Stoner's Boy

by Robert F. Schulkers

  Jerry got sore. He didn’t answer but walked up to the houseboat and went in.

  I says, “Tim, what you coming over for when the ice is so bad?”

  Tim says, “I like to be over here with you fellas, Hawkins.”

  “All right,” I says, “go up in the houseboat and make Jerry read you a story.”

  I didn’t have to tell Tim that twice. He likes those fairy tale books I got up there. But I knowed Jerry would git sore ’cause I sent him up.

  But when I went up there an hour later, Jerry was reading “The Seven Swans” to Little Tim, and Tim was sitting on the floor by the stove listening.

  THURSDAY.—Today us fellas had another meeting in the houseboat. Our capt. says, “Boys, we gotta take another vote on firing Dick Ferris. It don’t seem like everybody is satisfied.”

  We all took another vote. Me and Lew voted not to do it. But there was ten votes against our two. I got up and says, “Listen, fellas, Dick Ferris’s pop don’t give him a dime a week. How is he gonna pay his dues?”

  Jerry says, “How do we pay ours?”

  I says, “Well, us fellas all belong to the same bunch. Why don’t somebody here offer to help Dick out and pay his dues for him till the kid can make some money and pay for himself?”

  Nobody made an answer. The fellas all slipped out one by one. At last it was Jerry’s turn to go. He come by me and says in a low voice, “Hawkins, I would be glad to pay that kid’s dues, but I won’t do it till he stops bumming with the Pelham fellas.”

  “That’s all right, Jerry,” I answers. “We all gotta help each other out some time; if I had it I would pay the money for Dick.” Jerry went out.

  FRIDAY.—This afternoon after school I was the first one down to the houseboat. While I stood in the door I seen Dick Ferris coming. He waved his hand at me, and I hollered, “Wait a minit Dick.”

  He waited down on the bank. “Listen, Dick,” I says. “Jerry Moore says he will pay your dues for you if you stop going over to Pelham.”

  Dick looked worried. “That’s fine,” he says, but his voice was shaky. “That’s fine of Jerry, now ain’t it Hawkins?”

  AND THERE WAS DICK FERRIS, DRAGGING A FELLOW IN TO THE CLUBHOUSE . . .

  “Yeah,” I says, “he’s the only one what’s got enough to pay for two fellas. I would do it if I got it every week, but my pop is kinda stingy.”

  “Well,” says Dick, “I heard you was gonna fire me, so I guess it don’t make much difference, but I’d like to do what Jerry wants, but I can’t now. I just gotta go over to Pelham tonight, Hawkins; I just gotta go.”

  He turned and beat it down the bank.

  I saw him skip out onto the ice and leap over the crack in the middle of the river and spin on up to the Pelham shacks. He didn’t go to any of the shacks but shot into the woods behind ’em.

  I didn’t say anything about it to the fellas when they come down. Nobody had much to say, and Lew asked me if I would come down after supper when we would be alone, so we could practice some songs together with Dick Ferris.

  “Sure,” I says.

  So after supper I came down, and Lew was there. I says, “Where’s Dick?”

  Lew says, “He will be here soon; we can start already.”

  So Lou started playing the organ. But just as we started there come a quick knock on the door. I jumped up and threw it open wide, and Lew held a lamp out the door.

  There was Dick Ferris dragging a fella; it was Ham Gardner, knocked out, a cut on his face. “Hurry,” he says, “take care of him. I gotta go back and save Briggen and Little Tim.”

  Dick run back out and disappeared in the dark.

  Just then there was another step outside; Jerry Moore come in. “What’s up?” he asked.

  I says, “I don’t know, Jerry, come on with me. I think Dick Ferris is in trouble.”

  We left Lew to take care of poor Ham Gardner, and down the river we run. Jerry led me across the cracking ice, and run like a deer. I thought every minit the ice would give way under me. But we was on Pelham bank before we knew it.

  I heard a scream as I stepped on the shore.

  “Hurry, Hawkins,” hollers Jerry.

  I beat it back of him fast as I could. I saw a gray ghost of a figger sailing out of the woods behind the Pelham shacks.

  I heard Dick Ferris’s voice calling, “Hawkins, Hawkins!”

  The gray figger slipped past the shacks and beat it down to the river. I turned around. I was too excited to go any further. I just watched that gray figger; it went for a little clump of bushes on the bank, and the next minit I saw something like a big white bird go sailing up the river. In a minit I knew it was an ice boat, its big white sails looking like the flapping wings of a big bird, but it had an easy time, for the wind was blowing up the river, and it soon disappeared in the dark.

  I felt somebody touch me on the arm. It was Little Tim. “You saw him, Hawkins,” says Tim. “You saw him?”

  “Yeah,” I says, “who was it?”

  “Stoner’s Boy,” says Tim. “Come on with me. Hurry!”

  I followed Tim into the trees behind the Pelham shacks. There was a light in one of the shacks, and there was bunches of torn paper and straw and rags all around the floor. Briggen was sitting by Dick Ferris on a soapbox. Jerry Moore was wiping Briggen’s head with his handkachif.

  When Dick saw me he run over to me and says, “Oh, Hawkins, go up and tell Doc Waters and the sheriff that Stoner’s Boy is around here somewhere.”

  I shook my head. “I’ll go for Doc Waters,” I says, “but we can’t use the sheriff. I just seen Stoner’s Boy sail up the river in an ice boat.”

  Dick turned to Jerry. “You go with Hawkins, Jerry,” he says. “Stoner’s Boy might be waiting somewhere in the dark; better that you both be together. I’ll stay with Briggen and wait for Doc Waters.”

  We walked back together, Jerry and me, and we looked behind every tree and every shack we passed. Even though I saw the gray figger of Stoner’s Boy sail up the river, I had a feeling like he was still around.

  Jerry says, “Briggen and Ham Gardner owe that Dick Ferris a whole lot; they might of been burned up. Stoner’s Boy had paper and rags and everything ready to light when Dick Ferris jumped on him.”

  I says, “It’s a wonder Dick wasn’t hurt.”

  “Yeah,” says Jerry, “but Ham Gardner come to help him, and Ham got it on the head with a shinny stick, and then Briggen come to help Ham, and he got the same dose. He got an awful knock, Briggen did. Like to have killed him.”

  I says, “That Stoner’s Boy is a purty tough customer.”

  “You know it,” said Jerry.

  We hurried to Doc Waters and told him about it. “All right,” he says. “I’ll go over to Pelham. You boys go right home, no telling where that Stoner’s Boy is.”

  So we snuck home.

  SATURDAY.—We had a whole lot to talk about when we held our regular meeting today. I had to tell all the fellas about what happened last night.

  While I was talking, in come Dick Ferris. “Hello, boys,” he says, “I come just once more. I guess you will fire me today, and then I ain’t got no business here anymore.”

  Nobody said a word for a while.

  Our capt. got up. “Dick,” he says, “us boys made it a rule that each fella has to pay up his dues, and when the dime a week ain’t paid regular each week, the fella gits fired out of our houseboat. We don’t say we don’t want you in the club, ’tain’t that, and you know it ain’t. But if we have rules and we don’t live up to the rules—well, what’s the use of rules?”

  “That’s what I say too,” said Dick, nodding. “I’m just as strong for the rules as you fellas, so I come to say so long. You fellas been purty fair and square to me. Some of you boys been better than others, but I kinda liked you all just the same. I guess I kinda got you sore going over to Pelham that way, but them poor boobs need a friend. They ain’t got nobody to give ‘em any kind words; you don’t know what that is. Why that Sto
ner’s Boy could git the best of ’em every time.”

  Jerry got up. “That’s all right, Dick,” he says, “we ain’t got no hard feelings against you, but you gotta pay your dues. I wouldn’t mind doing it myself, but not till you keep away from the Pelhams.”

  Dick looked around. “Well,” he says, and he smiled; that is, he tried to smile, but the smile wouldn’t come. It looked more like he wanted to cry but was ashamed to in front of all us fellas. “Well,” he says, “so long, fellas.”

  We watched him make his bow and turn around. I looked out the window as he walked down to the bank, and I seen him wipe his eyes with his coat sleeves.

  The next minute there come a knock. It was Briggen.

  “Come in,” says our capt.

  In come Briggen and Ham Gardner. They both had their heads tied up with a white bandage. “We gotta see Dick,” says Briggen. “Ain’t he here?”

  “No,” says our capt., “we fired him. He left a minute ago. He didn’t pay his dues regular, and we fired him.”

  Briggen looked at Jerry Moore out of the one eye that wasn’t covered by the bandage. “That’s what I call good-hearted,” he said fiercely.

  Jerry turned away.

  Briggen put his hand in his pocket. “How much?” he asked.

  I says, “What you mean, for us taking care of you and Ham last night?”

  “No!” hollers Briggen, “you didn’t do nothing till it was all over. How much dues does Dick Ferris owe?”

  “Oh,” I says. I opened my book and showed him the long list that Dick owed for.

  “All right,” he says, and he pulls out some dollar bills. “Here,” he says. “And give Dick the change. He earned it sure.”

  Him and Ham Gardner walked out of the houseboat.

  “Well, fellas,” I says, “we better send word to Dick that he ain’t fired.”

  Which we did.

  CHAPTER 3

  A New Captain

  MONDAY.—Us boys held our regular meeting down in the stranded houseboat this afternoon after school. Our capt. got up and says, “Boys, it’s two years this week since we started our club. We called it the Rejiment first, but after the war was over and we got bigger we didn’t feel like calling it a Rejiment, so we called it a club.”

  Jerry Moore says, “We all know that, Capt., sit down.”

  I got up, and I says, “Jerry, you ain’t got no right to talk back to our capt. like that.”

  “No,” says Bill Darby, “keep still, Jerry, for goodness sake and let Johnny say something.”

  Our capt. didn’t get sore, and I was glad of it, ’cause there would of been a fight if he had sassed Jerry, but Johnny just smiled and kept on talking.

  “Fellas,” he says, “the time is come when we got to hold another election. We held one last February, and we got to hold one this February, so everybody figger out a fella who he wants to vote for.”

  Then all the fellas begin talking at once, and it kinda seemed to me like everyone in that houseboat had a feeling like he was gonna be elected.

  Bill Darby says to me, “It’s about time they elect me for something.”

  I says, “Bill, for all I care they can make you ‘seckatary.’ I’m tired writing down all these dern things anyhow.”

  But Bill shook his head. “No,” he says, “nobody else won’t do for that job, Hawkins.”

  “Thanks,” I says. I walked over to where Clarence Wilks was talking to Capt. Johnny. I says, “Johnny, you been capt. of this bunch for two years now, and I guess you will be elected again.”

  Johnny smiled. “I’m tired,” he says. “It ain’t no easy job being capt. over a bunch of fellas like this. I’d just as soon step out and give somebody else my place.”

  I says, “Look over in the corner; that bunch is for Jerry, every one of ’em.”

  “I hope they vote for him,” says Johnny.

  TUESDAY.—Today I stopped in Doc Waters’s office. I says, “Hello, Doc, us fellas ain’t been seeing much of you lately.”

  “No,” says Doc, “and you ain’t as sorry about that as I am, either, but I just been so busy, I don’t know where to go next. Squire Hornaby got the floo, and Dobel’s brown mare is down in her stall, and Miss Sally’s sneezing her head off with a bad case of grippe; it keeps me busy lookin’ after ’em all.”

  I says, “You should worry; you git paid for it.”

  Doc laughed. “Say, Hawkins,” he says, “you boys been gitting in trouble?”

  “What you mean?” I says.

  “Well,” he says, “I heard that Stoner’s Boy is keeping on coming up here every once in awhile to see he can’t do you fellas a mean trick.”

  I grinned. “Yeah,” I says, “he did it to the Pelham fellas.”

  Doc looked straight at me. “How do you know?” he says. “How do you know but what he will set that houseboat on fire sometime when you fellas are in it.”

  I had to laugh at Doc. “Doc,” I says, “don’t talk so foolish. We could git out as soon as we smelt smoke.”

  “Well,” says Doc, “he might nail the windows before you went in and then lock the door after you went in.”

  I got up. “Say, Doc,” I says, “if you are trying to scare me, forget it. Us fellas ain’t afraid of Stoner’s Boy, even if he had a whole gang of fellas behind him.”

  “All right,” says Doc, “but you better tell the sheriff to keep an eye on your houseboat.”

  “No,” I says, “we don’t need the sheriff to fight our fights.”

  “Well, then I will tell him,” says Doc.

  But I didn’t wait to hear no more. I hurried down to the houseboat where the fellas was talking about the election. Jerry is awful popular with the fellas; I guess he will git elected.

  WEDNESDAY.—Lew Hunter come up to me today and says, “Hawkins, who you going to vote for?”

  I says, “Why, Lew, I ain’t giving it a thought. I guess we will have to vote for Johnny again; he’s been a purty good captain all these years.”

  Lew didn’t say no more but walked into the houseboat and began playing “Swannee River” on the organ.

  I thought to myself, “Why did he ask me that?” Then I went in the houseboat. Nobody but Lew was there. He stopped playing when he heard me come in.

  “Excuse me, Lew,” I says. “I just got to talk to you a minit. When you asked me who I was going to vote for, I forgot maybe you wanta be capt., and if you do, why you can bet your life you git my vote.”

  Lew smiled and shook his head. “No,” he says, “no, Hawkins, not me, please don’t vote for me.”

  I say, “Well, what did you ask me for then?”

  Lew studied awhile. Then he says, “Hawkins, seems to me like there’s one fella going around here making all the fellas promise to vote the way he wants ’em to.”

  I says, “You mean Jerry?”

  “Yeah,” he says. “I mean Jerry, and you know he ain’t the kind of a fella we need for captain.”

  I says, “Why not, Lew, ain’t he brave and honest?”

  “Indeed he is,” says Lew, “but he don’t know how to boss fellas. Every time he tries to boss fellas they turn against him because he does it so cruel; you know what I mean.”

  “Yes, Lew,” I says, “I know he made you feel bad lots of times, and he would of made me feel bad lots of times, too, but I know he don’t mean things the way he says ’em. Jerry is a good boy, only he has got rough ways about him.”

  Lew turned over to his organ again. “Well,” he says, “I don’t care what the boys do, but I feel sorry for them if they let Jerry be their captain.”

  Lew started playing. I sit there awhile, listening, then I got up and went out.

  The first fella I met was Oscar Koven. “Listen,” I says, “did you promise to give Jerry your vote?”

  “Yes,” answered Oscar, right away, “I promised to give it to him.”

  “All right,” I says, “that’s all I want to know.”

  Next fella I met was Hal Rice. I asked him
who he was going to vote for. He says, “I can’t tell you that Hawkins.”

  I says, “I’m seckatary; you got to tell me.”

  “Well,” he says, “I promised Jerry I wouldn’t say nothing about it.”

  “Oh,” I says, “that’s all right.”

  Then I knew. Jerry got them all to promise their votes.

  THURSDAY.—We held a regular meeting down in the houseboat today. Our capt. got up and says, “Why don’t Dick Ferris show up; he ain’t been around here since Saturday?”

  I says, “Well, Lew Hunter was supposed to go over and bring him here and tell him Briggen paid his dues and he was a member of our houseboat again.”

  Our capt. says, “Lew, did you see him?”

  “Yes,” says Lew, “but he said he didn’t have the heart to come back after the way he was treated.”

  I says, “But Lew, his dues is all paid, and we ain’t got nothing against him.”

  “No,” says Lew, “you fellas ain’t got nothing against him, but Jerry Moore treated Dick kinda cruel. The poor kid can’t forget things like that; he says Jerry don’t like him.”

  But just at that minit Jerry Moore jumped out of his chair. “Who’s been talking about me to the kid?” he hollers.

  Lew Hunter turned and give Jerry just one look.

  Then Lew sits down.

  Jerry stood there looking at me and Lew and our capt. Then he says, slowly, in a low voice, “It ain’t just fair to me, is it, making a little fella like Dick Ferris sore at me?”

  Nobody answered Jerry. Jerry went on, “There’s a lot of fellas right here in this houseboat that knows I think a heap of Dick.”

  Hal Rice hollered, “I know he does.”

  Tom Wingfield says, “So do I.”

  Oscar Koven and Little Frankie Kane said the same.

  Clarence Wilks got up. “Boys,” he says, “I ain’t allowed to say what I know, because I give my word I wouldn’t tell, but I guess I am allowed to say this much, that if any fella thinks Jerry Moore don’t like Dick Ferris, he has another think coming.”

  I stood up. “Listen, boys,” I says, “there ain’t none of us got any right to talk about anyone else in this houseboat. Lew Hunter got hurt at Jerry’s ways lots of times, and so did some of the rest of you fellas, but Jerry’s all right, and I guess Lew will think so too, after he knows Jerry a year. Remember Lew only come here last fall; he ain’t had time to learn Jerry’s ways yet.”