Dr Heidenhoffs Process | Page 9

him a partner, and, besides,
everybody made so many jokes about him that none of the girls quite
cared to have their names coupled with his, although they all had a
compassionate liking for him.
On the present occasion this poor slave of the petticoat had been at
work preparing the boats all the morning.
"Why, how nicely you have arranged everything!" said Madeline
kindly, as she stood on the sand waiting for Henry to bring up a boat.
"What?" replied Tom, laughing in a flustered way.
He always laughed just so and said "what?" when any of the girls spoke
to him, being too much confused by the fact of being addressed to catch
what was said the first time.
"It's very good of you to arrange the boats for us, Madeline repeated.
"Oh, 'tain't anything, 'tain't anything at all," he blurted out, with a very
red face.
"You are going up in our boat, ain't you, Longman?" said Harry Tuttle.
"No, Tom, you're going with us," cried another young man.
"He's going with us, like a sensible fellow," said Will Taylor, who, with
Laura Burr, was sitting on the forward thwart of the boat, into the stern
of which Henry was now assisting Madeline.
"Tom, these lazy young men are just wanting you to do their rowing for
them," said she. "Get into our boat, and I'll make Henry row you."
"What do you say to that, Henry?" said Tom, snickering.
"It isn't for me to say anything after Madeline has spoken," replied the
young man.

"She has him in good subjection," remarked Ida Lewis, not
over-sweetly.
"All right, I'll come in your boat, Miss Brand, if you'll take care of me,"
said Tom, with a sudden spasm of boldness, followed by violent
blushes at the thought that perhaps be had said something too free. The
boat was pushed off. Nobody took the oars.
"I thought you were going to row?" said Madeline, turning to Henry,
who sat beside her in the stern.
"Certainly," said he, making as if he would rise. "Tom, you just sit here
while I row."
"Oh no, I'd just as lief row," said Tom, seizing the oars with feverish
haste.
"So would I, Tom; I want a little exercise," urged Henry with a
hypocritical grin, as he stood up in an attitude of readiness.
"Oh, I like to row. 'I'd a great deal rather. Honestly," asseverated Tom,
as he made the water foam with the violence of his strokes, compelling
Henry to resume his seat to preserve his equilibrium.
"It's perfectly plain that you don't want to sit by me, Tom. That hurts
my feelings," said Madeline, pretending to pout.
"Oh no, it isn't that," protested Tom. "Only I'd rather row; that is, I
mean, you know, it's such fun rowing."
"Very well, then," said Madeline, "I sha'n't help you any more; and here
they all are tying their boats on to ours."
Sure enough, one of the other boats had fastened its chain to the stern
of theirs, and the others had fastened to that; their oarsmen were lying
off and Tom was propelling the entire flotilla.
"Oh, I can row 'em all just as easy's not," gasped the devoted youth, the
perspiration rolling down his forehead.

But this was a little too bad, and Henry soon cast off the other boats, in
spite of the protests of their occupants, who regarded Tom's brawn and
muscle as the common stock of the entire party, which no one boat had
a right to appropriate.
On reaching Hemlock Hollow, Madeline asked the poor young man for
his hat, and returned it to him adorned with evergreens, which nearly
distracted him with bashfulness and delight, and drove him to seek a
safety-valve for his excitement in superhuman activity all the rest of the
morning, arranging croquet sets, hanging swings, breaking ice,
squeezing lemons, and fetching water.
"Oh, how thirsty I am!" sighed Madeline, throwing down her croquet
mallet.
"The ice-water is not yet ready, but I know a spring a little way off
where the water is cold as ice," said Henry.
"Show it to me this instant," she cried, and they walked off together,
followed by Ida Lewis's unhappy eyes.
The distance to the spring was not great, but the way was rough, and
once or twice he had to help her over fallen trees and steep banks. Once
she slipped a little, and for, a single supreme moment he held her whole
weight in his arms. Before, they had been talking and laughing gaily,
but that made a sudden silence. He dared not look at her for some
moments, and when he did there was a slight flush tingeing her usually
colourless cheek.
His pulses were already bounding wildly, and, at this betrayal that she