Stuyvesant Part 23

So Stuyvesant went out to the shop to get the squirrel. He found him perched upon the handle of the hand-saw, which was hanging against the wall.

"Come, Frink, come with me," said Stuyvesant. So he extended his hand and took Frink down.

"Ah!" said he, "I have not got your house ready yet. So you will please to go down into my pocket until I am ready."

So saying, Stuyvesant slipped the squirrel into his jacket-pocket, leaving his head and the tip of his tail out. The squirrel being accustomed to such operations, remained perfectly still. Stuyvesant then found a board a little larger than the bottom of the squirrel's house, and putting this board upon the bench, he placed the house upon it. He then took Frink out of his pocket and slipped him into the door. He next put a block before the door to keep the squirrel from coming out, and then taking up the board by the two ends he carried it out of the shop.

He walked along the yard with it until he came to the piazza, and then went in at Mrs. Henry's window, which was open. As soon as he had gone in, Mrs. Henry shut her window, and Malleville shut the doors.

Stuyvesant then put the house down upon a chair, and took the block away from the door to let the squirrel come out.

Frink seemed at first greatly astonished to find himself in a parlor.

The first thing that he did was to run up to the top of a tall clock which stood in the corner, and perching himself upon a k.n.o.b there, he began to gaze around the room.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FRINK IN THE PARLOR.]

Phonny was very much amused at this. Stuyvesant and Malleville were very much amused, too. They postponed their plan of going out to play for some time, in order that they might see Frink run about the parlor. At length, however, they went away, and Phonny commenced reading his story. After a time, Frink crept slyly along and perched himself on the back of the sofa, close to the book out of which Phonny was reading.

CHAPTER XI.

THE JOURNEY.

One evening about a week after the occurrences related in the last chapter, when Phonny's foot had got entirely well, Mrs. Henry went to the door which led to the back yard with a letter in her hand. She was looking for Stuyvesant.

Presently she saw him and Phonny coming through the garden gate with tools in their hands. They had been down to build a bridge across a small brook in a field beyond the garden.

"Stuyvesant," said Mrs. Henry, "I have just received a letter from your father."

Stuyvesant's eye brightened as Mrs. Henry said this, and he pressed eagerly forward to learn what the letter contained.

"It is about you," said Mrs. Henry, "and it is a very important letter indeed."

"What is it?" said Phonny eagerly. "Read it to us, mother."

So Mrs. Henry opened the letter and read it as follows,--the boys standing before her all the time, with their tools in their hands.

"NEW YORK, June 20.

"My Dear Sister,

"My business has taken such a turn that I am obliged to go to Europe, to be gone five or six weeks, and I am thinking seriously of taking Stuyvesant with me. He is so thoughtful and considerate a boy that I think he will give me very little trouble, and he will be a great deal of company for me, on the way. Besides I think he will be amused and entertained himself with what he will see in traveling through England, and in London and Paris, and I do not think that he will care much for whatever hards.h.i.+ps we may have to endure on the voyage. So I have concluded to take him, if he would like to go. I intend to sail in the steamer of the first, so that it will be necessary for him to come home immediately. I would rather have him come home _alone_, if he feels good courage for such an undertaking,--as I think he could take care of himself very well, and the experience which he would acquire by such a journey would be of great service to him. If he seems inclined to come alone, please send him on as soon as may be. Furnish him with plenty of money, and give him all necessary directions. If on the other hand he appears to be a little afraid, send some one with him. Perhaps Beechnut could come."

Here Mrs. Henry raised her eyes from the letter as if she had read all that related to the subject, and Phonny immediately exclaimed.

"Send me, mother; send _me_. I'll go and take care of him. Let me go, Stivy, that will be the best plan." As he said this Phonny, using his hoe for a vaulting pole, began to leap about the yard with delight at the idea.

Stuyvesant remained where he was, with a pleased though thoughtful expression of countenance, but saying nothing.

"I'll give you two hours to think of it," said Mrs. Henry, addressing Stuyvesant. "You must set off either alone or with Beechnut to-morrow morning."

"Well," said Stuyvesant, "I will think of it and come to tell you. And now, Phonny, let us go and put away the tools."

In the course of the two hours which Stuyvesant was allowed for considering the question, he made a great many inquiries of Beechnut in respect to the journey, asking not only in relation to the course which he should pursue at the different points in the journey if every thing went prosperously and well, but also in regard to what he should do in the various contingencies which might occur on the way.

"Do you advise me to try it?" said Stuyvesant.

"Yes," said Beechnut, "by all means; and that is very disinterested advice, for there is nothing that I should like better than to go with you."

Mrs. Henry herself afterward asked Beechnut if he thought it would be safe for Stuyvesant to go alone.

"Just as safe," said Beechnut, "as it would be for him to go under my charge. There is always danger of accidents, in traveling," he added, "but there is no more danger for Stuyvesant alone than if he were in company."

"But will he know what to do always," said Mrs. Henry, "in order to get along?"

"I think he will," said Beechnut. "I shall explain it all to him beforehand."

"But there may be some accident," said Mrs. Henry. "The train may run off the track, or there may be a collision."

"That is true," replied Beechnut, "but those things will be as likely to happen if I were with him as if he were alone. It seems to me that when a boy gets as old as Stuyvesant, the only advantage of having some one with him when he is traveling is to keep him from doing careless or foolish things,--and Stuyvesant can take care of himself in that respect."

It was finally decided that Stuyvesant should go alone.

About eight o'clock, Mrs. Henry went up into Stuyvesant's room to pack his trunk, but she found it packed already. Stuyvesant had put every thing in, and had arranged the various articles in a very systematic and orderly manner. The trunk was all ready to be locked and strapped; but it was left open in order that Mrs. Henry might see that all was right.

Besides his trunk, Stuyvesant had a small carpet-bag, which contained such things as he expected to have occasion to use on the way. In this carpet-bag was a night-dress, rolled up snugly, and also a change of clean linen. Besides these things there were two books which Stuyvesant had borrowed of Phonny to read in the cars, in case there should chance to be any detention by the way. Stuyvesant had a small morocco portfolio too, which shut with a clasp, and contained note and letter paper, and wafers and postage stamps. This portfolio he always carried with him on his journeys, so that he could, at any time, have writing materials at hand, in case he wished to write a letter. He carried the portfolio in his carpet-bag. There was a small square morocco-covered inkstand also in the carpet-bag. It shut with a spring and a catch, and kept the ink very securely.

Mrs. Henry calculated that it would cost Stuyvesant about ten dollars to go from Franconia to New York; so she put ten dollars, in small bills, in Stuyvesant's wallet, and also a ten dollar bill besides, in the inner compartment of his wallet, to be used in case of emergency.

When all these arrangements were made, she told Stuyvesant that he might go and find Beechnut, and get his directions.

Stuyvesant accordingly went in pursuit of Beechnut. He found him sitting on a bench, under a trellis covered with woodbine, at the kitchen door, enjoying the cool of the evening. Malleville was with him, and he was telling her a story. Stuyvesant and Phonny came and sat down upon the bench near to Beechnut.

"So then it is decided that you are to go alone," said Beechnut.

"Yes," said Stuyvesant, "and I have come to you to get my directions."

"Well," said Beechnut. "I am glad you are going. You will have a very pleasant journey, I have no doubt,--that is, if you have accidents enough."

"Accidents!" said Stuyvesant. "So you wish me to meet with accidents?"

"Yes," said Beechnut. "I don't desire that you should meet with any very serious or dangerous accidents, but the more common accidents that you meet with, the more you will have to amuse and entertain you.

If it were only winter now, there would be a prospect that you might be blocked up in a snow storm."

"Hoh!" said Phonny, "that would be a dreadful thing."

"No," replied Beechnut, "not dreadful at all. For people who are on business, and who are in haste to get to the end of their journey, it is bad to meet with accidents and delays; but for boys, and for people who are traveling for pleasure, the more adventures they meet with the better."