All Aboard; or, Life on the Lake

by Oliver Optic

  CHAPTER IV.

  THE FRATERNAL HUG.

  The incident which had just occurred gave Frank considerable uneasiness.Tim was naturally quarrelsome, and his former mode of life had donenothing to improve his disposition. He had never been taught thatself-restraint is necessary to preserve social harmony. If anything didnot suit him, he was not disposed to argue the matter in a conciliatorymanner, but to right his wrongs, whether real or imaginary, by physicalforce. In this manner he had obtained his reputation as a "goodfighter."

  Frank began to fear that Tim had come into the club without a properunderstanding of its duties and requirements. Though he had, with an illgrace, apologized for his conduct, he seemed to feel no compunction onaccount of it; but, on the contrary, he every moment grew moreoverbearing and insolent. He could not speak to his companions in agentlemanly manner, as they had been accustomed to be addressed. He wascourse, rude, and vulgar; and the members, who had received him amongthem in the best spirit possible, began to feel some repugnance towardshim.

  But what could be expected of him in so short a time? They had no reasonto believe that a boy who had always been a desperado would suddenlybecome a gentle and kind-hearted person. His nature wanted refining, andsuch a work could not be done in a moment. These reflections came toFrank's relief, when he had become well-nigh discouraged at the idea ofreforming Tim--discouraged more by thinking of the vast chasm thatyawned between what he was and what he ought to be. Like the pendulum inthe story, he was crowding the work of months and years into a singleinstant. A little sober thought in the proper direction set him right.

  The Butterfly was darting out of "Weston Bay" as they approached.

  "Cease--rowing!" said Frank. "Now, my lads, let us give them threerousing cheers. All up! One!"

  "Hurrah!"

  "Two."

  "Hurrah!"

  "Three."

  "Hurrah!"

  And then the Zephyrs clapped their hands, long and loudly, and this wasthe greeting which the old club gave to the new one. The compliment washeartily returned by the Butterfly, and then the cheers were repeatedagain and again. Every member seemed to glow with kindly feeling towardsthe others. Even Tim Bunker for the time laid aside his morose look, andjoined in the expression of good will with as much zeal as hiscompanions.

  "Now man your oars, Zephyrs," said Frank.

  "What ye going to do now?" asked Tim, as he grasped his oar with theothers.

  "You shall know in due time," replied the coxswain.

  Here was another thing which Tim had yet to learn--not to ask questionsof the commander. It was a part of the discipline of the club to obeywithout stopping to argue the point. Captain Sedley himself hadsuggested this idea, and it had been thoroughly carried out on board theZephyr. It was an established principle that "the coxswain knew what hewas about," and that he alone was responsible for the guidance and thesafety of the boat.

  Tim did not seem to fancy this kind of discipline. He evidently feltthat he had been born to command, and not to obey. But the consciousnessthat he was in the minority induced him to yield whatever convictions hemight have had of his own superiority to the will of the "powers thatbe," and he followed the example of the others.

  "Ready--pull!" continued Frank.

  He and Tony had arranged a little system of "fleet maneuvers," to becarried out when the two boats met.

  To the surprise of all on board,--for they were not "posted up" inregard to these tactics,--Frank put the Zephyr about.

  "Cease--rowing!" said he, when the boat was headed in the oppositedirection.

  To the further surprise of the Zephyrs, they discovered that theButterfly had executed a similar maneuver, and that the two boats lay atthe distance of nearly a quarter of a mile apart, the bow of onepointing directly east, and the other directly west.

  "Ready to back her!" said Frank, and the boys all pulled their oarhandles close to their breasts, ready at the word to take the reversestroke.

  "Back her!"

  The Butterfly did the same thing exactly, and the two boats rapidlyapproached each other, stern first. Tony had certainly made the most ofthe time which had been allotted to him for drilling his crew, and theyworked together almost as well as the Zephyrs, who were a littleembarrassed at each new movement by the awkwardness of Tim Bunker.

  "Steady--slow," continued Frank, as the two boats came nearer together."That will do; cease--rowing. Ready--up!" and the twelve oars gleamed inthe sunshine.

  The sterns of the two boats came together, and Frank threw Tony a line,which the latter made fast.

  "Ready--down!" said Tony and Frank, almost in the same breath; and theoars were deposited in their places on the thwarts.

  The two clubs were facing each other as they sat in their seats, withthe respective coxswains standing in the stern sheets.

  "Mr. Coxswain of the Butterfly," said Frank, as he removed his hat, andgracefully bowed to Tony, "in behalf of the members of the Zephyr BoatClub, of which you were so long a cherished member, I welcome you andyour club, and the beautiful craft in which you sail, to these waters.May the Zephyr and the Butterfly cruise together in entire harmony; mayno hard words or hard thoughts be called forth by either, but may all bepeace and good-will."

  This little speech was received with a burst of applause by Tony'sclub, and the boats interchanged volleys of cheers.

  "Mr. Coxswain of the Zephyr," Tony began, in reply to his friend'sspeech, "I am much obliged to you and your companions for the kind wordsyou have spoken for yourself and for them. I am sure there will never beany hard feelings between us, and I assure you if any fellow in our clubattempts to make a row, we will turn him out. Won't we, fellows?"

  "Ay, ay! That we will," replied the club, with one voice.

  "If we get beaten in a race, we will bear our defeat like men. Won't we,boys?"

  "That we will."

  Tony wound up by saying he was not much at making speeches, but he wasready to do everything he could to make things go off right andpleasantly.

  Three cheers more were given on each side, and the crews were orderedinto their seats.

  "Starboard oars, ready--up!" said Frank.

  "Larboard oars, ready--up!" said Tony.

  "Ready--down!" was then given by one, and repeated by the other. Andthen, "Ready--pull!" followed, in like manner.

  My reader will readily perceive that the effect of this maneuver was toturn the boats round in opposite directions, so that they came alongsideof each other, after a few strokes of the oars.

  The painter of the Butterfly was thrown on board the Zephyr, and madefast to the bow ring. The boys were now all brought together, and thediscipline of the clubs was relaxed so as to permit the members toenjoy a few moments of social recreation.

  The Butterfly, as we have said in the introduction, was of the same sizeand model as the Zephyr, and, except that the former was painted ingayer colors, to represent the gaudy tints of the butterfly, the twoboats were exact counterparts of each other.

  Her crew had already procured their uniform, and wore it on the presentoccasion. It was a pair of white pants, made "sailor fashion," with ashort red frock, and a patent-leather belt. These garments, owing to thecoldness of the weather, were worn over their usual clothes. The hat wasa tarpaulin, with the name of the club in gilt letters on the front, andupon the left breast of the frock was a butterfly, worked in colors.

  The Butterfly, like her rival, carried an American flag at the stern,and a blue silk fly, with the letter "B" on it, at the bow.

  "This is glorious, isn't it, Frank?" said Tony, as he took his friend'shand and warmly pressed it.

  "First rate! There is fun before us this season; and if nothing happensto mar the harmony which now prevails, we shall enjoy ourselves evenmore than we did last summer."

  "Nothing can happen--can there?" replied Tony, glancing involuntarily atTim Bunker, who seemed to be so amazed at the good will that prevailedaround him as to be incapable of saying anything.

&
nbsp; "I hope not; but, Tony, what about the race? Has your club voted on thequestion of the prize?"

  "Yes."

  "What did you do?"

  "What have you done, Frank?" asked Tony. There was not the slightestdoubt as to his Yankee paternity.

  "We voted to accept the offer."

  "So did we, though our members were so afraid of doing something wrong,that George had to come into the meeting and argue the question withthem. We accepted the offer on condition that you did so."

  "Then it is all arranged."

  "Yes, except the time."

  "We shall leave that all to you."

  "We are ready now," replied Tony, with a smile.

  "Name the day, then."

  "Next Wednesday afternoon."

  "Very well."

  "Who shall be the judges? We have chosen your father for one."

  "And we shall choose Uncle Ben for another."

  "Let us choose the other together."

  "Agreed."

  The two clubs were then called to order, and Frank, at Tony's request,stated the business to them.

  "Please to nominate," said he.

  "Mr. Hyde, the schoolmaster," exclaimed a dozen voices.

  It was a unanimous vote, and the judges were all elected.

  "Now, Tony, let us have some fun."

  "We will try our fleet tactics a little more, if you like."

  "So I say."

  "We will go down the lake with the 'fraternal hug.'"

  "The what!" exclaimed Charles Hardy.

  "We call our present position the 'fraternal hug.'"

  "Hurrah for the fraternal hug!" shouted Charles, and all the boyslaughed heartily.

  "Nothing bearish about it, I hope," added Fred Harper.

  "We have no bears," replied Frank, as he ordered out his starboard oars.

  Tony in like manner got out his larboard oars.

  "Now, Frank," said he, "as you are a veteran in the service, you shallbe commodore, and command the allied squadron."

  A burst of laughter greeted this sally; but Frank was too modest toaccept this double command, and would only do so when a vote had beenpassed, making him "commodore."

  Fenders--a couple of cushions, which Frank, in anticipation of thismaneuver, had provided--were placed between the two boats to keep themfrom injuring each other, and the order was given to pull. As but sixoars were pulled in each boat, their progress was not very rapid. Noone, however, seemed to care for that. The joining of the two boats inthe "fraternal hug" was emblematic of the union that subsisted in thehearts of their crews, and all the members of each club seemed bettersatisfied with this symbolical expression of their feelings than thoughthey had won a victory over the other.

  When they came abreast of the Zephyr's boat-house, they discovered thatUncle Ben was on board the Sylph, which lay moored at a short distancefrom the shore.

  Bang! went the cannon which the veteran had again rigged on the bow ofthe sail-boat.

  And as they passed down the lake, Uncle Ben blazed away in honor of thefraternal hug between the two clubs.