CHAPTER XIII INDIANS AND STRAWBERRIES
"Should you mind driving all night?" asked Jack, as they prepared tostart on after the meal and a short rest.
"Not a bit, if you will take turns driving," replied Desire promptly."Priscilla can stretch out on the blankets, and you and I alternate atthe reins."
"The Indians have such a start on us," went on Jack. "You see in thefirst place they left earlier; and then we lost all the time of oursearch, and going to Bear River and back; and it's important to catch upas soon as possible, lest they should leave the road somewhere and take acrosscut to the reservation."
"Of course," assented Desire.
Darkness fell; the stars came out; and the full moon gave them lightenough to follow the winding road. Several times during the night Desirepersuaded Jack to let her guide Dolly and Dapple while he rested anddozed in the corner of the seat.
On past dark farmhouses whose occupants were sound asleep; past somber,solemn woods, so beautiful in the daylight, but so dense, mysterious,almost terrifying at night; across murmuring black streams; up long hillswhich made the tired horses breathe heavily, and down the other sidewhere one had to hold a tight rein to keep the faithful animals fromstumbling. Occasionally a bat swooped low enough to make Desire duck herhead with fright, and once, while Jack was napping, she caught sight of ahuge dark bulk near the edge of a woods; but it disappeared before thesnorting horses could be urged onward.
At last the moonlight darkness faded to grey; then to a lighter grey; thesky was slashed with faint rose, growing rapidly deeper and mingling withgold streaks, until the sun climbed up to survey the land; and anotherday had come.
"Look, Jack!" cried Desire, elbowing her sleeping brother.
"Where?" he asked, yawning.
"In that hollow!"
They were on the crest of a hill, from which they could look down into anearby valley.
"Tents!" exclaimed the boy, now fully aroused.
"Indians!" shouted Priscilla, who, wakened by their voices, had crept upto look over their shoulders.
"Prissy! How you scared me!" cried her sister, jumping violently.
Jack took the reins, and, as fast as the team could travel, headed forthe encampment. They reached their objective just as the Indians werebeginning to break camp. Everything was in confusion; braves stridinghere and there; squaws shouldering the big bundles; children crying; dogsbarking. Running back and forth from one group to another, they spiedRene.
Throwing the reins to Desire, Jack jumped down and approached an Indianwho seemed to be directing affairs. With some difficulty, he made the redman understand his story. Partly by signs, partly by broken English, thechief replied that "two suns ago they had found strange white child amongthem. Where belong, they not know. Going on to reservation. Then sendback young brave who know English to find boy's people."
At that moment, Rene caught sight of his brother, ran across the grass,and threw himself into Jack's arms, crying:
"I found Indians, Jack! I found Indians! Ain't they _fine_?"
"Yes, I see you did, and they are fine," replied the boy gravely, handinghim over to Desire, who had left the team and hurried toward them. "Puthim in the wagon, and bring me all the candy we have."
In a moment the girl was back again with several jars of candy. Jackdistributed the gaily colored sticks to all the little Indian children,and tried to make the chief understand his gratitude for the care takenof Rene.
The tribe then struck out through the woods, away from the main road.
"How lucky that we caught up to them right here," said Desire, watchingthem, while Rene waved his hand and shouted goodbyes.
"You're a bad, bad boy," declared Priscilla, "to run away like that andfrighten us all!"
Rene gave her a look which was a compound of disgust and astonishment.
"They were nice to me, and I had a good time. I bet you wish you'd beenalong. When _you_ ran away, you didn't go with nice Indians, but a smellyold cat who--"
"Never mind, children," interrupted Jack, as he started the horses andthey drove up a slight elevation to a juniper grove.
"We'll stay here for a while to let the team rest, and incidentally getsome ourselves," he decreed, turning in the shade.
While he made Dolly and Dapple comfortable, Desire had been trying tomake Rene understand how much trouble he had caused. "You were verynaughty," she was saying, as Jack joined them.
"Yes," agreed the older boy, "and he'll have to be punished to make himremember it."
Jack's tone made Desire give him an entreating look; but he pretended notto see.
"Come with me, Rene," he said quietly, breaking a small switch from anearby tree, and leading the child farther into the grove.
A short silence, then a little boy's cries could be heard; anothersilence, during which Desire worked madly at anything she could think ofto keep her mind off of what was going on within the woods. Although sherecognized the need of drastic punishment in this instance, yet she hatedto have the baby hurt. After what seemed like hours, really not more thanfive or ten minutes, the brothers emerged from among the trees, hand inhand.
"I'm never, _never_ going to run away again, Dissy," promised the littleboy, grasping her around the neck as she stooped to put her arms aroundhim.
"Angry?" asked Jack softly, as the child released himself and ran off tojoin Priscilla who was playing quietly with a turtle she had discovered.
"Of course not," replied Desire quickly. "How could you think such athing?"
"I hated to do it, especially since I knew it hurt you so much; but hereally needed a lesson. We couldn't risk that sort of thing happeningagain; it might not turn out so pleasantly another time."
"I know you do your best for all of us, dear," she said, laying her headagainst his arm for a moment; "and don't worry so much about what we mayor may not think about what you do."
On blankets laid on the ground, Jack and Desire slept much of theafternoon, while the children played all kinds of games with the turtle.
All the morning the young Wistmores had been driving along roads borderedon either side by hundreds of apple trees. In the valley between theNorth Mountain on the Bay of Fundy side, and the South Mountain, thereare seventy-five miles of orchards where are grown some of the choicestvarieties of apples, many barrels of which are shipped to the UnitedStates every year.
"This is the most celebrated apple district in the world," commentedJack.
"How gorgeous the trees must look when they are covered with blossoms,"Desire remarked. "I think apple trees in bloom are among the mostbeautiful things in the world."
"The whole section is famous," continued Jack. "The first ships built onthe American continent were launched down here on the Annapolis River;and on Allen's Creek, which flows along one side of the fort, the firstmill was put up. That was in the days of Champlain."
They reached Annapolis Royal by this time, and Jack drove up the hills tosee the remains of the fort, and point out the items of interest to themembers of his family.
"Champlain sailed up the Bay of Fundy," he said, motioning toward thatbody of water, "and when he saw the little inlet down there, entered bymeans of it, into that broad calm body of water called Annapolis Basin.The tree-covered sides of the hills which you see sloping gently to thewater's edge were dotted with lively waterfalls, and he thought it a fineplace for a settlement.
"In those days," he continued, turning toward Rene, "Great Beaver, whowas an enemy of Glooscap, lived in Annapolis Basin with his best friend,a wolf. Now the wolf liked to sail, and Great Beaver made a big raft forhim so he could go back and forth across the water. One day Mr. Wolf waslying on the top of North Mountain, resting after his sail, and he sawthe Bay of Fundy. Right down to the Great Beaver he rushed, and asked himto dig a canal between the two bodies of water in order that he mighthave more room for his raft. Great Beaver didn't like salt water; so herefused to spoil his own home by letting
in the tide from Fundy. CleverMr. Wolf, who knew that Glooscap and the Beaver were not good friends,went secretly to Glooscap and asked him to join the two pieces of water.Glooscap sent the lightning to split open the North Mountain, and throughthe narrow opening Mr. Wolf sailed gaily back and forth between the Bayof Fundy and Annapolis Basin."
"And what became of the poor Beaver?" asked Priscilla.
"Oh, he had to go and build a new home in the Basin of Minas."
"Poor Beaver," commented Rene, adding, "Jack, where is Glooscap _now_?"
"He became angry at the number of white men coming to take possession ofthe land; so he called a big whale to carry him away to some far-offshore. The Indians think, though, that some day he will come back."
"Oh, I wish he would," cried the little boy; "I wish he would right_now_, so's I could see him."
Going down the hill, they reached the shores of the Basin in time to seethe tide come in. Great masses of blue, green and silver water rushed inthe Gap to fill to overflowing the Basin and all its tributary streams.
"What a wonderful sight!" exclaimed Desire.
"I should think the Wolf would have been drowned," observed Rene,watching the flood of water, his eyes open very wide.
"Why, he'd go up on the mountain and watch it, not stay _in_ it," saidPriscilla in such a scornful tone that Jack and Desire smiled.
Several days later, they had passed through many little towns and stoppedin front of many an isolated house where they disposed of many or few oftheir wares. The dooryards were gay with flowers, now; for no one was toopoor or too lazy to have a garden. Sometimes these gardens were elaboratein shape, and of fair size, with colors and varieties blendedbeautifully; sometimes only a clump of cheerful red or goldennasturtiums, clustering around a stump or unsightly rock.
"Just look at that field!" exclaimed Desire, suddenly.
"What's the matter with it?" inquired Jack.
"It's just red with strawberries!"
"Oh, let's get out and pick some," proposed Priscilla.
"Don't you think we might be able to sell them in the next town if wegathered enough?" Desire asked Jack.
"Perhaps. There is a hotel, and lots of boarding houses in Kentville; soI'm told."
They left the horses to graze in the shade of some trees, and the wholefamily, armed with various sized dishes, scattered over the field. Aftera couple of hours' steady work, they transferred the berries to a basket,covered them with leaves, and continued on their way.
"Who's going to sell them?" questioned Jack, when they were nearly toKentville.
"Never thought of that," confessed Desire.
"I will," offered Priscilla. "Let me!"
"Me too," chimed Rene. "I can sell berries fine."
"You're a bit young, Renny," said Jack with a smile; then, turning toPriscilla, he said, "All right, if you want to."
Desire looked a bit surprised at his willingness; but Jack just drew theteam up in front of one of the smaller boarding houses and suggested,"Try here."
The little girl took the basket which he handed down to her, walkedboldly up the path to the front door, and knocked. Through the screendoor they heard an annoyed voice say--"Now, I've told you--Oh, what isit, child?"
A low conversation ensued, and Priscilla flew out to the wagon again,displaying proudly a couple of silver coins.
"She'll take some any time, she says; and she knows other places wherethey would."
"How would it be," inquired Desire thoughtfully as they went on, "if wetook time for berry picking so long as they last; even if we don't coverso much ground, it will be clear profit."
"We could," said Jack slowly; "and it would be better for us all to beout of the wagon for a while."
"In that case," asked Desire, "hadn't we better camp nearby, since weknow we can find quantities of berries here, and Kentville is a prettygood market."
Jack agreed.
A most delightful spot beside a noisy brook, just outside the town, wasselected as a camp site; and for two whole weeks they scoured thesurrounding country for berries, taking their harvest in to Kentvilleonce a day.
"I guess these are the last," commented Desire rather regretfully, asthey climbed up a slope toward a bridge on their way home one afternoon.
"Oh, I see a few down there," cried Priscilla, starting toward the edgeof the river bank.
"Be careful," called Jack, as she put one foot part way down the bank toreach some clusters beyond her, rather than walk a little farther.
His warning came too late. Even as he spoke, her foot slipped on the mud;and before she could save herself, she slid all the way down the softslope and rolled into the river.