Wyn's Camping Days Part 6

"He got ash.o.r.e on the island. Then he signalled to me, and I went off during a lull in the storm, and got him. He went to bed, and it was three months before he was up and around again.

"He suffered dreadfully with rheumatic fever," continued Polly, sadly.

"And all the time Dr. Shelton was talking just as mean about him as he could. He didn't believe his story. He even said that he thought my father took the motor boat down the river somewhere and sold it. And the way he talked about that box of silver images----"

"Oh, oh!" cried Wyn. "I'd forgotten about them. Of course they were lost, too?"

"Sunk somewhere in Lake Honotonka," declared Polly. "Father knows no more about where the boat lies than Dr. Shelton himself. But there are always people ready and willing to pick up the evil that is said about a person and help circulate it.

"While father was flat on his back, folks were talking about him. We had to raise money on the boats to pay for our food and father's medicine.

If we don't have a good season this summer we will be unable to pay off the chattel mortgage next winter, and will lose the boats. I tell you, Miss Wyn, it is _hard_."

"You poor, dear girl!" exclaimed Wyn. "I should think it _was_ hard. And that mean man accuses your father----"

"Well, you see, there was father's past record against him. The story of his trouble here in Denton followed him into the woods, of course. If anybody gets mad at us up at the Forge, they throw the whole thing up to us. I--I _hate_ it there," sobbed the boatkeeper's daughter.

"And yet, it is harder on poor father. He is straight, but everything has been against him. I saw he felt dreadfully these past few days because I need some decent clothes. And there is no money to buy any.

"So I thought I would come to town and see some old friends of mother's who used to come and see us years ago. Yes, there were a few people who stuck to mother, even if they did not quite approve of poor father. But, when I paddled 'way down here----"

"Not in a canoe?" cried Wyn.

"Yes, I came down very easily yesterday evening and stopped at a boatman's house on the edge of town. I shall go back again to-day. The Wintinooski isn't kicking up much of a rumpus just now. The spring floods are about all over."

"But you must be a splendid hand with a paddle," said Wyn. "It's a long way to the lake."

"Oh! I don't mind it," said Polly. "Or, I _wouldn't_ mind it if it had done me the least good to come down here," and she sighed.

"You are disappointed?" queried Wyn.

"Dreadfully! I did not find mother's old friends. I had not heard from them for two or three years, and found that they were away--n.o.body knows where. I did not know but I might get work here in town for a few weeks, and live with these old friends, and so earn some money. I am so shabby!

And father isn't fit to be seen.

"And then--then there was a man in town who used to befriend mother. I know when I was quite a little girl, the year after we had gone to the woods to live, father was ill for a long time and mother had to have things. She went to this storekeeper in Denton and he let her have things on account and we paid him afterward. Oh, we paid him--every cent!" declared Polly, again wiping her eyes.

"And I hoped he would--for mother's sake--help us again. I went to him.

I--I reminded him of how father once worked for him, and that he knew mother. But he was angry about something--he would not listen--he would neither give me work nor let me have goods charged. I--I--well, it just broke me down, Wyn Mallory, and I came here to cry it out."

"It's a shame!" exclaimed Wyn. "I am just as sorry for you as I can be.

And I believe that your father is perfectly honest and that he never in his life intended to defraud anybody."

It was that blessed _tact_ that made Wynifred Mallory say that. It was the sure way to Polly Jarley's heart; and Wyn's words and way opened the door wide and Polly took her in.

"You--you _blessed_ creature!" cried the boatman's daughter. "I know you must have been 'specially sent to comfort me. I _was_ so miserable."

"Of course I was sent," declared Wyn. She did not propose to tell her new acquaintance that she had observed her in Erad's store and had looked for her all over Market Street.

"Such things are meant to be. If we trust to G.o.d we surely shall have release from our difficulties. That is just as sure as the day follows the night," declared Wyn, with simple, straight-forward faith.

"And just see how it is proved in this case. You were in trouble, and sat here crying, and needed somebody to help you. And I came along perfectly willing and able to help you, and you are going to be helped."

"I _am_ helped!" declared Polly. "You just put the courage back into me. I didn't know what to do----"

"Do you know any better now?" demanded Wyn, quickly.

"We--ell, I----"

"That doesn't sound as though you had _quite_ made up your mind,"

said Wyn, with a little laugh.

"Never mind. I can stand even going back home with my hands empty, better than before I met you," declared Polly, bravely.

"But you won't go back home empty-handed."

"Oh, Wyn! Can you get me work?"

"No, not here. Nor do I believe you ought to leave your father alone up there for so long. I expect he is not very well yet?"

"No. He is not," admitted Polly.

"Then, you go home. That is the best place for you, anyway. But before you go you shall make such purchases as you may need----"

Polly drew away from her along the seat, and her gray eyes grew brighter. "Oh, Miss Mallory!" she murmured. "Don't do _that_."

"Don't do what?" demanded Wyn.

"Don't spoil it all."

"Spoil what-all?" cried Wyn, in exasperation. "I'm not going to spoil anything. But you listen to me. This is sense."

"I--I couldn't take charity from _you_--a stranger."

"I offer to lend you twenty dollars. You can pay it back when you choose."

"Twenty dollars! You lend me twenty dollars?"

"Yes. I have quite some spending money given to me, and I have been saving nearly all of it for some time. So I can easily spare it."

"But I don't know when I can repay you."

"I can tell you, then. You can pay me back this very summer."

"This summer, miss?"

"Don't call me 'miss'!" cried Wyn, in greater exasperation. "I have told you my name is 'Wyn'! And I mean exactly what I say. This is a perfectly straight business proposition," and she laughed her full-throated laugh that made even Polly Jarley, in her trouble, smile.

"Then your business, Wyn Mallory, must be the saving of people from trouble--is that it? For there is no reason in what you say you will do--Oh, I can't accept it. It would be charity!" cried Polly, again clasping Wyn's hands.

"It is not charity," said Wyn, firmly, opening her purse. "And I'll quickly show you why it is not. You see, Polly Jolly--and I want you to smile at me and look as though you fitted that name. You see, I am captain of the Go-Ahead Club."