Part 8 (1/2)
The two mates were not only sound asleep but snoring loudly. Ann and Peter tried shaking them, spanking them, even drenching them with the cold remains of the catnip tea, but it was all no use, they could not get them to stir. Meanwhile the _Merry Mouser_ was drifting dangerously near land, in spite of all Rudolf could do to prevent her.
He did several things and he ordered Peter and Ann to do a good many others, but all of them felt glad the False Hare was not there to compliment them on their seamans.h.i.+p. At last there came a dull shock and a jar, and the _Merry Mouser_ ran her nose into a sand-bar, quivered all over, and then stood still.
”The thing to do _now_” said Rudolf easily, just as if he had planned it all, ”is for us to get into the little boat we are towing and row ourselves ash.o.r.e. Of course we must wake up the mates and the crew and take them with us.”
It was simply astonis.h.i.+ng the things those children had to do to Growler and Prowler before they could get either of them so much as to open an eye! When they were at last able to understand what had happened, they merely turned over and growled out: ”Oh, is _that_ all?
Aground, are we? Ye needn't have waked us up for _that_! Be off as soon as ye like and give us some rest--do!” They had hardly left off speaking before they were sound asleep again. As for Toddles and Towser they refused to wake at all.
The children left them where they lay and climbed Over the side of the _Merry Mouser_ into the little rowboat which Rudolf had brought alongside. When all were safely aboard, he cut loose the tow-rope, took the oars, and pulled away from the pirate s.h.i.+p. After a short and pleasant row they reached a gently shelving beach where it was not difficult to make a landing.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
[Ill.u.s.tration]
CHAPTER IX
CAPTAIN JINKS
Ann stood and stared at the line of low hills that fringed the edge of the water. ”What funny, funny country!” she exclaimed. ”It's like a checker-board going up-hill.”
”No, it isn't either,” said Rudolf, who loved to disagree, ”because the squares are not square, they're all different shapes and sizes and they're not just red and black but ever and ever so many different colors.”
”It's something like the countries in the geography maps, anyway,”
said Ann.
”It's like patchwork,” said Peter, and he came nearest the truth.
As it did not seem likely they would need the little boat again, the children left it to float away if it liked, and crossed the strip of gray sand to where they saw a little pink and white striped path winding up the side of a crimson hill. This path they began to follow, and it took them by so many twists and turns that they hardly noticed the climb. When the last loop brought them to the top of the slope they stood still and looked about them, surprised and delighted at the beauty of the bare bright hills that sloped away in front of them.
The ground under their feet was now a bright beautiful yellow, powdered all over with little white dots that proved to be daisies.
With shouts of delight, Ann and Peter stooped to gather these, but Rudolf cried out: ”Oh, look, look! Don't let's stop here. It's prettier yet farther on!” So on they ran, all three of them, over the yellow ground, over a stretch of green and blue checks, across a lavender meadow, and found themselves at last in a wonderful pale blue field scattered all over with bunches of little pink roses.
”This is the prettiest yet,” exclaimed Ann, ”though of course it is very old-fas.h.i.+oned. I wonder what it reminds me of? Ruddy, do you remember that picture of Aunt Jane when she was little in such a funny dress with low neck and short sleeves--”
The children had been wandering across the field as Ann spoke, stopping to pull a rose here and there, too busy and too happy to notice where their feet were taking them. All at once they looked up and saw that they had come to the end of the pale blue field where it bordered on a broad brown road. Just ahead of them stood a little white tent, and from the door of the tent two tin soldiers suddenly sprang out, shouldered arms, and cried: ”Halt!”
Of course the children halted. There was nothing else to do, so astonished were they to meet any one when they had supposed themselves to be in quite a wild and uninhabited country. Besides, though these were small and tinny-looking, yet soldiers are soldiers wherever you meet them, and have an air about them which makes people feel respectful. These two handled their little guns in a most businesslike manner. The taller of the two, who seemed by his uniform to be a superior officer, now stepped forward and snapped out: ”Give the countersign!”
The children stood still and stared, Peter with his thumb in his mouth.
”We haven't got any, sir, so we can't give it to you,” said Ann at last.
”Silly! He means _say_ it,” whispered Rudolf in her ear.
”We can't say it either,” Ann went on, ”because we don't know it. But we know lots of other things,” she added, looking pleadingly at the officer. ”Rudolf, he can say the whole of ''Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse'--and I can say 'The Gentle Cow all Red and White I Love with all my Heart',--and Peter he says 'I have a Little Shadow',--he knows it all, every word!”