Little Men (Little Women 2)

CHAPTER XII. HUCKLEBERRIES

There was a great clashing of tin pails, much running to and fro, andfrequent demands for something to eat, one August afternoon, for theboys were going huckleberrying, and made as much stir about it as ifthey were setting out to find the North West Passage.

"Now, my lads, get off as quietly as you can, for Rob is safely outof the way, and won't see you," said Mrs. Bhaer, as she tied Daisy'sbroad-brimmed hat, and settled the great blue pinafore in which she hadenveloped Nan.

But the plan did not succeed, for Rob had heard the bustle, decided togo, and prepared himself, without a thought of disappointment. The troopwas just getting under way when the little man came marching downstairswith his best hat on, a bright tin pail in his hand, and a face beamingwith satisfaction.

"Oh, dear! now we shall have a scene," sighed Mrs. Bhaer, who found hereldest son very hard to manage at times.

"I'm all ready," said Rob, and took his place in the ranks with suchperfect unconsciousness of his mistake, that it really was very hard toundeceive him.

"It's too far for you, my love; stay and take care of me, for I shall beall alone," began his mother.

"You've got Teddy. I'm a big boy, so I can go; you said I might when Iwas bigger, and I am now," persisted Rob, with a cloud beginning to dimthe brightness of his happy face.

"We are going up to the great pasture, and it's ever so far; we don'twant you tagging on," cried Jack, who did not admire the little boys.

"I won't tag, I'll run and keep up. O Mamma! let me go! I want to fillmy new pail, and I'll bring 'em all to you. Please, please, I willbe good!" prayed Robby, looking up at his mother, so grieved anddisappointed that her heart began to fail her.

"But, my deary, you'll get so tired and hot you won't have a good time.Wait till I go, and then we will stay all day, and pick as many berriesas you want."

"You never do go, you are so busy, and I'm tired of waiting. I'd rathergo and get the berries for you all myself. I love to pick 'em, and Iwant to fill my new pail dreffly," sobbed Rob.

The pathetic sight of great tears tinkling into the dear new pail, andthreatening to fill it with salt water instead of huckleberries, touchedall the ladies present. His mother patted the weeper on his back; Daisyoffered to stay home with him; and Nan said, in her decided way,

"Let him come; I'll take care of him."

"If Franz was going I wouldn't mind, for he is very careful; but he ishaying with the father, and I'm not sure about the rest of you," beganMrs. Bhaer.

"It's so far," put in Jack.

"I'd carry him if I was going wish I was," said Dan, with a sigh.

"Thank you, dear, but you must take care of your foot. I wish I couldgo. Stop a minute, I think I can manage it after all;" and Mrs. Bhaerran out to the steps, waving her apron wildly.

Silas was just driving away in the hay-cart, but turned back, and agreedat once, when Mrs. Jo proposed that he should take the whole party tothe pasture, and go for them at five o'clock.

"It will delay your work a little, but never mind; we will pay you inhuckleberry pies," said Mrs. Jo, knowing Silas's weak point.

His rough, brown face brightened up, and he said, with a cheery "Haw!haw!" "Wal now, Mis' Bhaer, if you go to bribin' of me, I shall give inright away."

"Now, boys, I have arranged it so that you can all go," said Mrs. Bhaer,running back again, much relieved, for she loved to make them happy, andalways felt miserable when she had disturbed the serenity of her littlesons; for she believed that the small hopes and plans and pleasuresof children should be tenderly respected by grown-up people, and neverrudely thwarted or ridiculed.

"Can I go?" said Dan, delighted.

"I thought especially of you. Be careful, and never mind the berries,but sit about and enjoy the lovely things which you know how to find allabout you," answered Mrs. Bhaer, who remembered his kind offer to herboy.

"Me too! me too!" sung Rob, dancing with joy, and clapping his preciouspail and cover like castanets.

"Yes, and Daisy and Nan must take good care of you. Be at the bars atfive o'clock, and Silas will come for you all."

Robby cast himself upon his mother in a burst of gratitude, promisingto bring her every berry he picked, and not eat one. Then they were allpacked into the hay-cart, and went rattling away, the brightest faceamong the dozen being that of Rob, as he sat between his two temporarylittle mothers, beaming upon the whole world, and waving his best hat;for his indulgent mamma had not the heart to bereave him of it, sincethis was a gala-day to him.

Such a happy afternoon as they had, in spite of the mishaps whichusually occur on such expeditions! Of course Tommy came to grief,tumbled upon a hornet's nest and got stung; but being used to woe, hebore the smart manfully, till Dan suggested the application of dampearth, which much assuaged the pain. Daisy saw a snake, and flying fromit lost half her berries; but Demi helped her to fill up again, anddiscussed reptiles most learnedly the while. Ned fell out of a tree, andsplit his jacket down the back, but suffered no other fracture. Emil andJack established rival claims to a certain thick patch, and while theywere squabbling about it, Stuffy quickly and quietly stripped the bushesand fled to the protection of Dan, who was enjoying himself immensely.The crutch was no longer necessary, and he was delighted to see howstrong his foot felt as he roamed about the great pasture, full ofinteresting rocks and stumps, with familiar little creatures in thegrass, and well-known insects dancing in the air.

But of all the adventures that happened on this afternoon that whichbefell Nan and Rob was the most exciting, and it long remained one ofthe favorite histories of the household. Having explored the countrypretty generally, torn three rents in her frock, and scratched her facein a barberry-bush, Nan began to pick the berries that shone like big,black beads on the low, green bushes. Her nimble fingers flew, butstill her basket did not fill up as rapidly as she desired, so she keptwandering here and there to search for better places, instead of pickingcontentedly and steadily as Daisy did. Rob followed Nan, for her energysuited him better than his cousin's patience, and he too was anxious tohave the biggest and best berries for Marmar.

"I keep putting 'em in, but it don't fill up, and I'm so tired," saidRob, pausing a moment to rest his short legs, and beginning to thinkhuckleberrying was not all his fancy painted it; for the sun blazed, Nanskipped hither and thither like a grasshopper, and the berries fell outof his pail almost as fast as he put them in, because, in his struggleswith the bushes, it was often upside-down.

"Last time we came they were ever so much thicker over that wall greatbouncers; and there is a cave there where the boys made a fire. Let's goand fill our things quick, and then hide in the cave and let the othersfind us," proposed Nan, thirsting for adventures.

Rob consented, and away they went, scrambling over the wall and runningdown the sloping fields on the other side, till they were hidden amongthe rocks and underbrush. The berries were thick, and at last the pailswere actually full. It was shady and cool down there, and a littlespring gave the thirsty children a refreshing drink out of its mossycup.

"Now we will go and rest in the cave, and eat our lunch," said Nan, wellsatisfied with her success so far.

"Do you know the way?" asked Rob.

"'Course I do; I've been once, and I always remember. Didn't I go andget my box all right?"

That convinced Rob, and he followed blindly as Nan led him over stockand stone, and brought him, after much meandering, to a small recess inthe rock, where the blackened stones showed that fires had been made.

"Now, isn't it nice?" asked Nan, as she took out a bit ofbread-and-butter, rather damaged by being mixed up with nails,fishhooks, stones and other foreign substances, in the young lady'spocket.

"Yes; do you think they will find us soon?" asked Rob, who found theshadowy glen rather dull, and began to long for more society.

"No, I don't; because if I hear them, I shall hide, and have fun makingthem find me."

"P'raps they won't come."

"Don't care; I can get home myself."

"Is it a great way?" asked Rob, looking at his little stubby boots,scratched and wet with his long wandering.

"It's six miles, I guess." Nan's ideas of distance were vague, and herfaith in her own powers great.

"I think we better go now," suggested Rob, presently.

"I shan't till I have picked over my berries;" and Nan began what seemedto Rob an endless task.

"Oh, dear! you said you'd take good care of me," he sighed, as the sunseemed to drop behind the hill all of a sudden.

"Well I am taking good care of you as hard as I can. Don't be cross,child; I'll go in a minute," said Nan, who considered five-year-oldRobby a mere infant compared to herself.

So little Rob sat looking anxiously about him, and waiting patiently,for, spite of some misgivings, he felt great confidence in Nan.

"I guess it's going to be night pretty soon," he observed, as if tohimself, as a mosquito bit him, and the frogs in a neighboring marshbegan to pipe up for the evening concert.

"My goodness me! so it is. Come right away this minute, or they will begone," cried Nan, looking up from her work, and suddenly perceiving thatthe sun was down.

"I heard a horn about an hour ago; may be they were blowing for us,"said Rob, trudging after his guide as she scrambled up the steep hill.

"Where was it?" asked Nan, stopping short.

"Over that way;" he pointed with a dirty little finger in an entirelywrong direction.

"Let's go that way and meet them;" and Nan wheeled about, and began totrot through the bushes, feeling a trifle anxious, for there were somany cow-paths all about she could not remember which way they came.

On they went over stock and stone again, pausing now and then to listenfor the horn, which did not blow any more, for it was only the moo of acow on her way home.

"I don't remember seeing that pile of stones do you?" asked Nan, as shesat on a wall to rest a moment and take an observation.

"I don't remember any thing, but I want to go home," and Rob's voice hada little tremble in it that made Nan put her arms round him and lift himgently down, saying, in her most capable way,

"I'm going just as fast as I can, dear. Don't cry, and when we come tothe road, I'll carry you."

"Where is the road?" and Robby wiped his eyes to look for it.

"Over by that big tree. Don't you know that's the one Ned tumbled outof?"

"So it is. May be they waited for us; I'd like to ride home wouldn'tyou?" and Robby brightened up as he plodded along toward the end of thegreat pasture.

"No, I'd rather walk," answered Nan, feeling quite sure that she wouldbe obliged to do so, and preparing her mind for it.

Another long trudge through the fast-deepening twilight and anotherdisappointment, for when they reached the tree, they found to theirdismay that it was not the one Ned climbed, and no road anywhereappeared.

"Are we lost?" quavered Rob, clasping his pail in despair.

"Not much. I don't just see which way to go, and I guess we'd bettercall."

So they both shouted till they were hoarse, yet nothing answered but thefrogs in full chorus.

"There is another tall tree over there, perhaps that's the one," saidNan, whose heart sunk within her, though she still spoke bravely.

"I don't think I can go any more; my boots are so heavy I can't pull'em;" and Robby sat down on a stone quite worn out.

"Then we must stay here all night. I don't care much, if snakes don'tcome."

"I'm frightened of snakes. I can't stay all night. Oh, dear! I don'tlike to be lost," and Rob puckered up his face to cry, when suddenly athought occurred to him, and he said, in a tone of perfect confidence,

"Marmar will come and find me she always does; I ain't afraid now."

"She won't know where we are."

"She didn't know I was shut up in the ice-house, but she found me.I know she'll come," returned Robby, so trustfully, that Nan feltrelieved, and sat down by him, saying, with a remorseful sigh,

"I wish we hadn't run away."

"You made me; but I don't mind much Marmar will love me just the same,"answered Rob, clinging to his sheet-anchor when all other hope was gone.

"I'm so hungry. Let's eat our berries," proposed Nan, after a pause,during which Rob began to nod.

"So am I, but I can't eat mine, 'cause I told Marmar I'd keep them allfor her."

"You'll have to eat them if no one comes for us," said Nan, who feltlike contradicting every thing just then. "If we stay here a great manydays, we shall eat up all the berries in the field, and then we shallstarve," she added grimly.

"I shall eat sassafras. I know a big tree of it, and Dan told me howsquirrels dig up the roots and eat them, and I love to dig," returnedRob, undaunted by the prospect of starvation.

"Yes; and we can catch frogs, and cook them. My father ate some once,and he said they were nice," put in Nan, beginning to find a spice ofromance even in being lost in a huckleberry pasture.

"How could we cook frogs? we haven't got any fire."

"I don't know; next time I'll have matches in my pocket," said Nan,rather depressed by this obstacle to the experiment in frog-cookery.

"Couldn't we light a fire with a fire-fly?" asked Rob, hopefully, as hewatched them flitting to and fro like winged sparks.

"Let's try;" and several minutes were pleasantly spent in catching theflies, and trying to make them kindle a green twig or two. "It's a lieto call them fire-flies when there isn't a fire in them," Nan said,throwing one unhappy insect away with scorn, though it shone its best,and obligingly walked up and down the twigs to please the innocentlittle experimenters.

"Marmar's a good while coming," said Rob, after another pause, duringwhich they watched the stars overhead, smelt the sweet fern crushedunder foot, and listened to the crickets' serenade.

"I don't see why God made any night; day is so much pleasanter," saidNan, thoughtfully.

"It's to sleep in," answered Rob, with a yawn.

"Then do go to sleep," said Nan, pettishly.

"I want my own bed. Oh, I wish I could see Teddy!" cried Rob, painfullyreminded of home by the soft chirp of birds safe in their little nests.

"I don't believe your mother will ever find us," said Nan, who wasbecoming desperate, for she hated patient waiting of any sort. "It's sodark she won't see us."

"It was all black in the ice-house, and I was so scared I didn't callher, but she saw me; and she will see me now, no matter how dark it is,"returned confiding Rob, standing up to peer into the gloom for the helpwhich never failed him.

"I see her! I see her!" he cried, and ran as fast as his tired legswould take him toward a dark figure slowly approaching. Suddenly hestopped, then turned about, and came stumbling back, screaming in agreat panic,

"No, it's a bear, a big black one!" and hid his face in Nan's skirts.

For a moment Nan quailed; ever her courage gave out at the thought of areal bear, and she was about to turn and flee in great disorder, when amild "Moo!" changed her fear to merriment, as she said, laughing,

"It's a cow, Robby! the nice, black cow we saw this afternoon."

The cow seemed to feel that it was not just the thing to meet twolittle people in her pasture after dark, and the amiable beast paused toinquire into the case. She let them stroke her, and stood regarding themwith her soft eyes so mildly, that Nan, who feared no animal but a bear,was fired with a desire to milk her.

"Silas taught me how; and berries and milk would be so nice," she said,emptying the contents of her pail into her hat, and boldly beginning hernew task, while Rob stood by and repeated, at her command, the poem fromMother Goose:

"Cushy cow, bonny, let down your milk, Let down your milk to me, And I will give you a gown of silk, A gown of silk and a silver tee."

But the immortal rhyme had little effect, for the benevolent cow hadalready been milked, and had only half a gill to give the thirstychildren.

"Shoo! get away! you are an

old cross patch," cried Nan, ungratefully,as she gave up the attempt in despair; and poor Molly walked on with agentle gurgle of surprise and reproof.

"Each can have a sip, and then we must take a walk. We shall go to sleepif we don't; and lost people mustn't sleep. Don't you know how HannahLee in the pretty story slept under the snow and died?"

"But there isn't any snow now, and it's nice and warm," said Rob, whowas not blessed with as lively a fancy as Nan.

"No matter, we will poke about a little, and call some more; and then,if nobody comes, we will hide under the bushes, like Hop-'o-my-thumb andhis brothers."

It was a very short walk, however, for Rob was so sleepy he could notget on, and tumbled down so often that Nan entirely lost patience, beinghalf distracted by the responsibility she had taken upon herself.

"If you tumble down again, I'll shake you," she said, lifting the poorlittle man up very kindly as she spoke, for Nan's bark was much worsethan her bite.

"Please don't. It's my boots they keep slipping so;" and Rob manfullychecked the sob just ready to break out, adding, with a plaintivepatience that touched Nan's heart, "If the skeeters didn't bite me so, Icould go to sleep till Marmar comes."

"Put your head on my lap, and I'll cover you up with my apron; I'm notafraid of the night," said Nan, sitting down and trying to persuadeherself that she did not mind the shadow nor the mysterious rustlingsall about her.

"Wake me up when she comes," said rob, and was fast asleep in fiveminutes with his head in Nan's lap under the pinafore.

The little girl sat for some fifteen minutes, staring about her withanxious eyes, and feeling as if each second was an hour. Then a palelight began to glimmer over the hill-top and she said to herself,

"I guess the night is over and morning is coming. I'd like to see thesun rise, so I'll watch, and when it comes up we can find our way righthome."

But before the moon's round face peeped above the hill to destroy herhope, Nan had fallen asleep, leaning back in a little bower of tallferns, and was deep in a mid-summer night's dream of fire-flies and blueaprons, mountains of huckleberries, and Robby wiping away the tears of ablack cow, who sobbed, "I want to go home! I want to go home!"

While the children were sleeping, peacefully lulled by the drowsy hum ofmany neighborly mosquitoes, the family at home were in a great state ofagitation. The hay-cart came at five, and all but Jack, Emil, Nan, andRob were at the bars ready for it. Franz drove instead of Silas, andwhen the boys told him that the others were going home through the wood,he said, looking ill-pleased, "They ought to have left Rob to ride, hewill be tired out by the long walk."

"It's shorter that way, and they will carry him," said Stuffy, who wasin a hurry for his supper.

"You are sure Nan and Rob went with them?"