Wintering Well

by Lea Wait

  He heard struggling and splashing as the other boys fought, but he concentrated on getting himself out of the water. Every part of his body focused on the rocks and driftwood near the shore. He had to get there.

  The salt of the tidal river stung his throat and his eyes and made him choke. Finally he reached out and grabbed a large rock on the shore and was able to pull himself up. As he did so, he saw Paul, to his left, also getting out of the water. He looked around. Sam was swimming to shore close by. Davey and Thom were in the water laughing.

  “See, Heron Boy? The water is just the right place for you!” Will could see blood pouring from Davey’s nose as he trod water. Paul and Sam had done what they could. Both of them reached Will at the same time.

  Without saying anything, they each took one of Will’s arms and half carried him over the rocks and up to the road. “I could have made it,” Will protested. But part of him was glad for the help. Dry and calm he probably could have made his own way over the rocks. Wet and furious, with the leather strapping rubbing him in places he didn’t even want to think of, the help was welcome.

  None of the boys said anything more until they had walked several blocks.

  Then Will said, “We have to show them.”

  Paul and Sam nodded. “Yes.”

  “I have an idea.” The other boys looked at Will. “Let me think it out. You are with me, right?”

  “We’re with you,” Sam promised.

  “All the way,” agreed Paul as they each headed home.

  Will smiled to himself. It just might work. And if it did, it would make the Pendleton brothers look foolish. He just had to plan carefully. He was whistling to himself before he got to the steps of his house.

  CHAPTER 25

  August 5, Late Evening

  Boys can be very foolish! Will returned home this evening soaking wet after an afternoon with Paul and Sam. He had gone swimming in his leg and harness! He removed them as soon as he was home, of course, and I rinsed the leather in fresh water to remove the salt. Then we both tried to stretch out the strapping and left it to dry in the little sun that was left tonight. Despite our efforts, I fear it will shrink. And after two months of softening the leather and ensuring it fit properly! I scolded Will, but his mind seemed filled by other thoughts. His leg is now propped up near the stove. He has finished a toy he was whittling for Fred and is now reading a book and seems unconcerned. Boys have no sense at all!

  Will had to miss church. His leg and harness were still damp, and despite his pulling them, he was afraid Cassie was right: The leather straps had shrunk. They might all need to be replaced. And until that was done, Will would be back to using his crutch alone.

  He sat in the backyard, and his chisel made deep inroads into the thick, forty-inch piece of pine. He had told Alice the carving was for her, and no one had questioned him. They were used to Will’s whittling. But this piece was by far the largest and most difficult project he had ever undertaken.

  It was too massive for the delicate work he usually did. He moved back to see what details showed up from a distance. Alice’s face looked down, as though she were rocking a baby, and long strands of her hair made a sort of wreath around the face. It didn’t look yet as much like Alice as he had hoped, and he knew she would have preferred to be carved with her hair secured on the top of her head, as a woman’s should be, but Captain Morgan had liked the earlier carving, and Will had decided to concentrate on the flow of the hair, as well as details in the face. He wanted to capture the private moments when Alice would be alone with her baby.

  Will’s mind raced between the carving and the captains decision about it that could determine his future, and his resolve to make fools of Davey and Thom Pendleton. Any plans for that would have to wait until he could use his leg again. And until he had done some more planning.

  The front door closed and Cassie called out, “Will! Will? Where are you?”

  “I am out back.” He was sitting in the shade. His nose and back were sore from yesterday’s sun.

  Cassie joined him.

  “How was church? Did you give the cart to Fred? At least I managed to finish that last night.”

  Cassie was silent.

  Will looked at her closely. “Are you all right? What has happened?”

  “So much, Will. I cannot think of it all at one time.” She sat on the granite step and took off her bonnet.

  “Then, just tell me one thought at a time.”

  “Before church boys were racing about outside, as they often do before services begin.”

  Will nodded.

  “I heard them talking. Davey Pendleton pushed you into the river yesterday, didn’t he? You did not go swimming of your own volition, as you told me.”

  Will sighed. “He pushed me. But I was all right, Cassie. I got myself out.”

  She reached over and looked at his palm. “How did you get those cuts and scratches?”

  “I got out of the water by pulling myself up onto the rocks. I was cut by barnacles. That’s all.” Will took his hand back and kept carving. “It’s nothing. My hands don’t hurt.”

  “They called you Heron Boy at church.”

  Will put his knife down. “And?”

  “And I hate it! It isn’t fair! How can they be so mean!”

  “Were all the boys saying that?”

  “No. Just Davey and Thom. But others were listening.”

  “Don’t worry, Cassie. I have a plan. Soon people will be laughing at them, not at me.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I can’t tell you yet. But you can help if you would like to.”

  “I would! I would like to very much.”

  “Did you stop at the Theobolds’?”

  “No. I was too upset; I wanted to talk with you, so I came right home. Alice and Aaron were going to stop there. Dr. Theobold and the children weren’t in church.”

  “Why don’t you go there now. I’m fine. And I promised Fred that cart. You can take it to him.”

  Cassie nodded. “I will. And don’t forget, Will. Whatever your plan is for the Pendleton boys, I want to be part of it.”

  “You’ll be there, Cassie. I promise.”

  CHAPTER 26

  The next time the door closed, Will knew it was not Cassie. The footsteps were too heavy, and no one called out to him. It must he Alice and Aaron, he thought. He was getting hungry; he was glad Alice had returned to start dinner.

  He tucked his knives and chisels into a small cloth bag. Since he was again using the crutch, it was much easier to carry things in a bag he could hang on his wrist or shoulder than it was to depend on his hands.

  Aaron came out to him. “Will?” Aaron walked into the sunshine and sat on a rock that had been too big to move. It now made a seat near Alice’s tomato plants. “I have some sad news.”

  Will looked at him. If Aaron were going to tell him about the boys at church, that would have made him angry, perhaps, or inspired his pity. But anger and pity were not the expressions on Aaron’s face.

  “Mrs. Theobold died last night.”

  Will felt as though the ground were suddenly less solid under his foot. “I know she has been ill.”

  Aaron nodded. “For a long time. The doctor was able to make her more comfortable, but there are many illnesses God has given us that cannot be cured.”

  “Where is Cassie?”

  “At their house. Alice and some other women from the church are going to help lay Mrs. Theobold out, and Cassie is staying with Fred and Anne.”

  Will nodded. To lose their mother must be very hard. They were so young. He and Cassie were lucky Ma was well. What would Fred and Anne do without a mother?

  “There are going to be services tomorrow,” Aaron went on. “We will all attend, of course.”

  “I may need help getting up the hill across the Green to the church.”

  “You will have whatever help you need.”

  “Dr. Theobold saved my life, but he wasn’t able to s
ave his wife’s.” How must that make him feel? Will wondered how the doctor could find the courage to continue practicing medicine after being unable to save someone he loved.

  “The doctor is grieving deeply. She was almost thirty; they had been married ten years.”

  “How can God let that happen?” Will blurted out. “How can He let me live, without even a leg to walk on, and let a wife and mother die? It isn’t fair!”

  “It does not seem fair,” Aaron agreed. “But it must be part of His plan. If there were no plan, then life would be chaos. There would be no purpose and no direction.”

  “Well, I wish He would tell us what His plan is,” Will added. “Because it makes no sense to me. No sense at all.” He put his head down on his arms so he couldn’t see the sunshine. It wasn’t right that the sun shone brightly on such a day.

  CHAPTER 27

  September 5

  It is just over a year since Will’s accident. In Woolwich, Pa and the boys must be haying and threshing the wheat. That all seems very far from here. In recent weeks I have spent much of my time at the Theobold home. Mrs. Theobold is buried in the old cemetery not far from the family and house she loved. The doctor and Fred and Anne visit her grave almost every day and have planted roses there. She loved her roses so much. The doctor is despondent, and Anne and Fred need someone to watch out for them and do their washing and keep the house in order. Many women in Wiscasset brought food in the first weeks after Mrs. Theobold’s death, but they do so less often now. I have tried to cook enough to ensure the family is not concerned over food. I am also grinding some of the doctor’s medicines, under his direction. I am learning all I can. A small difference in a dosage of medicine can make a very large difference to a patient. Yesterday I helped still the arm of a young boy whose shoulder had become dislocated, while the doctor put the bone back into place. But most days I stay with Fred and Anne, much as I find Dr. Theobold’s work of more interest than I do his kitchen. Will spent much of August occupied at home, working at his carving of Alice. But his new harness and braces are now comfortable for him to wear for several hours, and soon he will be able to spend time with the doctor, to see if he would want a future in medicine. What a wonderful future that would be! If I were a boy, I would be very thankful for such an opportunity. But Will seems to care more about his whittling.

  Will and Cassie walked through the soft mists of the early-autumn morning up the road to the Theobolds’ house. “On Thursdays the doctor visits the jail,” Cassie advised Will. “And then he drives up the Alna Road a piece and checks on several families there.”

  “It is a beautiful day for a drive.” Will took a deep breath. The elm and maple leaves were only just beginning to turn. The last of the goldenrod was drying in the corners of yards, as were the tall milkweed stalks, which only two weeks ago had been covered by orange and brown butterflies.

  Between finishing his carving of Alice and planning a way to get back at the Pendleton brothers, Will had not noticed until now: Summer was over.

  “I will pack some food for you and the doctor, in case your visits take you past dinner hour,” Cassie said, thinking out loud. “But you will certainly be home by supper. And I’ll take Fred to school this morning, and then Anne and I can perhaps trim some of Mrs. Theobold’s roses. They need to be pruned and tied up before the frost and snows come.”

  Will laughed. “Cassie, you sound like a little mother. Dr. Theobold can take care of those things.”

  “A doctor is an important person who must think of the needs of others,” Cassie responded tartly. “Dr. Theobold does not have time for household details. Those are women’s tasks.”

  “I see,” said Will with a grin.

  “Remember all that you do and see today, Will, so you can tell me tonight! You are so lucky that the doctor is taking an interest in you!”

  “You are right,” agreed Will. “And I’m sure there is a lot I don’t know about doctoring.”

  The Theobold children were dressed and in the kitchen when Cassie and Will arrived, although Cassie checked to see that Fred’s hair was combed and Anne’s apron tied properly. The doctor seemed relieved that she was there to tend to such details, and he went to get his box of medical tools and medicines.

  “You can ride on the wagon seat with me, Will,” he said as he put the box in the back of his wagon. “Now that you’re doing so well with your leg, you can brace yourself with it.”

  Will agreed, and the doctor helped him up to the high seat.

  “Our first stop is the jail,” the doctor explained. “I visit the inmates there once a week, unless the jailer sends for me betweentimes.”

  “Are those in jail so sick?”

  “Often. But the number of people in the jail varies greatly. In recent times only a few people have been there for having committed crimes. The others are debtors or those whose minds are confused. There are also spaces for those with contagious illnesses and for any women or children who are confined.”

  “Children? In jail?”

  “Some are the children of women who are imprisoned for various crimes. And occasionally a child is imprisoned on his own behalf. Last year a boy about your age was sentenced to several months in the jail for stealing apples.”

  By the time Will could think about that, Dr. Theobold had stopped his horse in front of a three-story granite building. At the base of the building the stones were more than three feet thick, and they were only slightly narrower on the higher stories. “Is there heat in the winter?” Will asked as the doctor helped him down from the wagon seat.

  “There is a woodstove in the hallway outside each floor of cells. Nevertheless, the cells are unheated, and in winter they can be very cold and damp.”

  Will shivered.

  “Who is here now?”

  “Only two men, and neither has a contagious disease, or I would have been called since last week.” They walked up to the jailer’s house, which was attached to the jail. “Until recently all serious criminal cases were taken to Massachusetts to be tried, and those who were judged guilty were imprisoned there. Now that Maine is a state, the Lincoln County Jail may find itself much busier.” He rapped on the door. “If you should choose to apprentice with me, checking on the prisoners here would soon become part of your responsibilities.”

  The heavy wooden door was opened by a tall man with a circle of keys on his belt.

  “Good morning! This is Will Ames, who is assisting me today.”

  The jailer nodded glumly. “Little for you to do today, Doctor. Only the same two you saw last week, and you’ll find them unchanged.”

  “I will just take a look, then.” Dr. Theobold pushed the door a little to get in, and Will followed him. The jailer unlocked the chain on a heavy iron door to his right. “Don’t be taking too long, now. I have other chores to do than seeing to the comfort of criminals.”

  “They are men,” the doctor replied.

  “Men who have gone afoul of the law and are getting as they deserve.”

  The heavy door swung open into a wood hallway to the cell area. “Follow me.” The jailer walked ahead of them down several steps into the lowest level, where he unlocked still another barred iron door. Beyond it was a passageway, all of granite, including the ceiling and uneven floor. Will walked carefully so as not to slip.

  There were three doors on each side of the hall. In each door was a small opening set high in the door.

  The jailer opened the first door on the right. “Alcox! The doc is here to see that you are still alive!” A gray-bearded man slowly rose from a pile of dirty blankets on a crude bedstead.

  Dr. Theobold went over to him. “Still coughing, Joseph?”

  The man coughed deeply, as if to demonstrate. “Can’t seem to shake it, Doc. Other summers I’ve improved some, but this year the sun didn’t work a cure.”

  Will looked around the cell. In addition to the bedstead there was only a stinking wooden barrel used as a chamber pot, a dirty plate, and a small, hig
h window covered by bars. How could sun have reached such a place at all?

  The doctor pulled a bottle out of his pocket. “Here is some more red cabbage syrup, Joseph, for your chest. I’m also leaving you some poppy water to help you sleep when the coughing gets too bad. Keep as warm as you can.” He looked at the jailer standing in the doorway. “Do you have additional bedding that could be given to this man?”

  “He’s done well enough with what he has had in the past.”

  “The season is changing. Some additional blankets would be of help,” Dr. Theobold said. “If there is not budget for it, perhaps I could mention the need to Judge Greene when I see him tomorrow?”

  “That will not be necessary.”

  “Joseph, I will visit you next week.”

  “Thank you, Doc, for seeing to me.”

  “You are most welcome.” The words were almost lost as the thick door closed. “My next patient?”

  “There is only the one other this week. And he’s a complainer.” The jailer opened another cell door. In the dark room beyond was a younger man, perhaps twenty-five, seated on a bedstead similar to Joseph’s. He did not get up. Both his wrists and ankles were shackled with heavy iron bands.

  “What was the need for shackles?” asked Dr. Theobold as he entered the cell.

  Will felt as though he would go mad just seeing this place and smelling it. The air was putrid. This prisoner was not even in a position to use his chamber pot and had soiled his clothing, such as it was.

  “The man complains about the food, about the air, about everything,” said the jailer. “I told him if he did not shut up, then I would do something to stop his talking. He refused to shut up.”

  Will watched as the doctor examined the inmate’s wrists and ankles. They were raw and bleeding from the rubbing of the iron cuffs. “Will, get the small blue pail in my wagon now, please,” he said. He then turned to the jailer. “This man has learned his lesson for now. For medical reasons I think you might remove the shackles.”