Hoggee by Anna Myers Page B

“You’ll be in Albany resting up before I’m on the towpath.” It was the same with each first day. Captain Travis’s boats wintered in Birchport, as did all his mules. Some mules went ahead on flatboats. All three of the packet boatswent first to Albany, ten miles away, where they got fresh mules and headed back up the canal toward Buffalo.
    Howard would encounter Molly again on the trip, but he did not know where or when. “Bye, old girl,” he whispered to the mule. “Thanks for sharing your stall with me all winter.” Suddenly he was desperately afraid tears might come to his eyes. He was to be separated from Molly, and in a way from Jack. He shook his head and called out the canal boy’s friendly insult. “Hey, Bert, don’t drown in the canal.” He turned and boarded the boat. He supposed he should warn himself. If anyone could drown in the four feet of canal water, he could.
    The new cook was indeed a woman. Howard saw her at the stove as he passed the kitchen door. Maybe I should go in and welcome her to
The Blue Bird,
he thought, and he stepped back to stand in the door.
    â€œHello,” he said. “My name’s Howard.”
    The tall, dark woman looked up from the potato she had been slicing into a bowl. “Don’t care what your name is,” she said flatly. “Captain says you eat all you want, but I don’t talk to you. Delia no like boys.”
    Howard moved on down the hall. He wondered if the cook talked so rudely to everyone. Maybe she was a marvelous cook, and Captain Travis did not care about her manners. Maybe Howard had found his future. Maybe he would become a top-notch cook and talk to people as he pleased. He smiled at the far-fetched idea. He knew he should spend his six hours off resting, but he was not tired. He’d go up to the deck on top of the cabin. There were no interesting passengers to watch here at Birchport, but there would be at Albany.
    He had just settled himself on the deck when Captain Wall blew the whistle, and
The Blue Bird
pulled awayfrom the dock. Howard turned from where he was looking off to one side and looked back at the dock. What he saw there really surprised him. Three girls stood on the dock. It took a minute for him to realize that Sarah, Laura, and Gracie were really there. He leaned over the deck and was about to yell good-bye when he realized they were waving toward the bow, where Jack was.
    Howard moved to the other end of the deck and looked down at the bow of the boat, where Jack stood waving his cap at the girls. “Where’s Howard?” he heard Laura call, but by then the boat was pulling away. Howard did not wave or call. He doubted Laura would really want to see him, not with Jack in his handsome uniform to look at. He turned and walked slowly back to the other end of the deck.
    Howard knew the packet boats moved at about four miles an hour. It would take two and a half hours to get to Albany, where the mules would be changed and passengers would board before the boat turned back to go up the canal to Buffalo. He started to sit back down on the deck bench, but suddenly he did feel tired. It would be best, he decided, if he went to his bunk to rest while the boat was quiet.
    He moved down the back stairs. He was glad he did not have to go through the kitchen to get to the back hall and his fold-down bunk. He took his pillow from a small footlocker where he had stored his haversack, let down the lower board bed, and climbed onto it. The boat moved smoothly down the calm canal. Howard listened to the sound of the lapping water. When he dreamed, he dreamed of the fire.
    The boat stopped, and Howard woke. He wanted to see the passengers load at Albany. The boat, when full,could hold as many as forty-five people, but there would not be that many on this trip, so early in the season. Still, Howard did not want to miss them. Some poorer people rode the line boat that also carried goods.