Part 12 (1/2)
He began to whistle softly to himself; then, sensing that Willie was still unconvinced by his sanguine prediction, he added:
”And even if Mr. Eldridge shouldn't come back, I guess you and I could manage without him.”
”That's all very well up to a certain point, youngster,” was the retort. ”But who's goin' to see me through this job after you've taken wing?”
He pointed tragically to the beginnings of the model.
”Maybe I shan't take wing,” announced Bob, looking absently at the cl.u.s.ter of withered roses in his hand. ”You--you see,” he went on, endeavoring to speak in off-hand fas.h.i.+on, ”I've been thinking things over and--and--I've about come to the conclusion--”
”Yes,” interrupted Willie eagerly.
”That it is perhaps better for me to stay here until we get the invention completed.”
”You don't mean until the thing's done!”
”If it doesn't take too long, yes.”
”Hurray!” shouted his host. ”That's prime!” he rubbed his hands together. ”Under those conditions we'll pitch right in an' scurry the work along fast as ever we can.”
Robert Morton looked chagrined.
”I don't know that we need break our necks to rush the thing through at a pace like that,” he said, fumbling awkwardly with the flowers. ”A few weeks more or less wouldn't make any great difference.”
”But I thought you said it was absolutely necessary for you to go home--that you had important business in New York--that--” the old man broke off dumbfounded.
Bob shook his head. ”Oh, no, I think my affairs can be arranged,” was the sanguine response. ”A piece of work like this would give me lots of valuable experience, and I'm not sure but it is my duty to--”
The little old inventor scanned the speaker's flushed cheeks, his averted eye and the drooping blossoms in his hand; then his brow cleared and he smiled broadly:
”Duty ain't to be shunned,” announced he with solemnity. ”An' as for experience, take it by an' large, I ain't sure but what you'll get a heap of it by lingerin' on here--more, mebbe, than you realize.”
CHAPTER VI
MARRYING AND GIVING IN MARRIAGE
That afternoon, after making this elaborate but by no means misleading explanation to Willie, Bob sent off to a Boston jeweler a registered package and while impatiently awaiting its return set to work with redoubled zest at the new invention.
What an amazingly different aspect the motor-boat enterprise had a.s.sumed since yesterday! Then his one idea had been to humor Willie's whim and in return for the old man's hospitality lend such aid to the undertaking as he was able. But now Zenas Henry's launch had suddenly become a glorified object, sacred to the relatives of the divinity of the workshop, and how and where the flotsam of the tides ensnared it was of colossal importance. Into solving the nautical enigma Robert Morton now threw every ounce of his energy and while at work artfully drew from his companion every detail he could obtain of Delight Hathaway's strange story.
He learned how the _Michleen_ had been wrecked on the Wilton Shoals in the memorable gale of 1910; how the child's father had perished with the s.h.i.+p, leaving his little daughter friendless in the world; how Zenas Henry and the three aged captains had risked their lives to bring the little one ash.o.r.e; and how the Brewsters had taken her into their home and brought her up. It was a simple tale and simply told, but the heroism of the romance touched it with an epic quality that gripped the listener's imagination and sympathies tenaciously. And now the waif s.n.a.t.c.hed from the grasp of the covetous sea had blossomed into this exquisite being; this creature beloved, petted, and well-nigh spoiled by a proudly exultant community.
For although legally a member of the Brewster family, Willie explained, the girl had come to belong in a sense to the entire village. Had she not been cast an orphan upon its sh.o.r.es, and were not its treacherous shoals responsible for her misfortune? Wilton, to be sure, was not actually answerable for the crimes those hidden sand bars perpetrated, but nevertheless the fisherfolk could not quite shake themselves free of the shadow cast upon them by the tragedies ever occurring at their gateway. Too many of their people had gone down to the sea in s.h.i.+ps never to return for them to become callous to the disasters they were continually forced to witness. The wreck of the _Michleen_ had been one of the most pathetic of these horrors, and the welfare of the child who in consequence of it had come into the hamlet's midst had become a matter of universal concern.
”'Tain't to be wondered at the girl is loved,” continued Willie. ”At first people took an interest in her, or tried to, from a sense of duty, for you couldn't help bein' sorry for the little thing. But 'twarn't long before folks found out 'twarn't no hards.h.i.+p to be fond of Delight Hathaway. She was livin' suns.h.i.+ne, that's what she was!
Wherever she went, be it one end of town or t'other, she brought happiness. In time it got so that if you was to drop in where there was sickness or trouble an' spied a nosegay of flowers, you could be pretty sure Delight had been there. Why, Lyman Bea.r.s.e's father, old Lyman, that's so crabbed with rhumatism that it's a cross to live under the same roof with him, will calm down gentle as a dove when Delight goes to read to him. As for Mis' Furber, I reckon she'd never get to the Junction to do a mite of shoppin' or marketin' but for Delight stayin' with the babies whilst she was gone. I couldn't tell you half what that girl does. She's here, there, an' everywhere. Now she's gettin' up a party for the school children; now makin' a birthday cake for somebody; now trimmin' a bunnit for Tiny or helpin' her plan out a dress.”
Willie stopped to rummage on a distant shelf for a level.
”Once,” he went on, ”Sarah Libbie Lewis asked me what Delight was goin'
to be. I told her there warn't no goin' to be about it; Delight was bein' it right now. She didn't need to go soundin' for a mission in life.”