CHAPTER IX
SIDNEY TELLS "DOROTHEA"
After all Sidney never sent the telegram to Trude. But it must not bethought that all in a moment she adapted herself to her newsurroundings, or saw Cousin Achsa as the "boarder" had pictured her;her anticipations had soared too high, on the wings of too agile animagination, to surrender at once to their downfall. Even Dugald Allanshe regarded with inward skepticism.
How she rebuilt her small world can be chronicled best by peeping overher shoulder one afternoon, the third day after her coming, as shewrote in her precious "Dorothea" book. At the last moment she hadbrought this with her, moved by a doubt as to the wisdom of leaving itbehind; there was no knowing what liberties the Leaguers, left alone,might take.
"Dorothea Mine, you do not know how it comforts me to feel your dearpages. I am not alone for you are with me. And when I think how Ialmost left you at home. There is so much to write that I scarcely knowwhere to begin and must needs sit with my pen suspended. This is thefunniest place I ever saw but no one, absolutely no one but you, dearbosom friend, shall ever know that. I mean it is funny becauseeverything is just the opposite of what I expected it to be. I hadthought, you see, that our relatives probably lived in a big whitesquare house high up on a rock-bound coast against which the wavesdashed in foamy crests. That's the way I wanted the house to look. Andinstead it is very small and all wigglety, with sand hills around it.But it is cute for the rooms are small like a doll's house. There is akitchen in which we do everything which I did not like at first only itis a different kitchen and there is not any other place anyway for theparlor is so stiff and dressed-up looking that it would be shocking tomuss it up. The kitchen smells good and shines it is so clean and thereis a door that opens right out into the flowers. I shall not say muchabout Cousin Achsa because Dugald, who is the boarder, says that she isan aristocrat of solid material and he must know because he has livedhere summers for a very long time. But she talks bad English likeHuldah only she says 'I swum,' instead of 'Yah!' And she is queerlooking but then all is not gold that glitters. But she is very kind tome and I think likes me and she cooks the grandest things and so much.She works all the time. I do not think I ever saw anyone who could workso fast. She is like she was wound up inside and had to keep workinguntil she ran down.
"But pour out my heart I must about Lavender who is my cousin. You seeI did not know I had a young cousin until Phin Davies (of him I willrecord later), told me of the benefit and of the baby who would besixteen now, he said. Then I became greatly excited in anticipation ofa cousin about my own age to play with. And oh, what did I find! Butonly once will I truly describe him for I have promised Mr. Dugald tothink of Lavender as the poor flower on the crooked stem and I makemyself shut my inside eyes so that I cannot see that he is different.He is small for he only comes to my ears and his arms hang way down andhe has funny, long fingers and one shoulder is higher than the otherand he has a hump on his back. There, I have written the truth. Now Iwill remember the flower. Lavender has beautiful and very wise eyes anda low voice that sounds like music and a lovely name, like a name in alanguishing novel. And he is dreadfully smart, and gets it all from thelots and lots of books which he reads to make up for not going toschool. I suppose he hates to go to school and anyway his mind isworking all the while other boys are playing ball and doing things hecan't do. At least Mr. Dugald thinks it's that way. Mr. Dugald told mehow to win Lavender's affection for he is terribly shy and that was bymaking a great fuss over Nip and Tuck who are the cats and Lavender ispassionately fond of the cats. That was hard, too, for we never had anycats as you know and the only cat I ever touched was Mrs. Jordan's oldTommy when I wanted him in a play Nancy and I were going to give in theattic and he scratched me. But I bravely took Nip and Tuck in my armsand you would have been surprised if you could have seen how beatifiedLavender looked. At least that's the way Mr. Dugald said he lookedafterwards. And he has liked me ever since. I mean Lavender, of course.I must digress to say a word of Nip and Tuck. They are extraordinarycats. They are quite old and big and black and I think they are solidaristocrats, too, and you can only tell them apart by a nick in Nip'sear that he got in a fight. They can lick any dog or cat in this partof Provincetown. They are terrors. And they are twins, I forgot to say.And they do the same things all the time like the Crooker twins atschool. Lavender loves all animals. He is always bringing home somestray thing only Nip and Tuck will not let them stay and that makesLavender sad.
"But I must not spend all my time telling you of my cousins and thecats when there is so much terribly exciting to write about. This isthe most different place I ever knew. It is all sand and the houseslook like doll's houses most of them and come right out to the funniestlittle streets that are not much wider that our sidewalks at home andall the nice houses have flowers around them somewhere. And they aremostly a lovely shiny gray that is pinky in the sun. Mr. Dugald saysthey get that way from the salt in the air and that most of the oldhouses were shingled from the wood that was in old masts. And he saysthe reason flowers grow brighter and bigger here is because years agothe ships used plain earth for ballast and changed it when they gotinto the harbor and that there is soil right here in Provincetown fromalmost every corner of the world. I held a handful from Cousin Achsa'sgarden and pretended I knew it was from Algiers. There are a lot ofstores on the Main street and some are like the stores home and Mr.Dugald says they are a shame. It is hard to walk on the sidewalkbecause it is so narrow and most of the time you have to walk in thestreet. And everybody talks to everybody else whether they know them ornot or if they do not talk they smile. There are lots of Portuguese andthey have beautiful eyes and lovely voices like Isolde's. I think Mr.Dugald means it's them who have crowded out the solid aristocracy, butthey are nice for they make it seem just like I was in a foreign land.But most, most of all, I like the docks. Mr. Dugald laughs at me when Icall them docks; but I always forget to call them wharves. They are allgray and crookedy, as though they were leaning against one another andwhen the tide goes out it leaves the posts all shiny and green. Andthere are funny little houses all along the edge of the beach that aresomething like the boathouses of Cascade Lake, only more interestingand people live right in them and have flower boxes all around them andfix up weeny verandas over the water and go in bathing right out oftheir front doors. And some of them are fish lofts only Mr. Dugald saysthat consolidated companies (I do not exactly know what he means butwill write it because he said it) have bought out all the small fishcompanies and that means that the men do not get enough for their'catch' to pay for the expense and danger of their going out to sea. Hesays the Portuguese are satisfied to only get a little. Everyone knowsLavender and they let him go anywhere and on to the boats andeverything and I follow him, though at first the little rowboats whichMr. Dugald calls dorys smelled so that it made me sick. But I did notwant even Lavender to think I was afraid so I held my nose inside andwent wherever he did. I cannot wear anything but my old clothes--but noone dresses up here like Pola probably does, which is a disappointment,for Vick let me bring her cherry crepe de chine for she is very sureGodmother Jocelyn will get her some new dresses and I am simply dyingto wear it.
"And now I must tell you about the good ship _Arabella_. It is a veryold boat--I think it is a schooner--and Mr. Dugald says it has probablybeen in every port in the world. When it got too old to sail any moreMr. Dugald bought it for Lavender. And it is all Lavender's own. I amsure I never heard of anyone before having a real big boat just to playon. But, then, Lavender is different. It is fastened with a great biganchor and can't move only when the water is in it swings around on itjust as though it was going. And when the water is out the boat is upreal high and looks so funny and lopsided, like that dreadful olddrunken man who walked past school one day. Mr. Dugald and Lavendertook me out to the _Arabella_ the very first day. We went out in arowboat--I mean dory, and Mr. Dugald rowed. Oh, it was so thrilling, myheart sang within m
y breast. It seemed as though I was going far out tosea and the little waves danced and were so blue and everything smelledso salty and there were boats all around and some of them moving withbig sails and a three-masted schooner went right close to us--I mean wewent right close to it because it was fastened--and I could breatheonly with difficulty I was so excited. Dear friend--at that moment Isaid to myself I did not mind my relatives not living in a big house onan eminence. This, meaning all the boats and the lovely docks andthings, is worth my quest. It was very hazardous climbing on to the_Arabella_ for it wiggled so but at last we were on and then!--Oh! Doyou know, it was like a pirate's ship. And it has a wheel and a littlehouse and the cutest cabins downstairs and a funny little kitchen. I amgoing to ask Aunt Achsa--I have decided to call her that because sheseems too old to be a cousin--to let me cook out on the _Arabella_. Mr.Dugald will not let Lavender cook on it for fear he will set the boaton fire. It would be funny to have a boat burn right in the water, butthen I have read of ships that burned at sea. Mr. Dugald has fixedeverything up real nice and he goes out a lot and draws. He says thatas long as I know how to swim I can go out anytime with Lavender. It iscertainly the most different thing I ever dreamed of doing and nextbest to sailing far away on a young boat. The boat rocked like a cradleand we laid down on the deck in the sun and it was a delightfulsensation. I am going to take books out there and I will sometime takeyou, dear friend, and write in you as I rock upon the bosom of theocean--though this is a bay it is ocean water.
"Next most exciting to the _Arabella_ was going to the backside whichis what they call the other side of the Cape the side that is on theoutside on the map. We tramped over for Mr. Dugald says that is theonly way to navigate on Cape Cod. It was not the least bit hot forthere was such a lovely breeze and the road is hard and right throughsand hills that looked awfully big and just have a little grass on themand funny little trees. Mr. Dugald told me that the heavy winds keepshifting the sand and that after ever and ever so many years the wholeCape will be moved and maybe was somewhere else a long time ago and theState of Massachusetts is planting a lot of pine trees to hold it whereit is now and that the reason the trees look so small is that everyfall and winter when the big storms come they blow the sand over themuntil they are almost buried. I suppose if one could dig down you wouldfind a big tree. Mr. Dugald told me all this as we walked over thedunes. He told me how after one big storm years and years ago theschool children went to school and found it buried under sand right upto the roof. I wish that would happen to my school. But that is howdifferent this place is. Well, we finally came to a ridge of sand thatwas bigger and higher than any of the others so that it took my breathto climb it like the trail back of Cascade and then when I got to thetop it was so beautiful that I felt hurt inside and felt afraid. Beforeme, dear friend, swept the endless ocean. And as far as eye could seethere was naught but sand. And you seemed close enough to the blue inthe sky to touch it. You felt it the way you do the furnace when you gointo the furnace room. And not a living being anywhere around, exceptus. And the beach is the loveliest beach I ever dreamed of--and you seeit is the first real beach I have ever seen. It is wide and hard andpart of it is wet where the big waves roll in and it moans beautifully.And there are lots of little funny flowers, like wild sweet peas, andpretty grasses grow on it and the sand up away from the water is whiteand glistens like jewels. I did not like to go near the water at firstfor the waves looked like angry monsters with tossing white manestearing in at me with their arms raised to clutch me. But I kept closeto Mr. Dugald who sometimes goes in swimming right in the breakers. Andhe pointed out the Coast Guard Station which was a cute little whitehouse nestled in the sand dunes and he told me there was a man up inthe square tower who was watching us and every move we made and if awave did catch us he'd give the alarm and a lifeguard would dash out ina minute and save us. That would be very exciting but it did not temptme. We picked up beautiful shells on the beach and I poked a horridjelly fish and then we visited the Station where the men were very niceand showed us everything. The big man who is Commander Nelson told ushow the sand when it blows against the windows of the house turns theglass all funny and frosted so that you cannot see out of it, and hesaid they have to keep putting in new glass every few days. And Mr.Dugald told me as we walked back how the men from the Coast GuardStations patrol the shores of our country so that there is not a bit ofour seacoast that is not guarded. One starts out from one station andmeets another from another station and they exchange little checkswhich they take back so that their commanders know they have been allthe way. Is it not a lovely feeling to think that as we sleep someoneis watching our shores by night? Only I wonder how if there are anypirates, and Captain Davies said there still were, they can landanywhere without one of these guards seeing them. Maybe they wait untilthe watchmen start back with their checks.
"I must now tell you of my new acquaintances.
"First there is Aunt Achsa and Lavender of whom I have written. Second,there is the boarder. His name is Dugald Allan which I think is aperfectly lovely name. I am sorry to say he is an artist. I would havepreferred that he had been a fisherman. When I told him that he laughedvery hard. He laughs at me a great deal which I did not like at firstand then I decided it is his nature and he cannot help it. He spendsevery summer with Aunt Achsa and says he is her half-nephew. Eventhough he gave the _Arabella_ to Lavender I think he must be a poorartist because his clothes look old and have no style. He knowseveryone and everyone calls him Dug. At first I thought it was horridvisiting a relative who kept boarders but afterwards I learned thathere in Provincetown someone else lives in nearly all the housesbesides the families, because they are not nearly enough houses for allthe people who want to come to Provincetown. Mr. Dugald says thatartists and poets and musicians come here from all over the world forthe inspiration. I cannot tell the men artists from the fishermen forthey wear things like sailors but the women artists all wear big hatsand smocks all covered with paint. I am sure I saw a poet yesterday andI do not know what a musician would look like and Mr. Dugald said hedid not know, either. That was one of the times when he laughed. But Isaid then and repeat now that there are enough other people around sothat I do not mind the artists and poets.
"Third of my acquaintance is Captain Phin Davies. Aunt Achsa says he isvery rich, that he was smart enough to buy up a lot of fishing boatsand a storage house of his own and he could laugh at the Boston and NewYork people. But he used to sail a boat like Cousin Zeke's which iswhat they call my relative. And he is very, very nice and invited me togo to Wellfleet and visit him and his wife and Aunt Achsa says she doesnot see no harm in my going. Aunt Achsa's grammar is so bad that Iblush to write it here.
"Fourth, Martie Calkins who is Mrs. Eph Calkins' granddaughter andlives in the house next to Aunt Achsa's. She is very different from thegirls I know at school and Nancy would shudder if she saw her for Nancyis so sensitive, but then this is not Middletown and I am sensitivelike Nancy and Mart is just my age and she can go out on the _Arabella_with us, though she told me confidentially that her grandmother thoughtAchsa Green stark daffy to trust Lavender out of her sight. Mart doesnot think about Lavender the way Mr. Dugald taught me to think. She cantell the grandest stories of the sea because her father and grandfatherwere fishermen who went out on big boats and her father was lost at seaso she is an aristocrat, too. She is going to show me how to dig clamstomorrow. And we are going to the moving pictures on Saturday. It seemsvery queer and like home to have moving pictures here but Mr. Dugaldsays they are like the poor. To quote him exactly, 'Alas, themovies--like the poor, we have always with us!' He says very queerthings.
"Fifth, Miss Letitia Vine, a most picturesque character. I quoted Mr.Dugald then for I did not know people could be picturesque. No one butMiss Letty herself knows how old she is and she won't tell. Aunt Achsasaid she paid to have the date and year of her mother's death scratchedoff her tombstone so folks couldn't figure out her age. But she is verycultured and is a music teac
her, only a funny one. She drives all overthis part of the Cape and gives music lessons. She has done it foryears and years, Aunt Achsa calculates she has worn out three horsesteaching folks their notes. She stays in one town two or three dayssleeping round with her pupils and then hitches up and drives to thenext. She scorns a Ford. Mr. Dugald says he's thankful for that for aFord would spoil the most perfect thing on the Cape. She looks like thefigurehead of a ship (again quoting Mr. Dugald) and she isn't afraid ofman or beast. She and Mr. Dugald are very good friends and Mr. Dugaldtook me there to call and I think he told her that I was the daughterof a poet, because she looked at me like that though he had promisednot to and I hate to think he broke his promise. She has veryinteresting things in her house that she has picked up from all overthe Cape as she gave her music lessons. I guess she does not have manypupils now but Aunt Achsa said Letty Vine would have to die in theharness so that is probably why she keeps going.
"Sixth is Mr. Commander Nelson at the Coast Guard Station who invitedme to come to see him again. He said if he needed a hand at any timehe'd send for me. It would be exciting to help save souls from a wreckat sea. I would like to even see one though that sounds wicked and Imust curb my thirst for adventure.
"Jed Starrows is not an acquaintance but I intend to know more abouthim. When anyone speaks of him they put such a funny tone in theirvoices. I asked Mr. Dugald if he is aristocratic too and he laughed andsaid he most certainly is not. But he owns a big boat--an auxiliaryschooner that is the fastest one here and he has just bought out a fishcompany and Aunt Achsa says it beats everything where he gets his moneybecause he wasn't much more than a common clam-digger a year or so ago.But I will record here that Captain Davies spoke of Jed Starrows asthough he might know something about pirates and I mean to find out ifI can.
"Enough now, dear friend--my arm aches and I must stop. Adieu for thenonce--"