Fairview Boys at Camp Mystery/Chapter 3
CHAPTER III
SAMMY HAS AN IDEA
"Maybe she's dead!" gasped Sammy Brown, as he reached the side of Frank, and looked down on the motionless old lady.
"There you go!" cried Frank, half angrily, "always thinking something like that. Why should she be dead?"
"She fell heavily enough," said Bob. "The snow's awful slippery. Maybe her leg's broken."
"That's more like it," said Frank. "Now we've got to take her into one of these houses. Can we carry her?"
"I guess we'll have to," said Bob. "There doesn't seem to be anyone else around just now. Can we lift her?"
At that moment the elderly lady who had fallen tried to get up. Her eyes, that had been closed, were opened, and she looked very pale.
"Are you hurt?" asked Frank, anxiously. "We'll help you get up, and carry you into one of these houses."
He gazed up and down the street as he spoke. There were no other persons in sight, and the accident had happened at a place where there were only a few houses. Had there been stores nearby someone might have come out at once to help the old lady.
"I don't believe I am badly hurt," she said, with a smile. "I thought at first my leg was broken, but I'm sure, now, it is not, though it may be sprained. I slipped and struck my head when I went down. I must have been unconscious for a few seconds."
"Are you hurt?" asked Frank.
"You were," said Bob, who had once seen his mother faint. "Now, if you'll let us, we can carry you to the nearest house, and get a doctor."
"I'm sure I'm very much obliged to you nice boys," spoke the elderly lady, "but I do not believe you can carry me. I am pretty heavy."
"We're strong," declared Sammy. "We play football!" he added, proudly.
"Well, I think I can walk," the lady went on, "though I may have to lean on your shoulders. I should not have come out without my rubbers to-day, but I did not think it was going to snow. I guess Winter has set in now, and I rather dread it."
The boys thought this strange. To them Winter was one of their jolly seasons, when they had much fun. They did not stop to think that the poor and the old do not like the hard cold of Winter.
"If you will let me take hold of your hands," went on the elderly lady, "I think I can get to my feet. Then you may be able to help me to one of those houses."
She held up her hands as she spoke. Sammy took one and Frank the other, while Bob lifted her at the shoulders.
"Now!" she exclaimed, in a stronger voice than she had used before, "all together, and I'll be up!"
The boys pulled and pushed, and slowly the old lady was gotten to her feet. She swayed unsteadily for a moment, and leaned heavily on Frank.
Just then, a window in the nearest house was opened, and a woman, leaning out, called:
"Bring her right over here, boys. I'll look after her. I'll come and help you. Are you much hurt, Mrs, Blake? I just happened to sec you."
"No, thank you, I'm not much hurt. I think I'm all right, except perhaps for a strain, or some bruises," was the answer.
"I have good helpers, you see. Don't come out in the storm. They can get me to your house."
"Are you Mrs. Blake?" asked Sammy, quickly.
"That is my name," was her answer, with a smile.
"I guess my mother knows you," went on Sammy. "Her name is Brown."
"Oh, are you Mrs. Brown's boy?" exclaimed Mrs. Blake. "I thought I knew your face. Well, I'm real glad to see you. And are these your brothers?"
"No'm, they're my chums," answered Sammy. "Do you feel all right now?"
"Yes, only a trifle dizzy. I'll be better when I rest a bit in Mrs. Handee's house. Now let me see if I can walk."
She found that she could, by going slowly. The shock of her fall was passing off, and by leaning on the shoulders of Bob and Frank, while Sammy carried her bag and umbrella for her, she made her way to the house where the woman waited with the door open. Mrs. Handee came down the front steps to help Mrs. Blake up, and soon the elderly lady was sitting comfortably in an easy chair befofe the fire.
"My!" exclaimed Mrs. Blake, leaning back comfortably. "This has been quite an experience for me," and she looked at the three boys, who did not know exactly what to do, now that they had come in. "I never fell before—not since I was a girl, and I guess I've forgotten how to do it."
"You were lucky not to have broken some bones," spoke Mrs. Handee. "Are you sure you don't want the doctor?"
"We'll go for one!" offered Sammy, eagerly.
"Oh, no, indeed, I don't want one," declared Mrs. Blake, with a laugh. "I'll be all right soon, and able to go home. My daughter will be worried about me. My, how it snows!" and she looked out of the window where could be seen a perfect cloud of white flakes coming down.
"Yes, I think we're going have a regular old-fashioned Winter," said Mrs. Handee. "I dread it, too. Now I'm going to make you a nice hot cup of tea. Will you boys have something to eat?" she asked.
Sammy and his chums looked at one another and their faces got rather red.
"If—if you please," said Sammy, "I'm not allowed to have strong tea."
"Me either!" added Frank and Bob.
"Bless your hearts! I didn't mean tea!" laughed Mrs. Handee. "It is not good for growing boys, unless it's very, very weak, and then it isn't tea. I meant to give you some bread and jam. Do you think you could eat it?"
"Could we?" murmured Sammy.
"Just try us, Mrs. Handee!" exclaimed Frank, and, with another laugh, the lady of the house went out to the kitchen.
"Well, I'm sure I can't thank you boys enough for what you did for me," said Mrs. Blake, after a pause.
"It wasn't anything," replied Bob.
"Oh, yes, it was, too!" she insisted. "I thank you very much, and I want to tell your mothers what nice boys you are. Lots of young folks now-a-days don't think, or care, anything about the old folks. Seems to me, now, that I've often seen you three boys around Fairview together; haven't I?" and she looked at them closely.
"Yes'm, we're generally together," replied Sammy.
"Do you go camping together?" asked Mrs. Blake.
"Oh, yes, often," spoke Frank.
"And once we were all wrecked together on Pine Island," added Bob.
"You don't tell me!" exclaimed Mrs. Blake. "On Pine Island? Why I have a brother there. Peter Jessup is his name. He's quite a hunter, too. He lives at the far end, near Woodport. Have you ever been there?"
"No, we were down at the other end," said Frank.
"Then perhaps you did not meet my brother?"
"No, not that we know of," answered Sammy.
"I'm sure he'd be glad to see you," proceeded Mrs. Blake. "He is fond of boys. When he was young he was just like you, always going off on hunting or fishing trips. If ever you go to Pine Island again I wish you'd call on him. I'll write him a letter, explaining how kind you have been to me, and I'm sure he'd be glad to see you at his hunting cabin."
"Has he a hunting cabin?" asked Bob, his eyes shining in delight.
"Indeed he has, with lots of skins, and deer horns and the like of that in it," said Mrs. Blake. "Of course he did not get them all around here, for game is rather scarce. But he lives the life of a hunter still, sleeps in a 'bunk' as he calls it, and all that. He even cooks over a campfire in the summer."
"Oh, I wish we could go there!" sighed Bob.
"I'm sure you'll be welcome," spoke Mrs. Blake. And then Mrs. Handee came in with the tea for her elderly guest, and the bread and jam for the boys, and that they enjoyed it I am sure I need not say.
"Well, I think I will be able to go along now," said Mrs. Blake, after a pause. "That tea made me feel much better."
"Are you sure you can go?" asked Mrs. Handee. "It's quite a step to your daughter's house."
"Oh, I can do it," was the answer. "My leg is much better, and I only have a slight headache. I thank you very much. As for you boys, don't forget to come and see me, and I'll tell you more about my brother Peter. I'll be sure to write to him and tell him you're going to visit him."
"We'll go if we can," said Frank.
Sammy Brown seemed to be thinking deeply on some subject.
The boys said good-bye and went out into the storm. The snow was still coming down, and they wanted to play in it—to make balls to toss at one another, to roll in it, to jump over and into the drifts, to roll big balls as the foundation for a snow house.
There was nothing more they could do for Mrs. Blake, she said, and she would soon start for home herself. So Sammy, Bob and Frank hurried away, promising to call on the lady to whose aid they had come.
"Are you really going?" asked Frank of his chums, as they walked on through the snow. "I mean to her house?"
"Of course we are!" cried Sammy. "I want to meet her brother the hunter; don't you?"
"I guess it would be nice," agreed Frank.
"Nice!" cried Sammy. "Say, I guess you don't know what might happen if we went to see him; do you?"
"You mean we might shoot a bear or a deer?" laughed Frank.
"No, I don't mean anything like that, for now there aren't any such things on Pine Island. But you know we never have been up at the far end of the island, and we might find"
"Oh, I know what he's going to say!" cried Frank, as he threw a snowball at a boy going down the street. "You're thinking we can find some treasure there; eh, Sammy?"
"Well, we might!" insisted Sammy, not minding the laughs of his chums. "That part of the island is lonely enough for treasure. But I had another idea."
"Say, you're full of 'em to-day!" remarked Bob.
"Let's hear it," suggested Frank.
"Well, you know there's supposed to be a queer old hermit up at the far end of the island," went on Sammy.
"A hermit?" cried Frank.
"Yes, a strange old hermit, with a long white beard, and I've heard it said that he has some secret he's trying to hide. If we go there we might find out the secret. Now what do you think of that for an idea?" demanded Sammy, eagerly.