How the Pennypackers kept the light

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I When the Little Pennypackers Came Home.

Papa Pennypacker's Hands. Horatio Has a Secret 13

Chapter I

WHEN THE LITTLE PENNYPACKERS CAME HOME. PAPA PENNYPACKER’s HANDS.

HORATIO HAS A SECRET

4 4 "]V TOW what do you suppose is going ^ ^ on? ” exclaimed Jane Pennypacker, as the steamer 1 rounded the Point, so that Hull Harbor was in sight. They were coming home on the steamer — Horatio and Jane and Doxy Pennypacker, — from being shipwrecked and having one of the queerest times that anyone ever did have, and Hull Harbor looked as if there were a circus or a launching — something very gay and delightful — going on there.

It was late October, too, and there wasn’t a summer visitor left; sometimes it looked as if the summer visitors had all the good times to themselves and other people were only made to work — but the Harborites knew how to kick up their heels, I can tell you, after the summer people had all gone and they had stored away the fine lot of pennies they had earned by having them there !

There was a crowd on the steamboat landing and along the shore and it stretched up the road, away beyond Mr. Tobias Clark’s store!

And, between the steamer’s shrill snorts as she made her way up to the landing, they heard a rat-atat-tat, a tum-ti-tum-tum and the joyous, martial strains of a cornet — the Hull Harbor band, or a part of it, anyway!

Jo Bracey began to look sheepish! He began to understand that it was a welcome home to him and his bride — who had been Pedy Ross, a little school-teacher whom everyone loved. They had gone off on their wedding trip on Jo’s vessel and got shipwrecked and carried off across the ocean; and this was Hull

Harbor’s way of showing how glad it was to welcome them home, all safe and sound.

Their adventures had been so remarkable that Hull Harbor had read about them in the newspapers ! — just as some of you have read about them in the book called “ The Six Little Pennypackers ” — and it was felt to be a great thing to have had the newspapers report how brave they were — all the shipwrecked party. So it had been decided to show how Hull Harbor felt about it!

The boys and girls — who made up about half the crowd — wished especially to have Horatio and Jane and Doxy Pennypacker, who had all been in the shipwreck, know how they felt about it! It had been set down in black and white in a Boston paper, that Jane Pennypacker, aged twelve, had been especially brave ! And Jane had been the one who was afraid to go ! She said she had “ only been brave on account of Doxy.” You must set an example, you know. When Pedy walked down the gang plank to the Hull Harbor steamboat wharf Christopher, the tame crow that she carried in his cage, shrieked out: “ If ever I was glad to get home ! ” And the crowd laughed and cheered Christopher.

Of course he must have heard someone say that and I think, myself, that it was Doxy, because Doxy lisped a little and Christopher said “ wath.” You never knew such a mimic as Christopher !

It must be owned that Pedy longed to get away even from the joyful reception of her old friends and neighbors to her own little house, on the Point, which had been built for Jo and her before they were married. And the little Pennypackers longed to get home to the lighthouse. They had always thought that the Little Bear Island lighthouse was the most delightful place in the world to live in and going across the ocean to London had not changed their minds. With the sun shining upon its white tower, that morning of their home-coming and the blue waves tossing white caps upon the cliffs of Little Bear-well, you wouldn’t wonder that they loved the lighthouse.

And if it is always a joy to see home when one has been long away, think how great a joy it must be when one has been shipwrecked and has known a time when one never really expected to see it again!

Papa Pennypacker had come over to the landing in his little sailboat, the Polly Ann, and he was in his Sunday clothes. He said that as his children had had their names in the newspapers he couldn’t do any less than to dress up : — although Doxy always said he looked like somebody else and Little She cried and wouldn’t go near him. (Little She was the sixth of the little Pennypackers, who, being a baby, had not counted in their good times, but was now getting to the point where she meant to!) Papa Pennypacker kept wiping his eyes, just because they might have got lost in the wreck, and he hugged Doxy so hard that she felt great anxiety lest he should injure Pepina her French doll, that she had brought all the way in her arms.

It was good to get on board the Polly Ann , their own little catboat ! They bade good-by — for a little while to Pedy and Jo who were going off to the Point on Cap’n ’Siah Thimble’s buckboard, with all their luggage, the Cap’n having come to meet his son Nick, who had been the mate of Jo’s shipwrecked vessel. The crowd had sung “ Home Again ” and Christopher, the crow, kept shrieking it, as the buckboard drove away.

Levi Gott helped to get the Pennypackers’ luggage aboard the Polly Ann — (Levi had been a sailor aboard Jo’s vessel and he was going home to Goose Cove, as soon as he could get there). That was why Horatio did not observe, at once, how difficult it was for his father to use his hands. But he sprang suddenly from the tiny cabin, where he had been stowing things away, to the stern.

“ Let me take the helm, Father! ” he cried. For the Polly Ann was not coming around as she should, and he saw that his father’s hands were knobby and swollen out of shape.

“ The rheumatism again, and at this time of year? ” said Horatio. “ And you didn’t write about it ! I ought to have been at home ! ” Horatio’s very last thought when he thought he was going to be drowned was that his father would have no one to take care of the light, when he had rheumatism.

“ I expect you came just about as quick as you could, didn’t you?” said Papa Pennypacker, half joking and half tender. His eyes rested proudly on his manly fourteen-year-old son, but sadly, too — he was afraid that with his rheumatism growing worse Horatio was not going to have half a chance !

All the little Pennypackers had come home a year older than they went away — and yet they had been away but a few weeks. Doxy was proposing that fact as a riddle for everyone to guess ! Horatio, who had been thirteen when they had sailed away in Jo’s vessel, was now fourteen, Jane, who had been eleven was now twelve and Doxy, who had been but seven was now eight.

It had happened, rather oddly, that each one had had a birthday while they were gone — that was. all. Doxy thought it was very astonishing and she wondered how her twin brother, Jonas, at home, was standing it to be eight, without her ! They were known — alas ! — as the good twin and the bad one, and little Jonas was the bad one.

Horatio was not thinking of his own chances but only that it had been a shame for him to be away when his father’s legs were so stiff that he had hard work to climb the lighthouse stairs and his hands so stiff that he could scarcely light the lighthouse lamp — that lamp upon which the safety of so many vessels depended!

His mother was a small woman and very plump — it put her out of breath to climb the lighthouse stairs; and it was almost impossible for her to handle the great lamp.

He ought not to have been away! said Horatio to himself.

And he must get up early and go to bed late if he were going over to “ the main ” to school, with that lamp to take care of! — and they were not likely to have a teacher of their own; there seemed to be no one to have, now that Pedy was married.

Jane was to go over to “ the main ” to school, also, and it was expected that she and Horatio would be able to teach the smaller ones — Doxy and Jonas and little Seth ; so you see that, besides all the good times they expected, the young Pennypackers were going to have something to do.

They had all come down over the cliff to the landing — Mama Pennypacker, Little She, standing on her own feet to show that she could do it — she had only just begun to when they went away — Jonas blowing the fog-horn as he always did when great things happened, and Seth, who was still five and felt it to be a queer injustice that he hadn’t “ come six,” since the others had got to be a year older.

They all fell upon Jonas and kissed his smudgy face (he had had to be consoled with molasses candy for the long waiting) just as if he were good.

Jonas had “ come eight,” although he had stayed at home ; — Seth had found, as we all do, that there are many puzzling things in life.

“ Pedy Woss is going to have a house-warming and I have got an inbite,” he said, in an effort to make things seem more even.

And he thought of Little She who was being left out of something, just as he had been left out of being six — she had as yet no name ! It was because she was, as Jane said, so special; — that meant especially pretty and bright and sweet, so that there wasn’t a name in the whole round world that seemed good enough for her ! Perhaps you have known how it was, at your house ! The more names they thought of and the more they argued about names the less possible it seemed to find one that was just right for Little She ; so Little She the baby remained and now she was almost two — and it was quite disgraceful ! So Doxy thought, and she meant that the first duty that she attended to should be the proper naming of Little She.

It was Doxy who had really named Jo Bracey’s vessel, as you will remember who read about the launching, in the “ Six Little Pennypackers,” so it is not to be wondered at that she thought she was equal to it. In fact Doxy thought she was equal to a good deal; Horatio and Jane had privately owned to each other the fear that Doxy would grow up with “ the big head.” But “ the big head ” is likely to get cured in a large family, or at school ; — unless one is a simpleton; and Jane and Horatio decided that Doxy could not really be that and be a Pennypacker!

But before she found out that she didn’t know everything Doxy was going to have some pretty queer times! — You just wait and see if she wasn’t!

Pedy Ross — who was Pedy Bracey, now, although it was hard to remember — had planned her house-warming on the way home and she was going to have it just as soon as possible, while it was warm and pleasant, because she wanted all the old people and all the babies to come, besides everybody in between. Because, also, everybody wished to come and hear all about the queer adventures they had had in being shipwrecked and carried off across the Atlantic.

It was sure to be a delightful merry-making and the Pennypackers seemed to be thinking of scarcely anything else; but yet Horatio had what his mother called a hard knot between his brows and that meant that he had on his thinking-cap and that it was pulled down pretty far !

He beckoned to Jane to follow him up the tower stairs when he went to light the lamp, the night after their return.

Jane went up the stairs, with her heart going thumpity-thump.

Horatio never had any foolish, little mysteries, as the others did. When he looked and behaved like that there was something the matter!

“ See here ! ” said Horatio. There was still daylight enough for Jane to see what was the matter.

If you have ever been in one of Uncle Sam’s lighthouses you know how beautifully the lamp is kept; — the glass as clear as crystal, the metal polished so that it shines like the sun.

And there had never been, on the whole Atlantic coast, a clearer, shinier lamp than the Little Bear!

It was not so, now — it was really dingy !

Horatio lighted the lamp. The great light flashed out, but it could not fling its beams as far as it ought through that dingy glass !

“I ought to have been at home! Father can’t, you know, with his hands in that condition ! And when the rheumatism is bad he doesn’t seem to see very clearly.”

“ The light shows out beyond the rocks, anyway,” said Jane, after a moment.

“ There couldn’t have been any shipwreck.”

“ But if the Inspection Boat had happened to come ’round ! ” said Horatio — and his voice shook. “ Father would have lost Little Bear lighthouse ! ” Lost the lighthouse ! Jane looked bewildered and then she gasped for breath. Where should they go, away from Little Bear? They had all been born there — every one. of the children. She thought they would be like a lot of little snails without their shells! — and heart-broken little snails, as well as at the mercy of the world! For there could never be another home like Little Bear Island.

“ The thing is,” said Horatio, in a firm voice, “ that until Father is well we must keep the light! ”

“ Why, of course we can keep it, just as easy as not! ” said Jane; — and the rosy color that meant joyful courage rushed back to her cheeks.

Not yet, if Horatio and she could help it, were the little Pennypackers to be like snails without their shells!

“It may not be quite so easy!” said Horatio, shaking his head. “ That is — ” he added hastily, for he didn’t like to see Jane’s face grow long — “ it may not be all fun ! ”

He knew something about it that he wasn’t going to tell Jane — at least, not yet.

Chapter II

JO AND PEDY'S HOUSE-WARMING. “ BETTER LOOKOUT FOR LITTLE BEAR LIGHT 1 ”

44 T DON’T think I’d better go,” said Horatio. They were all setting out for Jo and Pedy Bracey’s house-warming — every one of the Pennypackers even down to Little She — excepting Papa Pennypacker, who must take care of the light.

They all turned and stared at Horatio — and there he was in his everyday clothes! Mama Pennypacker and Jane had had so much to do to get themselves and the little ones ready that they had not thought of Horatio, who was the kind of boy that knows where his Sunday collars are and even which neck-tie to wear.

“ I mean, of course, that I’ll row you over

and come after you; but Father is so lame, to- 26 day, that I think that I’d better see to the light.”

They were going by the middle of the afternoon, for that was “ when the party began,” as / Doxy said, but they wouldn’t be likely to come home until pretty far into the night, for a rousing good time like that was so rare at Hull Harbor that people wouldn’t easily let go of it.

Mama Pennypacker’s eyes grew a little troubled as she looked at Horatio — nobody liked a good time better than Horatio.

“ I don’t think there’s a mite of need of your staying at home,” she said. “ Your father wouldn’t like it and he wouldn’t let you touch the lamp; you know that! And he always has been able.”

“ It was as much as ever, last night,” murmured Horatio. But he didn’t say it aloud. (It had always come easy to Horatio not to tell too much; Jane, now, would make up her mind not to tell and out it would come!)

“ Your father wouldn’t like it,” repeated Mama Pennypacker; and that settled it, to her mind. She had been staying there and seeing Papa Pennypacker every day and she was not conscious of some changes in him which Horatio saw.

“ You should have got dressed,” she added, somewhat severely, for her.

Mama Pennypacker didn’t believe in dwelling upon every little worry, and she feared that Horatio was going to have an anxious mind.

“ Never mind your everyday clothes,” said Jane, smoothing out the creases in her pink sash. “ You are only a boy.”

Jane still believed that it would be just as easy as not to keep Little Bear Light. Horatio and she had cleaned the lamp — not very thoroughly because it had annoyed their father to have them do it; he had told them sharply to keep away from the lamp. But Horatio was sure that the time was coming when he would be glad to have them do it.

From the Point where Jo lived the lighthouse tower was plainly in sight.

Horatio decided that he would stay at the house-warming until dark — and keep watch of the lighthouse.

As for his common clothes — he would have all the more fun in them ; only girls noticed such things and Horatio didn’t think much of girls — except Rosemary Bruce, his friend Phonse’s sister, who had almost as much sense as a boy, and Lida Scatterby, who was great in Arithmetic. Lida had tight, red, bobbing curls over her head; the boys and girls made fun of her kinky hair but there were no kinks in her brains — Horatio would have told you that!

It was a bother just now, that he liked Lida Scatterby, for it was her father, Cap’n Hiram Scatterby, who was likely to make them trouble about the lighthouse; — that was the thing that he had not told Jane.

Jo Bracey had told Horatio — Jo, who knew how to be a friend and watched the sea that was likely to swamp another fellow’s boat, just as if it were going to swamp his own. And Jo knew what it would be to the Pennypackers to lose the lighthouse.

Cap’n Scatterby wanted more than his share — or, rather, he thought that all that he could get was his share.

He probably had not begun by playing fair, when he was a boy. Anyway, he didn’t play fair, now. When he saw Uncle Sam paying anybody a salary for keeping a lighthouse — why, he wished to keep the lighthouse and get the salary himself!

And when Papa Pennypacker became ill with rheumatism he said to himself, just like an old fox, “Now is my chance!” For Uncle Sam is very particular to have only able-bodied men to keep his lighthouses.

Now Horatio would have felt just as anxious to keep the light always steady and bright, a beacon to show vessels the way into the harbor and keep them off the cruel rocks that would grind their bones, if there had been no sly fox of a Cap’n Scatterby trying to get the lighthouse away from them; but he was more determined that everything should be ship-shape and speckless, so that no one might say “ Seth Pennypacker isn’t fit to keep the light! ”

They were fit to keep it — all the Pennypackers, together — and Papa Pennypacker’s rheumatism never lasted a great while; but, you see why it was that Horatio meant to keep the lighthouse tower in sight, even if it prevented him from having any good time at all at the house-warming.

It was a pretty good pull over to the point, that afternoon, for there was a choppy sea and so many plump Pennypackers made a heavy load; but Horatio’s muscles were used to oars and he said it was good to get hold of them again after being away where everything went by steam or electricity; — you felt bigger, somehow, to find out that you could still make something go, all by yourself!

The afternoon part of the house-warming was chiefly for the boys and girls who had been Pedy’s scholars and they were there in full force and ready to make the most of the good time. They all looked at Horatio and Jane and Doxy Pennypacker as if they were curiosities, since they had been to London, and Lida Scatterby, who had once spent a week in Boston and gone to the top of Bunker Hill Monument, knew that she would never be asked to tell about that again !

Christopher, the crow, was excited by the sight of so many people, but he showed it chiefly by standing on one foot and making queer noises in his throat; Pedy said that he had seemed stupid and queer since they had been at home and had only muttered sleepily his old sayings that he had “ had a very wet time” and “ been through a lot.” Sometimes she was afraid he would never say anything new!

The living-room of the cottage was made to look like a ship’s cabin — Pedy said she wanted to feel as if she had gone away with Jo even when she hadn’t; and it was so exactly like a ship’s cabin that if you were inclined to be seasick you would think you felt the motion of the boat when you went into it!

Christopher’s cage hung there and Jo said he thought the crow was so queer because he thought himself still at sea; but moving him into the kitchen made no difference. Christopher seemed to be the only one of the party who couldn’t get over being shipwrecked!

Jane was quite mortified that Horatio was in his everyday clothes, when there wasn’t another boy or girl who wasn’t dressed up; and Lida Scatterby kept on her work apron, that she had brought to help at the table in, just to keep him in countenance! (She needn’t have troubled — Horatio didn’t even know it ! — but she knew that it would have made another girl feel better.)

Doxy Pennypacker had brought — carefully, in a box — her walking and talking doll, Pepina, which had come from Paris. Now there had been several dolls in Hull Harbor, first and last, that had “ truly ” hair and could open and shut their eyes most naturally and in a way to make one’s heart thrill; but a doll that could walk about, with a swish of her silken skirts and say “ Papa ” and “ Mama ” plainly, in a sweet little voice — why that was another thing altogether!

It was a thing to interest older people than Doxy Pennypacker, the doll’s owner and “kids” like that. (I am quoting Dan Scatterby, aged thirteen; — Horatio had never liked Dan Scatterby as well as he did his sister Lida.)

When Pepina had walked and talked to everybody’s satisfaction Doxy put her carefully away in the box again — for a doll of such attainments could not be expected to be hugged and carried by one arm and even sat upon, like poor, dear, patient Angelica Marie, now high upon the clock-shelf, at the lighthouse, out of reach of Little She, but alas! upside down.

And when she had put Pepina into the box Doxy slipped the box under the lounge, where it would be safe until she was ready to go home.

And Dan Scatterby, with small, gray, gimletlike eyes watched her doing it, while he pretended to be looking another way.

Dan was the kind of a boy that likes to find out what makes things go : — it is not a bad kind of boy if he only confines his curiosity to his own things. But what Dan meant, to-day, was to find out what made that doll walk and from what part of her the “ Papa ” and “ Mama ” came out !

By this time the table was being laid for supper and almost everyone was helping, even the boys, although a few were still playing games in the living-room.

Dan Scatterby had his eye on Jonas — known, alas! as the bad twin.

“ Jonas is the man for my money,” said Dan to himself.

And he beckoned to Jonas, with a glittering penny held enticingly in his hand.

Now it happened that Horatio, who was just at that moment helping Lida Scatterby with the sardine sandwiches, saw Dan out of the corner of his eye and said to himself “ that boy is up to mischief ! ” He turned to see to whom Dan was beckoning.

But just at that instant the crow set up a cry in his old shrill, startling tones:

“ They’d better look out for Little Bear light!”

Chapter III

DAN SCATTERBY AND THE BAD TWIN. THE DARKNESS OF LITTLE BEAR LIGHT.

WILL HORATIO GET ACROSS?

H ORATIO set the can of sardines that he was opening down upon the table, pretty hastily! He tore off the apron that Lida Scatterby had tied around his neck — and rushed into the living-room. The crow seemed to have aroused from his stupid condition and repeated excitedly that they “ would better look out for Little Bear light! ”

It had grown dark but Horatio, reassured by his mother, and excited by the merry-making, had forgotten his fear lest his father’s rheumatic legs should refuse to climb the tower stairs, or his stiff fingers be unable to light the lamp !

No one but him had seen how great was the 37 effort his father was obliged to make, no one else understood how soon he might not be able to do it at all! And he, just because he was having a good time, had let himself forget!

Of course a boy is used to depending upon his father; — but he knows that he must draw upon all the stuff in him that is going to make a man when something happens so that he cannot.

It was a dark night — pitchy dark; there was nothing but darkness when Horatio looked out of the living-room window — not a ray of light from the lighthouse tower!

Horatio said to himself that he had known it would be so before he looked out! And it was the time of year when a great many fishing vessels and coasters were likely to put into the Harbor.

I am glad to be able to say that it was the danger to those vessels that filled Horatio’s mind, rather than the thought of what the neglect would mean to themselves.

There was nothing but darkness when Horatio looked out of the living room window.

He ran out of the house without a word to anyone. He wished that no one might discover that the lamp was not lighted; but of course that was past hoping for, with that crow screaming out his advice!

Queer that he should have taken it into his rusty, stupid old poll, just at this time !

He had undoubtedly heard some of the neighbors say, at the cottage, that Seth Pennypacker was in danger of losing the lighthouse ! It was likely, too, that he had heard it said more than once — although you never could be sure what Christopher would pick up ! Pedy said she believed he was a worse tell-tale than any parrot that ever lived!

Horatio got into his boat, at the end of Jo’s slip ; no one but a boy could have found his way to the end of the slip, it was so dark. There was a lantern tucked away under the stern seat, and he had matches in his pocket.

By the lantern’s light he could see his compass. As short a distance as it was and as familiar as he was with the place he could by no means have found his way without the compass. As it was it was not the easiest of things to steer a direct course for Little Bear Island, in a sea that had grown heavier since darkness fell.

It is as natural to keep rowing around and around, on the sea, as hunters say that it is to keep walking in the same manner in the woods.

He could not keep his lantern burning because the glass did not cover it tightly and the high wind made it flare dangerously; so he had to stop rowing, every little while, to light it and look at his compass.

In that way his progress was very slow; indeed, he began to fear that he was not going ahead, at all, when, suddenly, the keen, high notes of a violin struck upon his ear!