V
, IHE. OREGON DAILY JOURNAL, PORTLAND. t SATURDAY .EVENING, JANUARY, 23M 190L
MgDou
Three Adventure - Loving
Boys' Experiences in a
! Wonderful Floating
Restaurant
How They Won the Hearts
of Savages With Good
Home-Made Ties and
Doughnuts : V
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lOPD STORIES jjRVltlMiiipiBa
Walt.
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'1IREE boys lived in a small village called
Puckatoe, winch was upon the banks of
the river Osee and not far from the ocean.
In fact, the boys very frequently walked to
. the seashore to bathe, and often sailed their boats
t but upon the heaving bosom of the deep, for they
- jvere all good sailors, as is everybody in Puckatoe.
The village was a rambling line of old houses,
gray and 6torm-beaten, along a broad road shaded
by tall elms ; and all its people also looked weather-
worn and gnarled like the old twisted cellars' on
the beach. They all went about slowly and rather
Jazily, as almost all seashore people do, seemingly
waiting forever for the tide to rise or- fall before
they can do anything and watching the sky and the
wind' constantly'. The babi,es play at sailing boats
ja the mill-stream, the boys are always around the
water,' and all of them become good sailors before
' $hey" are through going to school. Even th girls
can manage oars or Bails often as well as the boys.
, s The boys about whom I am going to tell you were
Izzy and Pe'ter Hughes and Randolph Holmes, and
, they wre perhaps fonder of the water than any
lads in that Tillage of seafarers and boatmen. Tt
has even been whispered that all of them once
flayed hookey to go sailing, but I can't see how
boys- who had so much of that sport would play
hookey to procure it.
:"This is a, dull old hole of a place 1" said lay
one day, as they sat on the old wharf fishing for
porgies in the shallow water.
"That's so," added Randolph, yawning, for the
fish were not biting fast. "
, "Nothing ever! happens I Why, we don't hardly
- have any visitors, even in summer. I wish We lived
. ' where they did things, or where we could see the
railroad trains go scooting past, and where they
tad circuses and 'Punch and Judy shows every
day." . , . -v
- "Even the fish are bo lazy 'round here that they 1
won't bite unless you just drop the clam jnto their
mouths," declared Izzy. i ' il '
i d0 wi8h gomethin' would happen," said Peter.
Even a thunderstorm would make things lively."
Next morning the village was awakened by a
furious wind, and all of the very oldest inhabitants
came out and walked about, declaring that such a '
gale was' never felt before. By noon they decided
that ia genuine hurricane was upon them, and when
the trees began to be lashed madly about and then
crash over, upturning their roots in the air; when
roofs began to sail out over the river, when the
frailer houses went toppling into heaps of kindling-.
w6odJ;,'sloops .anoV.Bchooners began to part their
fables and shoot, away, smashing into each other
and then dash upon the shores in wreckage", all "
were sure that it truly was a real tornado.;
,vThen when the water, as the tide came in, began
Jto be driven by -the gale over the meadows and into
the streets, higher by far than it had ever come
before, the fear became terror, for now night wai
coming and no one knew what might happen!. Lis
tie by littler the tide rose until the water was in the
houses, aid then the waves began to undermine the
pld stone foundations, built many years before.
. Boon even the firmest houses began to topple over
with startling crashes and to slide away in ruins. ,
, , Izzy Hughes had run out of school early in the
pfternoon, declaring that he was needed at home,
and a little later the teacher dismissed them all, as
. he was becoming alarmed; but Izzy had gotten out
his boat, and as the water rose he rose with it, until
ha rowed right up Main street to his home. There
the other boys came, and when the water reached '
the window sills they bade Qrandpa Hughes, with
whom the boys lived, to jump into the boat and he
svas rowed across the river by them, although the
wind lashed the water into a froth around them,
' But they reached the high ground, whero Aunt
'Ann Header lived, safely, in a very short time.
Grandpa insisted upon the boys staying there with
him, but Izzy declared that they must .go back to i
. help others, for they were better boatmen, he said, '
than many in the village, and there was work to do.
' Eeturning was not as easy -a matter as coming.
' In a few minutes they found that they could make
&o headway whatever against the fury of the hurri
cane, but were being' carried down stream very
awiftly in spite of all their efforts. The air was
filled with fragments of houses; shingles, fence
, rails, shutters, tree-branches, pieces of boats, leaves ;
everything, in fact, blowing along in a cloud from
shore, and not only blinding them but scaring then
half to death.
At any moment the boat might be 6unk by one
J f .the heavy pieces of wood that were hurled along
like straws. Izzy shouted to pull for the shore, but
Jiis voice sounded like a whisper. They turned the
boat and then a strange thing happened. The gale
ceased suddenly and the air was completely calm.
They began to row again for the village, but when
in the middle of the stream the wind came roaring
A: from the opposite direction quite as freely as be
fore, and the little craft was hurled along down
stream like a bullet from a gun.
It came now from the west, carrying in its claws
all that, it had torn away on its eastward nmb;
oofs, sheds, barns, houses, steeples, everything;
. sweeping it all out to sea. The boys could not see
the shore as-they rn.-hed along, nor move the boat
ran inch toward it. In less than a half hour they
were out in the bay and seeing their last of Pucka
toe for many months, for the gale swept them madly
on Until they were far out upon the ocean. The.
. Wind seemed to flatten the sea, ' for the waves
' were leveled almost entirely, and the boat whizzed
along in a mass of foam, surrounded by wrekago
that threatened to crush her every instant; but as
she went faster than the floating masses of houses
- and trees she soon distanced them and was clear of
danger. . Darkness came.
- The roaring wind carried them along all night,
ach moment -expecting disaster, but when day
light arrived "they were still afloat and the boat '
unhurt, and by noon the wind had died away and
' the sea was calm.
J" Not far off tbey saw a big house standing out of
the sea, as if on land, and they rowed to it. Over
its wido door was this sign in large letters:
. ' O'GEOGHAN'S PALACE RESTAURANT,
MEALS AT ALL HOURS
THEY GAVE A PIE TO EACH SAVAGE
A broad porch served them as a wharf, and they
landed. Entering the restaurant they found it
absolutely deserted, although many of the tables
were set as if expecting customers, and they in
spected the whole building without finding a soul.
"Weill" cried Izzy. "We are in luck, anyway.
There's, food enough here for a whole town, and
look at all the pies !"
"GeeF cried Handolph. "We can't eat them in a
year!" - r,:":... . .
- "But we can get away with a few, at any rate,"
said Peter, seizing one and biting into it. "Minco,
too, by crickey!" 11 . ,
They all attacked the pies and made a meal, after
which they inspected the building like sailors to
see if it was sound and seaworthy, and finding it
well built they Concluded to remain in their refuge,
so the bdat was tied to the porch railing. The
amount of food that was in O'Geoghan's restaurant,
which had probably been carried away by the flood
from some large town, was simply amazing. There
were so many pies that one couldn't count them,
chops, steaks, cakes, doughnuts by , the barrel, as
well as all sorts "of other dainties far beyond de
scription.. Eggs, flour, butter, lard, bacon, hanu,
everything that one could find in a restaurant was
there in profusion, and the boys were really sorrjr
for O'Geoghan.
To think of a man losing all that food touched
them deeply, but they were not going to allow it to
be wasted, you may be sure.' After awhile, as tbere
was nothing else to do, they ate another meal, only
this time they sampled all manner of dainties in
stead of confining themselves to pies.
"I hope the house holds out," said Peter. "It
would be a pity if storm should come up and
wreck her." -
"A house that could go. through what' sho has
ought to last forever,", remarked Izzy. "That was
an awful test. I guess we re safer here than any
where else. She rides like a ship."
"It's the awful lot of barrels of flour, pork and
such things in the cellar," .said Randolph, "that
keeps her stiff. The cellar is all braced with great
timbers, and so solidly cemented that the water
can't get through." ' , ' ' '
'.'All the same 111 sleep up stairs," sajcl Peter. "It
might get soaked and drop off with all that load." .
"I think it would be well to bring everything Up
jon this floor," said Izzy, "so as to guard against
that happening."
80 for several days, as they drifted along south
ward, they busied themselves hauling up the bar
rels of provisions to the main floor, piling all the
little tables on the porch for firewood. They cooked
in the big kitchen and ate in the front As thoy
were gradually wafted into the warm tropic seas
the enormous ice-chest came in very Iiandily. for it
was filled to the top. They made ice cream daily,
lemonade flowed as freely as water, and nothing
was left unsampled, for they found a cook-book on
board of ttheir strange craft, which taught them
how to cook what they knew nothing about, and so
they soon became skillful in concocting all sorts of
dainty dishes. Life was simply grand.
All day long they sailed, eating four and some
times five meals daily, catching bonitos and mack
erel from the porch and reading to each other out
of the cook-book to create a more ravenous appe
tite. .
At night they slept on the third story, or deck,
as they called it, with the gentle breeze blowing
across them, and they laughed when they thought of
the Puckatoe mosquitoes that were pestering the
folks at home; that is, if anything were now hft
of Puckatoe, which town they bad last seen being
blown out to sea. r .
Each day one cooked while the others sat around
and criticised the cooking and promised something
grander for the morrow, and you may be sure some
very wonderful dishes came of this method. Omel
ettes mixed with pickles, ham and purrarit-jelly,
cheese, and cornstarch, scrambled eggs with mush
rooms, ginger and baked beans, mush and olive oil,
cabbage with hot mince meat and many othet curi
ous devices, all of which was eaten and pronounced
great by these healthy lads.
Sometimes they would wake up in the night
with a start thinking that they had been hailed by'
a ship, and at all times the horrible feax that at
any moment a vessel might appear and they would
be rescued, haunted them like a. spectre; rescued,
perhaps, long before one half of the food had been
eaten. It was this dread probability that caused
them to eat four or five meals a day, for they de
sired to make the best of a good thing that might
not last many days; but no ship appeared as they
drifted along, league after league, until they were
far "out of the track of all vessels.
Then, one morning, they awoke to find them
selves Hearing a wooded island, an island covered
with tdll palms, and as they slowly neared it they
saw many dark forms hurrying down to the white
beach, savages surely; but all apparently friendly,
for they called out in welcoming tones to the boys,
waving flowers and palm-branches as a sign of
peace. The tide was high and the restaurant-ship
floated into the mouth of a wide stream, until at
last it touched the bank, when all the natives
broke into a glad song of welcome and then fell
upon their knees before the white-faced strangers.
- These were the first whites the savage Toriant
had ever seen, as the Island of Torii lies far out of
the way of ships, even whalers rarely approaching
it, for it has always been considered as unin
habited, and therefore the natives were not only
pleased but astonished.
They thought the white boys were three of their
heathen gods who had come to visit them in this
big house-ship from their heaven far away, and
although they could not tell them this, the boys
understood from the humble and prayerful atti
tudes of the dark savages just what they thought.
"Gee 1" whispered Peter. "They'll be bringing ui
presents next, 111 bet!"
"Sure!" exclaimed Izzy. "They think we're idola
. come to call on them I"
Now It happened that these natives did not pray,
to idols, ,buti strangely enough, they believed in
'white gods who dwelt on a distant island too far
away to reach by canoe or swimming, &nd therefore
. it was very, natural that they should mistake the
first whites they saw. for their goda, just as "tho
Mexicans ; mistook the first Spaniards for their
deities when, they landed, from their ships. . -,
Bowing humbly before them came ,th.e : Chief
Rutabaga, a giant in size, but much afraid of com
ing too near. He did not dare to step upon the
porch, but he humbly offered Izzy, who was tho
oldest lad, a big bunch of ripe, bananas', which
caused a keen thrill of delight to pass through
each boy, for they had never eaten real, ripe ba
nanas, perhaps the most delicious of fruits.
Izzy took them, and thanked tHo. savage with a
smile, which was reflected upon every bronze fn 00
around them, and then they all sang another song.
. "Give them some mirtou ie!" whispered Ran
dolph. j'That will make 'em think more' of us than
ever!" -'i , . ' , .
"That's a good ideal" said Izzy, tnd forthwith
he handed the Chief Rutabaga a large pie, which,
with that instinct which is planted in even a sav
age, to recognize! the niceei things in all the world,
he began to eat, first somewhat hesitatingly, and
then, in another moment, with, great eagerness and
dejight. , ; .. . . .'
As he ate, all the others eyed him enviously,
whereupon ; Izzy -passed 'out a pie ' to each, f Thou
, they were certain, of 'course, that their gods had
come. They ate the pies in a twinkling and made
eyes at the doorway from whence they had come,
but as Izzy realized that they were not accustomed
to such dainties and might injure their insides by
too much gormandizing, he shook his head.
Soon the natives went away to gather more rire
bananas to tempt the lads, and they were left to
themselves. Tbey were somewhat dubious ' as to
the oharacter of the ravages, for many of thera"
looked fierce and warlike, but, as Izzy said, tbey
were ashore and couldn't get 'off until the tide rose
again, so, they. made the best'of the feituation.
When, after an hour, the chief returned, with
.some medioine men or priests, and made them a
long speech of which they didn't understand one
word, hut which from his kindly face they con
cluded was one of welcome;, and after he had pre
sented them with many more bananas, as well at
other fruits, strange' but delicious, the concluded
that they would bo safe in'remainxng there." libra
, pies were distributed, and it .was quite plain that
the hearts of the medicine men were instantly gain
ed, for they drinced with joy and smacked their lips
quite as white people might have done.
Now began another delightful existence for the
castaways. The natives vied with each other to j
6how their affection for them, and their apprecia
tion of pie and doughnuts, cakes and pickles, for
these poor untaught people have neither cook
books, stoves nor food to cook; nothing but delici
ous fruits and now and then a bird shot with a
bow and arrow or speared as it alighted on a
branch, and generally eaten raw, feathers .and all
at once. , '
Of course, they had fish also, but they had grown
terribly tired of fish long ago and rarely ate them.
After a while, when the boys found how easy it wa.1
to walk along and gather all the tempting fruit,
they began to be a little less generous with their
pies and doughnuts, and then the natives, yearning
more, than ever for the toothsome dainties, began to
cast about to find other means of obtaining them. '
As Izzy was a very clever boy he managed in a
few days to learn many words in the Torian lan
guage from Chief Rutabaga, so that he could talk
with him by the hour even if neither of them un
derstood much of the conversation, and thus le
came to learn that pearls as big as hickory- tiuta,
which are almost beyond all price, were very com
mon indeed on the island, and everybody had a
handful, and that gold dust was used as insect
powder. One might obtain a peck measure full of
gold dusvt by washing the sand for week, he was
told, and thus he determined to make the natives
earn their pie. ,
There were many curious customs in Torii, as
iho boys found -whMulhey. learned the. language,
which took them some months, during which time
they baked pies, cakes and doughnuts constantly,
but of course kept the process hidden from pryiny
eyes. The natives, had a habit of giving to each
other anything that was asked for, so that Nobody
really could keep anything for himself more than,
perhaps , one day, food, of course, excepted, for that
,waa always eaten at once before anybody couM
beg it. Thuaji small looking-glass, given to Ruta
baga, was owned again and again by each man and
woman in the tribe, as , one only had to hint that
he wanted it to possess it at once.
The women were not allowed to walk on the path
when a man was on it, nor wash in the same stream,
nor enter thij temple, nor eat certain fruit, before
the boys came, but they soon altered all' these rules
and served the ladies first, which disgusted the
priests especially, for they saw in such disregard of
old laws the downfall of all, their powers. But the
women were delighted, 'and wove garlands of beau
tiful flowers for the boys every day. Girl babies,
too, were nearly always, thrown into the sea to tho
, sharks, before the lads arrived, as they were of no
use as soldiers ,-or priests, and that the lads also
: stopped at once. ' . r, , '
Rutabaga, who learned English so rapidly as to
astonish Iz2y, said that he was greatly pleased with
the new rules,, and. wished they would try to change
another one; which,, strange to. Bay, allowed the
girls to "pop -the question," or ask the men to
; marry them,' This, he said, was very annoying, for
- if a man refused a girl's request to marry, her ho
was quite likely to be severely clubbed by all her
relations. 'As he waa chief, he had not yet been
asked by a girl, but he knew that one dark damsel
named Maimee had long since, fixed her dark eye on
him nd marked him for her own. As he wished
to "be a bachelor, ha dreaded the day when he would
have to refuse her, for even if he were chief he
. would como in for a good, stiff clubbing at the bands
of Maimee's relations, who were very numerous, in
deed. ' . ' - -. .. . : v1'; '
"This is a very foolish privilege that the women
possess, this right to propose to men," said Le,
"and, it ought to be abolished at once. . All of the
men would consent to it if they were asked to, I
am sure. At any1 rate, you might make a new rule
that the clubs must be merely imitation clubs, stuf
fed with feathers or hair. That would help some."
Izzy was naturally sorry for Rutabaga, and prom
ised to do all that he could to assist him in evading
Maimee, and . also in altering such a fool Iaw.
"Think of it," said he to Randolph. "Imagine such
a thing in Puckatoe I Think of Bally Webster just
Bimply having to ask a feller to marry her and then f
fliokin' her uncles, nine of 'em, on him if he refused,
and yet that's what would happen first thing."
"Why,; a boy would be afraid to grow up,
wouldn't he ?'' echoed Peter Hughes, who hated girls
intensely. "Me te the woods if they had any such
law home." - - ,v
As time went on they found that among the peo- .
pie of Torii two parties had arisen. One side was
wildly devoted to pie of all kinds, while the other
was firmly attached to doughnuts. This latter was .
at first the-smaller party, but its members in
creased, slowly at first and then very rapidly, for
somehow the, priests favored the doughnut, and
frowned even upon mince pie. Little by little the
pie worshipers fell away in numbers, and the boys
had all they could do to furnish doughnuts, and
yet they were so busy that, they paid little atten
tion to the fact, but one day Rutabaga, who still
held to his first love, said i '
"Things are getting serious. The priests aro
complaining that the people no longer think of any
thing but : pie and doughnuts, especially dough
nut?, and they have arranged to attract their at
tention to something else."
"What is that!" asked Izzy.
"My marriage. Maimee has been told to chaso
me down at once and get the matter settled, yes or
no, and then there will be doings, either way, for
if I say yes there will be merrymaking on the green,
and if I say no it will still be merry for them all
except poor Rutabaga !' For me it will be black and
blue marks for many days, perhaps an eye or a few
teeth missing, also I" '
"Something will have to be done at once!" Baid
Randolph, suddenly appearing. "For the flour is
all gone!. Not another barrel left!"
"This is terrible 1" cried Izzy. "What can be
done. We are ruined 1"
"You must leave here at once!" said Rutabaga;
"and I will go with you!",
"We can't move the restaurant!" replied Peter.
"She has sunk down into the sand so deep that
nothing would budge her hut a flood. She's an
chored for good!"
"We will make a flood!" declared the chief.'
"Up in the mountains, where the stream begins, is
a lake that is dammed with two great flat rocks. If
we can move those rocks the flood will pour down
and sweep her out, and as you are mighty white
gods 'you can move the rocks."
"Well, we just can!" said Izzy with a calm face,
which amazed his companions. "There's a big keg
of powder in the. attic and we will put it under the
rocks and blast them! See? Easy as winking!"
; "But who'll set the blast off f ' asked Randolph.
"Rutabaga can do that," said Izzy, and then he
went Sot the powder. , x
They carried it up to the mountain top and
there they placed, the keg beneath the largest Tock
and fastened a fuse made of cotton filled with pow
der in the bunghole, after which they showed the
chief , how to light it, telling him to run like a streak
after it was done. He watched them until he saw
them almost on the restaurant, porch, when he
struck the match and Bet off the fireworks, then ha
came down like a hurricane through tho palms.
The four had been seen by the native priests,
who suspected something uncanny, and they had
6et the natives mad by telling them that they wero
about to leave them, although, of course, they little
suspected the truth, and before the boys returned
;from the mountain-top all the people were quite
ready to punish them for daring to go away and
deprive them of their beloved doughnuts and pies,
and all the readier because they had all of them
spent theif last pearl for the dainties and would
have to go seek more in order to continue feasting.
Maimee and her relations were foremost in de
manding revenge, for they were1 almost certain that
' the chief would refuse the dark beauty, as he had
repeatedly said that he was a natural-born bachelor.
So they began to wrangle among themselves as
to what punishment they would, deal out to hese
white, lads and tho chief, and soon the quarreh
arose as to .who should have all. the doughnuts in
, the restaurant afterward, bo that at last they began
to fight among themselves over this matter, as
they imagined the restaurant was simply filled with
ready-made delicacies and all they had to do was to
take them. t ' '
The priest finally quieted the disorder by toll
ing them that all should be evenly divided among
the people and ordering them to attack the restau
rant at once. They all moved in a body toward it.
as Rutabaga came dashing down the hill. - Then
the keg blew up with a noise like thunder, scaring
the natives into fits, Rutabaga included, and while
they were hiding in the bushes from the angry
mountain god down came the water in a wave ten
feet high, overflowing the banks of the stream and
in a moment it struck O'Geoghan's Restaurant and
. tore it from its bed of sand. Out from the mouth
of the stream it swept and into the sea. Then all
of the people of Torii raised their voices in weep
ing, recalling them when too late, as they saw all
their lovely dainties vanishing forever.
Nevermore were they to feast on hot cruller,
pies, cookies end pickles; nevermore to know the
bliss of crunching a criep mince pie between their
eager teeth or Bmack their lips over 'a cream puff;
. and it served them just right !
The restaurant was hardly afloat before Peter
noticed that Rutabaga had hitched Lis big canoe
behind and now they all got into her and towed the
house toward the east, where the chief said was
an island, upon which they could live undisturbed;
but before they reached it they were sighted by tho
6hipvNanriy Goat and taken off by Captain Dave
Barrett. It was time, too, for they had eaten up
nearly all tho really good stuff and would soon
have had "to come down to cheese and crackers.
v Rutabaga came home with , them, tut, insteal
of living with them in the magnificent palaces
which they built with all their wealth, he preferred
"to become head waiter in an Atlantic City hotel,
because there, he said, he could have mince pie
every blessed day, and . what more could a man
want!
. So there he is still. ; "
"M , . J7ALT McDOUGAlX