Part 41 (2/2)
'If these birds come when the carca.s.s floats in, and if they seem disposed to trouble us, we could crawl into the boilers and be safe.'
”'Why, that is really brilliant!' cried Daisy.
”'Be quiet, my child. d.i.c.k, the plan is sound and sensible and perfectly practical. McPeek and Frisby shall go for a dozen loads of boilers to-morrow.'
”'It will spoil the beauty of the landscape,' said Daisy, with a taunting nod to me.
”'And Frisby will probably attempt to cover them with bill-posters,' I added, laughing.
”'That,' said Daisy, 'I shall prevent, even at the cost of his life.'
And she stood up, looking very determined.
”'Children, children,' protested the professor, 'go to bed--you bother me.'
”Then I turned deliberately to Miss Holroyd.
”'Good-night, Daisy,' I said.
”'Good-night, d.i.c.k,' she said, very gently.
XXI
”The week pa.s.sed quickly for me, leaving but few definite impressions.
As I look back to it now I can see the long stretch of beach burning in the fierce sunlight, the endless meadows, with the glimmer of water in the distance, the dunes, the twisted cedars, the leagues of scintillating ocean, rocking, rocking, always rocking. In the starlit nights the curlew came in from the sand-bars by twos and threes; I could hear their querulous call as I lay in bed thinking. All day long the little ring-necks whistled from the sh.o.r.e. The plover answered them from distant, lonely inland pools. The great white gulls drifted like feathers upon the sea.
”One morning towards the end of the week, I, strolling along the dunes, came upon Frisby. He was bill-posting. I caught him red-handed.
”'This,' said I, 'must stop. Do you understand, Mr. Frisby?'
”He stepped back from his work, laying his head on one side, considering first me, then the bill that he had pasted on one of our big boilers.
”'Don't you like the color?' he asked. 'It goes well on them black boilers.'
”'Color! No, I don't like the color, either. Can't you understand that there are some people in the world who object to seeing patent-medicine advertis.e.m.e.nts scattered over a landscape?'
”'Hey?' he said, perplexed.
”'Will you kindly remove that advertis.e.m.e.nt?' I persisted.
”'Too late,' said Frisby; 'it's sot.'
”I was too disgusted to speak, but my disgust turned to anger when I perceived that, as far as the eye could reach, our boilers, lying from three to four hundred feet apart, were ablaze with yellow-and-red posters extolling the 'Eureka Liver Pill Company.'
”'It don't cost 'em nothin',' said Frisby, cheerfully; 'I done it fur the fun of it. Purty, ain't it?'
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