl! The first thing we think of is how to get home.
"Ahem!" ejaculated Solly, at last, "if you are really afraid, Lina, Isuppose we'd better go ashore!"
Lina clapped her hands. "O, do! do! do!"
"Yes, indeed," said Dotty; "and, Solly, don't you bump _too_ hardagainst the shore, 'cause 'twould spill us out."
It was very easy to talk about touching the shore: all the difficultylay in being able to do it. Not that it was so very distant; indeed, itwas in full sight, "so near, and yet so far!" If the wind had only beenquiet, instead of "cracking its cheeks!" But, as it was, the boat rockedfearfully, and seemed to be blowing directly away from the land.
Solly and the deaf and dumb boy looked at each other with eyes whichseemed to say,--
"The thing is coming to a pretty pass! Only you and I to manage thiscraft, and we neither of us know what we are about! But we'll keep astiff upper lip, and make believe we do!"
"Why, Solly Rosenbug!" said Dotty, catching her breath, "you're goingjust the other way!"
"O, Solly Rosenberg," echoed Lina, "you're going the wrong way! There'sthe shore, off there!"
"Well, well," said Solly, his "stiff upper lip" very white, "we'recoming round to it after a while: you just sit still."
"Yes," said Johnny, puffing very hard, and churning the foam with hispaddle, as if he were whipping eggs with a beater, "yes, girls, _we_shall row round to it after a while, _if_ you'll only keep still!"
I dare say Johnny thought the most of this commotion was made by hispaddle. He was quite as consequential, in his way, as the fly who sat ona wagon-wheel, and said to the wagon, as it rattled down hill, "What anoise we make!"
"We wouldn't put for the shore at all," continued Johnny, "if it wasn'tfor you girls."
At that moment a remarkably high wave leaped over the side of the boat,and wet Johnny to the skin.
"Just enough wind to make it pleasant!" gasped the little fellow.
"O, dear! O, dear!" sighed the girls, in despair.
"Ugh! how my arms ache!" groaned Johnny, stopping to rub them. "Guess Iwouldn't say much if I was nothing but a girl, and didn't have topaddle!"
"O, you needn't fuss with that paddle any longer, Johnny Eastman," saidSolly, who had hitherto paid no heed to the little boy's vigorous butuseless struggles; "you just drop it; it doesn't amount to anything."
"What! what!" cried Johnny, looking very much insulted. "How are youever going to get ashore without ME, I'd like to know?"
All this while the boys were growing crimson in the face from thegigantic efforts they made, and the girls very pale with fright. Sollykept repeating,--
"Don't you be afraid, girls!" but his voice faltered as he said it; andas for Freddy Jackson, the trembling of his mute lips was as eloquent asspeech. The two boys might put on what blustering airs they pleased--itall amounted to nothing; there was more power in the wind than in themuscles of their small arms. The boat would not go near the shore:anywhere else but there. The sky grew more and more threatening, and thewind increased in force.
"We're going to be drow--drow--drownded!" screamed Dotty; "and I toldyou so: I knew it before! O, if Susy was here with a shingle!"
"We're going to be drownded!" cried Lina; "and, Solly Rosenberg, youhadn't oughter made me come!"
"And you told an awful, wicked story," struck in Dotty, "for, SollyRosenberg, you said you's old enough to row, and you're nowhere nearold enough; and, O! O! O! you don't know how. And I'll tell my father!And he'll never know where I am! And my mother's gone away to aunt MariaClifford's, and I'm going to be dead when she gets back! And you won't_try_ to row! _Susy_ could row if she was here, and had a shingle. ButSusy isn't here, and hasn't any shingle! O! O!"
All these sentences Dotty thrust out, one after another, having littleidea what she said, only conscious of an overwhelming terror and animpulse to keep talking.
Suddenly poor Solly Rosenberg dropped his oar, exclaiming,--
"There, it's of no use; my arms are giving out!"
Freddy Jackson held out a few moments longer, then dropped his oar also,with a look of utter hopelessness.
IN THE BOAT. Page 93.]
"Why don't you keep a pullin', boys?" said Johnny, dipping in hisuseless little paddle.
The boat whirled
about like an egg-shell, completely at the mercy of thewaves. If your papa and mamma had seen it, they would have said therewas the last of Dotty Dimple. But, on second thought, you may be sure itwas not the last of her; for if she was going to be drowned in the sixthchapter, I should never have written this book.
It was a wonderful mercy that the five rash children _were_ spared; butlife is full of just such mercies; and of course I knew all the whilewhat was coming, or I could not have written so cheerfully.
_What_ was coming?
"I see something," shouted Dotty, "ever so far off! It isn't a gull!"
"It's a sail! a sail!" cried Solly, and took to his oars again.
"A sail! a sail!" thought Freddy Jackson, though he could not say it;and he steered once more, with courage renewed; though, as to thatmatter, it would have been just as well if they had kept still.
By the time the sail-boat came up to the wherry, the children werethoroughly drenched and sobered. A more subdued set of little sailorsthe captain had never seen.
"Well, now," said he, patting the little girls on the head, "I had afine lecture made up for you crazy chickens; but you are all so meek,that I reckon I'll just take you on board, and not scold you till I getyou ashore."
It was the narrowest escape! and they all knew it. The "foolishchickens" hid their heads, and made mental resolves that they wouldnever, never venture out of sight of land again without some olderperson to take care of them.
"Don't you tell my father, now," said Johnny to Dotty, as they wenthome, dripping like a pair of sea-bathers.
"Nor don't you tell mine, nor Susy, nor Prudy, neither."
"We shall have to make up some kind of a story," added Johnny,reflectively. "I don't know but we reached over too far aftersea-shells, didn't we, and fell into the bay? _You_ did (say), and I gotin after you, and pulled you out by your hair."
"Why, Johnny!"
"Well, then, you didn't; _I_ fell in, and you pulled _me_ out--by theboots; only my boots would have come off, though, they're so big!"
"O, Johnny Eastman!"
Dotty had stopped short in the road, and was looking at her cousin withan expression of mingled pity and scorn.
"Then make up something better to suit yourself."
"I don't make up stories, I just hope I don't," returned Dotty,squeezing the skirt of her dress indignantly.
"But," said Johnny, "they'll know it wasn't all rain-water."
"Then I shall tell the whole, whole truth," exclaimed Miss Dimple,setting her feet down so firmly that the water made a gurgling noise inher boots. "I'll tell how you boys teased us girls to go."
"O, ho, Dot Dimple! that's as much of a story as pulling out by thehair! _I_ didn't want you to go. I tried to stop it."
"Yes, I know it, and that was why I went," said Dotty, gravely! "Iwasn't going to have you say I mus'n't! If you'd been _willing_, Ishouldn't have gone a step."
By this time they had reached Mr. Eastman's gate.
"You tell if you dare!" said Johnny. And, after that, Dotty neverthought any longer of trying to conceal a single item of theirremarkable adventure. Since Johnny had dared her, she would _certainly_tell.