CHAPTER XII
Repairing the Damage
When Rumple, perched on the back of Rockefeller, had crept quietly awayinto the darkness, the three elders sat straining their ears into thenight for some sound that should let them know help was coming. Once ortwice they spoke to each other in whispers, but for the most part theywere quite silent. The two younger boys had drowsed off to sleep, whileDucky lay in a profound slumber, her warm little body seeming in somestrange way to bring comfort and courage to Sylvia, in whose arms shelay. An hour dragged away, and then, to the unspeakable joy and reliefof the watchers, a grey light stole over the hills, then broadened andspread until it was full dawn. There was no crimson flush of sunrisethis morning, the sky was too heavy with clouds that had been blown upfrom the south-east; but at least it was daylight, and the comfort ofbeing able to see what was going on made them all feel better.
The children woke up then, clamorous for breakfast. Only, as provisionswere so scanty it was necessary to have a little council of ways andmeans straight away.
"We could make some porridge, for here is some corn-meal in a tin!"cried Nealie, who had been industriously stirring among their overturnedgoods and chattels since daylight came to brighten the prospect.
"But we have no wood for a fire, and we can't make porridge without afire," objected Sylvia.
"Ducky and the boys can get us some twigs and little bits of wood fromthose bushes just over the hill," said Nealie. "We shall all feel betterfor having something warm to eat, as the weather is so uncomfortablethis morning, and while they are looking after the fire we three canclear the things from the wagon in readiness for having it set right wayup once more. Never, never will I be so careless again as to leave itstanding on a slope at night!"
"I should not grieve overmuch about that if I were you, for I fancy thewagon being on its side last night saved us from things more unpleasantstill," replied Rupert; and then Nealie shivered and said no more aboutregretting her carelessness, which, after all, had not been so muchcarelessness as overcarefulness, because she had been so anxious thatthey should be stationed where the wind would not trouble them.
By the time Ducky and the boys had got a fire going, and the porridge--akind of mush--safely on in course of preparation, the three elders hadgot the wagon cleared of all it contained and were ready to do theirbest to get it on its feet, or rather on its wheels again. But withoutRockefeller to help this appeared to be a task quite beyond their powerto accomplish, although they tugged and tugged with all their might.
"Whatever shall we do?" cried Sylvia in despair. "If only Rumple wouldcome back with the horse we might manage it."
"I know," said Nealie, and, struck with a sudden bright idea, she rushedoff to the heap of properties lying at a little distance, and selectinga stout iron bar which had been used as a stay for the rack at the backof the wagon she came running back with it.
"What are you going to do now?" asked Rupert curiously, failing to seewhat possible help the iron bar could be to them.
"I am going to use the bar as a lever and jack the wagon up. You see, wecan lift it a little piece and poke something under; there are plenty ofbig stones and boulders lying about that will do, and if we lift it afew feet we may then be able to drag it over; at least we can try thatplan, and if it does no other good it will keep us warm, and I am mostdreadfully chilly," said Nealie, who was secretly very anxious lestRupert should get a chill in the cold wind, and was also weatherwiseenough to know that it might rain at any minute now.
"The mush is ready; will you have breakfast first?" called Don, who wascook-in-chief, while the others ran hither and thither doing hisbidding.
"We will get the wagon up first, and then the mush will be the rewardfor our exertions," replied Nealie. She was bustling about with feverishanxiety now, for she had felt a spot of rain, and it was too dreadful tothink what might happen if a downpour began before their belongingscould be got under shelter.
"Yes, we will get the wagon up first," echoed Rupert, for he too hadfelt a spot of rain and was as anxious as Nealie to get the wagon rightway up once more. "Leave Ducky to look after the mush and do you twocome and help us here, for every ounce tells, you know."
Don and Billykins came at a run and collected stones, which Rupertwedged under the wheel every time Nealie and Sylvia managed to jack it atrifle higher. But what hard work it was! The perspiration poured fromthe faces of the two girls, and Rupert panted with haste and exertion ashe struggled with the stones which Don and Billykins brought in lavishabundance.
"Hurrah, she rises!" cried Sylvia in a jubilant tone.
"We can pull her up now, if we are careful!" yelled Rupert, who was tothe full as much excited; and then, calling to the small boys to comeand pull, the three of them hung on to the rope, putting all theirstrength into the task, while Nealie and Sylvia, chanting a funnyrefrain:
"Heave ho, my boys, heave ho, With strength of arm, and might and main, Heave ho, my boys, heave ho!"
bent to the task of lifting with the iron bar. The wagon shivered andtrembled like a live thing, swayed, rocked, and finally with a jarringcrash settled on its four wheels once more, while ringing hurrahs brokefrom the hard-working five, which were echoed in Ducky's shrillesttreble.
It was at this moment that Rumple hove in sight again, clinging in avery undignified fashion to the neck of Rockefeller, while the old horsecame on at a lumbering trot, warranted to stir up the most sluggishliver.
"What is all the row about?" he demanded, when Rockefeller, stoppingshort with disconcerting suddenness, pitched him off anyhow on to a pileof mattresses, tinware, and other miscellaneous properties.
"We are so delighted to see you back, for one thing, and for another weare rejoicing to have our house on wheels standing erect on all-fours,"said Nealie, just stopping to give him a big hug, and then, running upto the horse, she dropped a resounding kiss on his nose, held a lump ofsugar out for the wise animal to eat, and then, slipping the hobblesback on his legs, sent Rocky off to forage for himself.
"We must get these things put back before we have breakfast; for it isgoing to rain, and it will never do to let the bedding get wet," shesaid decidedly, and, hungry though they were, they came to the taskwithout a murmur, only Ducky remained stationary at the fire, carefullystirring the mush, which was slowly cooking there.
But although everyone worked their hardest, the rain was coming downsteadily before they had done, and they were all rather damp when theyclimbed into the wagon, carefully carrying the pot of mush, which wasall that could be mustered for breakfast, owing to their stock ofprovisions having run out.
"Now, Rumple, let us hear your adventures?" said Nealie, who wasreclining at ease on a rolled-up mattress at the back of the wagon,while Rupert acted as master of the ceremonies and served out the mushin such fragments of basins as were not too smashed up in the disasterof the night, and on tin plates, his own portion being eaten from theinverted lid of the one saucepan contained in the wagon outfit.
They all made a great deal of fun of that saucepan lid, and thefavourite diversion of Sylvia and Rumple was continually to ask Rupertto pass them something, because it was so funny to see him have tobalance his awkward plate carefully on the top of the saucepan before hecould do what was required of him.
Then Nealie came to the rescue with her question about Rumple'sadventures, and at once the hero rose to the occasion, puffing out hischest with such an air of unconscious importance that Sylvia at oncecalled him a pouter pigeon, to his great disgust; for he said it alwaysmade him feel sick to look at those conceited birds.
"Never mind the pigeons, they will keep; tell us what you did while youwere away," said Rupert, eating in a great hurry, so as to get donebefore anyone required anything more at his hands.
"I was precious careful when I rose the hill to lie along Rocky's neck,so that anyone who noticed us would only think that it was a horse outon the feed," said Rumple. "But I put the old horse along when we wentdown the next
slope, only I kept on the grass, for I could hear the menahead of me, and I did not want them to know that I was following. Thenthere came a long hill and I could see them ever so far ahead of me, asit was beginning to get light. Luckily they disappeared over the crestof the hill before it was full daylight, or I guess that they would havespotted me, though I was lying along the horse like a sack of meal. WhenI got to the top of that hill, and it is something like a hill too, thesort of thing that will work the starch out of poor old Rocky if we takethe wagon that way, the men had disappeared and there was no one insight for miles and miles. Presently I saw someone coming towards memounted on a jolly fine horse, and I felt quaky from my hat right downto my boots. Then I caught a gleam of buttons, and I was sure that itwas a mounted policeman; so I cooeyed for all I was worth and he rodeup at a smart gallop to ask me if I had run away from home or what wasthe matter."
"What an impudent person!" cried Sylvia wrathfully.
"I don't think that he meant to be impudent," said Rumple, shutting hiseyes with a languid air. "But I suppose it is not a common thing to seea kid like me doing extraordinary things!"
"Hear him!" cried Nealie, with derisive laughter, clicking her spoonagainst her tin plate.
"Well, I suppose that it is a little out of the ordinary for a boy of mysize to do detective work on the track of a mob like those fellows whorode past us in the night," said Rumple, with edifying modesty."Anyhow, he sat up and treated me with real respect when I told himwhat I was doing, and at once offered to take the job on for me; towhich, as you may guess, I hadn't the ghost of an objection. So I toldhim all that we knew about them, and then I turned round and came backwhile he rode off after the men."
"But didn't you see anything of the cattle which bowled us over soneatly last night?" asked Sylvia.
"No, I didn't, and I can tell you it puzzled me no end, for I went milesand miles and I did not see so much as the swish of a tail," answeredRumple, with a dramatic flourish of the broken basin from which he hadbeen eating his portion of mush.
"Mrs. Warner told me that stampeding cattle will run sometimes for manymiles without stopping, and sometimes they kill themselves by theirexertions," Nealie said as she wriggled into a more comfortable positionagainst the mattress.
"It struck me as just wonderful what a lot Mrs. Warner knew aboutcattle," remarked Sylvia, with a yawn. "Her knowledge made me feel quitetired; for beyond the fact that a cow had four legs, two horns, and atail, I had never realized that there was anything to know aboutcattle."
"There is something to know about everything; just see what a lot Mr.Wallis knew about horses," replied Rupert.
"Yes, and about other things too; but I do wonder what he will say whenhe hears how nearly I wrecked his beautiful wagon," said Nealie, with asigh, for the thought of her shortcomings worried her a good deal.
"He won't trouble, or, if he does, he knows that Mr. Melrose will seethat everything is put straight," said Sylvia.
"I do not like being indebted to the promiscuous charity of strangers,and Mr. Melrose was hardly more than a stranger to us," Nealie put in alittle primly. Being the eldest, it was natural she should be a littlemore conventional than the others.
"Oh, Mr. Melrose likes being kind to people! Mrs. Warner told me so,"remarked Rumple, with the air of knowing all that there was to be known."He is most awfully rich, too, and he came into his money quite by afluke."
"What is a fluke?" demanded Billykins, who was catching rainwater in thetin dish in which he had been eating his breakfast, so that he couldhave a wash-up after his feed.
"A fluke is what happens," explained Rumple vaguely. "It was a flukethat toppled our wagon over last night."
"There was not any money in that," said Don decidedly.
"Very much the reverse, I should say," laughed Nealie. "Think of thebroken basins, the waste of marmalade and pepper, not to say anything ofthe damage to our clothes, and all the rest of it. There are flukes andflukes, and our kind, unfortunately, was not the sort that pays. But, doyou know, I don't believe that it rains as fast as it did, and so I amgoing to harness Rocky, and then we will crawl ahead for a few miles;for if we stop here we shall starve, and I want some dinner."
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