CHAPTER XVIII.
THE REBELLION AT DAWN.
Dr. Menter’s kind words brought the tears to more eyes than one among these waifs of humanity forming Ragged Rob’s young republic, but they were tears of joy surging up from emotions too deep for utterance.
“Heaven bless you!” said Mrs. Bayne, fervently. “You are very kind, Dr. Menter, and I hope that you will get your pay for it.”
“I should be less than human, my dear woman, did I not do this much, when I cannot forget that my two dear children at home owe their lives to Rob. He risked his life nobly to save them, and I will do all I can for him and his friends.”
“You said Mrs. Cornhill wanted to get a girl to help her,” said Joe, at this moment. “I will go, and the money I earn shall go toward helping make better the house here.”
“You are needed at home, Joe,” spoke up Mary Little; “let me go. You know I am stronger than you.”
A short discussion followed, when it was decided that Mary should go, and she declared that she was ready to go at once.
“You can ride down with me,” said the doctor. “You will need different clothes, but I think Mrs. Cornhill will fit you out in fine shape. So jump in and we will drive down there immediately. I will send you up a load of goods this forenoon, Rob.”
The little band of colonists could not refrain from watching the kind-hearted doctor until his carriage had disappeared behind a row of bushes growing by the roadside, when they turned to their task of putting their new home into better shape with a hearty good will.
Water was brought from a neighboring spring, and cleaning was begun, while Rob, Larry, Tom and Jerry began to make such repairs in the way of fixing up doors and windows as they could. As little as they had to do with, before noon the old house presented a far more inviting appearance. But all this was new to the boys, and they soon tired of the work. Larry, though older and larger than even Rob, was the first to murmur.
“I didn’t suppose we’d come out here to break our backs lifting and working,” he said. “I don’t know how the rest of ye feel, but I’d ruther be back in Smoky Alley.”
“Oh, you’ll soon get used to it,” replied Joe. “I think it is just delightful. I never felt so well in my life. Come, Larry, be somebody. See how Rob has worked, and he——”
“Of course you’d stand up fer Rob. Nothing he does is bad, but as fer me——”
“Hold your tongue, Larry! We don’t want any grumbler in Break o’ Day!”
As the old red house was amply large for so many, it was decided to divide into three families, though much of the work would have to be done together, particularly the cooking. Mrs. Bayne and Rob, with the boys—Chick, Ruddy and Tony—were to form one family; Mrs. Willet and Joe another; while the Littles, Aunt Vinnie and her “boys,” Tom and Jerry, made up the third.
As the noon hour drew near, Aunt Vinnie, who was inclined to look on the dark side, began to bewail their condition if Dr. Menter should fail to send the supplies as he had promised. But this was useless talk, as grumbling generally proves to be, for at last the team came fairly loaded. How the boys shouted, while the older members felt quite as jubilant. There were edibles, such as potatoes, flour, apples, etc., with a table, chairs, two beds, and cooking utensils of various kinds, and a second-hand stove. Besides these articles, every one of which seemed so valuable to the destitute ones, were some boards with which to make repairs, with a saw, plane, hammer, and some nails.
The man who brought this load said but little, though he eyed the colonists with a curious gaze.
“The doctor told me to say that the feller who is to help the deacon will be expected to-morrow morning. Work is awfully behind at the deacon’s. But there, I don’t s’pose it matters much with him, as they say the doctor has given up hope of him getting up ag’in.”
Rob heard this bit of news with a sorrowful heart, and promised he would be promptly on hand the next day.
As he would be away after that day and not be able to attend to the work on the land, Rob felt anxious to make a beginning that afternoon, so he asked Larry to take hold with him. This the latter did reluctantly, while Tom and Jerry positively refused to work. Already Rob was beginning to feel that right at home he was likely to have serious trouble. Still, he did not feel that the time had come for him to express himself as he would like to have done.
Larry took his shovel and began work by the side of Rob, though he moved slowly and did his work so poorly that Little Hickory said nothing when finally he threw down the tool, saying:
“I’m too tired to work to-day.”
Rob kept steadily at his task until nearly sunset, and having the satisfaction of knowing he had quite a patch spaded up, he was about to start toward the house, when he saw a horse and wagon approaching.
The occupants of the wagon were the two selectmen who had posted up the notice for them to leave Basinburg that day.
“What are you doing here?” demanded the spokesman, as he stopped his horse, which began to nibble at the grass as soon as its head was free.
“At work, sir, getting ready to do a little planting, as——”
“Weren’t you ordered to move out of these regions, young man?”
“We have moved, sir,” replied Rob.
The chairman of the board of selectmen was about to reply, when his companion touched him on the arm, and a hurried consultation took place between them. Just what they said Rob was unable to tell, but he knew well enough that it had reference to their present situation, for at its conclusion the twain drove away without speaking to him again.
“P’raps you’ve learned where you are,” said Rob to himself, as he went to the house, where he found the best supper awaiting him that he had ever eaten in his life, his recent work having given him an appetite he had never felt before.
It was a happy company of friends that rested under the old red house roof that night, even if the majority of them slept on pallets of straw.
The following morning Rob was astir early, feeling pretty sore after his work of yesterday, but the sun was not very high when he reached the home of Deacon Cornhill to begin his first day’s real work.
He learned that the deacon was very ill. He did not see Mary, but was told that she was getting along very well with her work.
It would be tedious, perhaps, to describe the events of the following week. But it showed considerable advance in certain lines with the colonists of the young republic. Rob worked every day at Deacon Cornhill’s, going home to Break o’ Day every night and returning in the morning. This made it harder for him, but he felt that he was needed to look after matters at home.
This was made doubly important from the fact that Larry, Tom and Jerry, with the smaller boys, showed no disposition to begin work. Joe had bravely undertaken to spade up the ground to be planted, until Rob had requested her to stop. On Saturday, a day that will never be forgotten by the members of the young republic, Rob stayed at home to begin the garden, which needed attention.
“Come, boys,” he said, cheerily, “lend a hand. The garden must be made ready to plant.”
The others made no reply, Larry taking the shovel and following reluctantly.
“I’ve found a place easier to dig,” he said, finally, as Rob approached the place where he had begun digging.
Tom and Jerry were sulking in the background.
“I think this is the best place,” replied Rob to Larry, who had already started to a sandbank a few rods away. Upon reaching this place Larry began work, his shovel sinking its length into the light earth.
“Let’s see who can shovel the most,” said he.
“It will do no good to work there,” replied Rob, who could see that a crisis was at hand.
“I ain’t going to dig in that hard, rocky ground when there is sich easy stuff as this.”
“But nothing’ll grow there,” said Rob. “Dr. Menter said so.”
“I don’t keer what you nor Dr. Menter says, I reckon I’ll dig where I’m a mind to. Ye needn’t think, Rob Bayne, thet ye are going to boss me, fer ye ain’t, and the sooner ye know it the better.”
Little Hickory bit his lip, and slowly approaching Larry said, in a low, firm tone:
“I shall be sorry to have any trouble with you, Larry, and I’ve no wish to boss you, but I say ag’in it is no use to dig in that sand.”
“I dig here or nowhere,” gritted Larry, glowering upon his companion fiercely. “I s’pose ye think ye are guv-ner here, and not one o’ us dare to yip. But I want ye to onderstand that I’m older and bigger’n ye, and that I hev got more backers ’n ye hev. Come, Tom, Jerry, Chick, Ruddy and Tony, and help me show Rob Bayne he ain’t guv’ner here, if he does feel so big. We’ll lick him or bu’st the guv’ment!”
Larry threw aside his shovel, and as the other boys stepped quickly forward, he advanced swiftly toward Little Hickory with both fists doubled up and a dark, malignant scowl on his features.
He showed in every look and action that he meant a bitter fight, which Ragged Rob had neither the inclination nor the opportunity to escape, however hazardous it might prove to him.