Madge Morton, Captain of the Merry Maid | Page 9

a boarding-place. As they were in the habit of
staying with Miss Rice when they came into Baltimore to do their
shopping, Miss Tolliver had, for once, after many instructions,
permitted the girls to go into town without a chaperon.
"Miss Rice said we did not have to be at her house until half-past five
o'clock," Phil volunteered, "so what shall we do?"
"There is a little park down there near the water," Lillian pointed ahead.
"Suppose we sit down there for a few minutes until we decide where to
go next?"
It was a balmy, sunshiny May day. While the girls rested on the park
benches they could see, far off, a line of ships sailing up the bay and
also the larger freight steamers. They were near one of the quiet canals
that formed an inlet from the great Chesapeake Bay. Lining the banks
of the canal were numbers of coal barges and canal boats.
On the deck of a canal boat a girl came out with a bundle of clothes in
her arms. She was singing in a high, sweet voice as she hung them on a
line strung across the deck of the boat.
The girls watched her silently as she flitted back and forth, and she
sang on, unconscious of her audience. She was singing a boat song
which the men chant as they row home at the close of day. The pathos
in the woman's voice was so exquisite, its notes so true, that Madge's
blue eyes filled with tears. None of the four friends stirred until the
song was over, and the girl in her faded calico dress and bare feet had
disappeared into the cabin of the boat.
"We call those boats shanty boats down in Virginia," Eleanor said; "I

suppose because the little cabin on the deck of the canal boat looks so
like a shanty."
"People live on those shanty boats," announced Madge.
"Yes, we have noticed it, my dear girl," Phil responded dryly. But there
was a question in her eyes as she looked at Madge.
"Shanty boats do not look exactly like house-boats," went on Madge
speculatively.
"I should say not," returned Phil. "There is considerable difference."
"But they might be made to look more like them. Don't you believe
so?"
Phil nodded.
"They are awfully dirty," was dainty Lillian's sole comment.
"Soap and water, child, is a sure cure for dirt," replied Madge, still in a
brown study. Then she sprang to tier feet and almost ran out of the little
park, nearly to the edge of the canal. Her friends followed her. There
was no doubt that Madge had an idea.
"Girls!" exclaimed Madge fervently, pointing toward one of the shanty
boats, "first look there; then shut your eyes. With your eyes open you
see only an ugly canal boat; with them closed, can't you see our
houseboat?"
"Not very well," replied Lillian without enthusiasm.
"Well, I can," asserted Madge with emphasis.
Then her quick eyes wandered toward a man who was coming slowly
up the path along the canal.
"Please," she asked breathlessly, stepping directly in front of him, "do
you know whether any of the people along here would be willing to

rent me a canal boat?"
The man stared in amazement at this strange request. "Can't say as I
knows of any one," he answered, "but I kin find out fer ye. It may be
some of the water folks goes inland for the summer. If they does, they'd
like as not rent you their boat."
"Then I will come down here to-morrow at nine o'clock to find out,"
arranged Madge. "Please be sure to be here."
"What did I tell you!" exulted Madge as they left the little park a few
minutes later and made their way to the street car. "I am going to draw
a plan to-night to show how easy it will be to turn one of these old
canal boats into our beautiful 'Ship of Dreams.' By this time next week
we'll know something about the 'vicissitudes' of a sailor's life or my
name is not Madge Morton."


CHAPTER IV
THE FAIRY'S WAND
"You are a direct gift of Providence, Jack Bolling," declared Madge the
next morning, shaking hands with her cousin, in the parlor of Miss
Rice's boarding house. "How did you happen to turn up here?"
"Well, I unexpectedly had a day off from college," explained Jack. "So
I just telephoned to Miss Tolliver to ask whether I might come to see
you, like the well-behaved cousin I am. She replied that you were in
town and that I might come to see you. So here I am! What luck have
you had?"
"None at all at the old places you recommended," Madge returned
scornfully and