Chapter 67. A Quick Visit

  Ten days after leaving the dock at Laketown the Rose steamed slowly back along the coast of Laketown, preparing to nudge the fully loaded barge on the shore. The teen crew gathered on the deck waving at the crowds gathering on shore. Before they left Will and the council had determined the best spot to bring the barge in for easy unloading. Marked with a couple of flags, they had sounded the bottom and found there was a very steep drop off only a few yards from shore and even very close the water was deep over the rocky bottom. “We’ll take it slow, I think I’ll head to shore to tie it up when it’s on. Slipping back would be bad, better keep a line on the stern just in case yeah?”. Will was just double checking that everyone knew their part. He and Naomi were ashore to receive the loaded barge, Minnie at the wheel, Ron and Percy keeping an eye on the stern line. Time to put things into motion.

  But before that happened it was time to drop off the gatherers. Barge safely anchored the Rose docked at the end of the long quay. Still wearing the lifebelts, they lined up on the deck. Everyone carrying their gear, some happy to be going, some wanted more of this life. Bree and Rosie were given a special thank you by the crew of the Rose. “It’s very hard work keeping everyone well fed on a working voyage. You two did a wonderful job, thank you so much.”, Will saluted the two. “Yeah, good job keeping dad supplied with tea, otherwise he’s a monster.”, Minnie piped up. Swinging down the stairs Naomi leading the way, Minnie in the middle of the group and Will and the cat boys in the rear. As they walked Percy asked “Is it always like this, when we go gathering?”. “What do you mean, like this, busy and go go go?”, Will asked. “Yes, I think I liked it better with just us, they’re too noisy, and they eat too much and they make a mess of things. I arranged the salt shakers to all point the same way and seconds after breakfast they were all messed up.”. Will tried not to laugh, the little fellow was so serious, “Just not used to our ways I guess.”. Ron didn’t try and laughed at his fussy brother, “Told you not to worry about stuff like that.”, he whispered.

  Reaching the lands end a crowd had gathered to welcome back the gatherers. Family and friends, schoolmates, teachers and just about everyone else that lived in the village. The low riding barge, full of the much needed coal, was a happy sight. The hundreds of tons would keep them going for many months. Will spotted Stephen off to the side and went to have a quick word. The other man looked a bit worried at the fact only one of the barges was back. “Have no fear.”, Will said, “It’s safely beached by the spot we chose for logging.”. That brought a relieved smile to Stephens face, “Thank goodness I thought something happened.”. Will shook his head, “Nope, we decided to drop off the crew first. I’m not comfortable taking them cutting, too dangerous. Willy and Grace are coming back with us though.”. Minnie was trying to get his attention, from the front of the crowd, “Hey dad, hey, look, it’s Chuck and his mom.”. Asking Stephen to hold on a minute Will went over to say hi to young man. “Well we’ll, it’s been a while. How have you been?”. Chuck shook his hand “Very well thank you captain, may I introduce my mother?”. “Well met ma’am, well met.” Will started, Minnie beside him. “Hey guy, how are you? Too bad you couldn’t come with anymore, we’ve had lots of fun.”, the little first mate said, with a wink at Will. The young man laughed “I’ll leave the adventures to you all, mother and I are heading to the mountains. Too close to the water for us here.”. Nodding Will bade them farewell and good luck and returned to Stephen. “We’re heading out directly but could you round up some fresh supplies while we beach the coal? Out of a few things.”. Stephen nodded “I’ll do that as quick as I can.”, he turned and called for Bob. The young man happened to be standing beside him as he did so, “Will you arrange for fresh goods for a quick delivery to the Rose? Eggs, milk, butter, meat, that sort of thing, check my records of last times and do that, but be quick my lad!”. Minnie was still standing by Will and let out a cackle when she heard that, “Now where’s my lads, I left them here somewhere,”, she looked around until she spied Percy and Ron standing with Naomi. They were saying goodbye to Rosie and Bree. Creeping along carefully she came up behind the two unsuspecting cat boys and pounced on them. Picking them up, one under each arm, she cackled again, “Aha! I found my laddies.”. They flailed for a moment but then gave up, she placed them back on the ground and patted them on the head.

  The crowd was dispersing, not all but most of the gatherers seemed anxious get to the homes they had been away from for ten days. Wilbur was deep in discussion with a couple that could only be his parents, the resemblance was strong. Grace was beside him, talking with a tall man. Spying Will the group came over. “Hello captain, I hear you’re going back out?”, Wilbur’s father asked. “Yes, I didn’t want to take the gatherer’s along, too dangerous I think.”, Will answered. The tall man nodded his agreement “It can be a dangerous job, and having all those sprouts along would be worse. My Gracie will set you on the path soon, she’s been cutting since she could walk, same with young Wilbur.”. Minnie, hovering near Will as usual, heard the man call the teens sprouts. Now she was on the hunt for her sprouts, two little red haired sprouts. Wilbur and Grace had gone to the tavern with their parents for a quick bite and would return in an hour or so.

  “We’re going to wait for a wagon of fresh goods, then take off again.”, Will informed the crew as they headed back to the Rose. “That’s good, we were low on supplies, these guys ate like monsters this time. Four or five eggs each, tons of bacon, mounds of potatoes. Looks like we got the one’s having a growing spurt.”, Naomi laughed. Minnie was still chasing Percy and Ron but they were surprisingly agile, able to evade her some of the time. When she did catch hold of one they would get a pat on the head, then released back into the wild. At one point they started ganging up on her, one being an obvious decoy, the other trying to sneak up behind. Mostly failing as Minnie, hearing them or catching a look, she would spring into the air or leap over their heads. But everyone took it in fun, collapsing into a heap on the deck, tongues nearly hanging out. “Good one sprouts, nearly got me.”, Minnie laughed. “What would you do if we did get you, hmmm?”, Percy asked. She thought for a moment, “Probably jump into the water, nice bath for us all.”. Percy’s fur stood on end, Ron took a step back and actually hissed. Minnie shrugged “You asked.”.

  While waiting for the supply wagon and the lumberjacks, the subject of boat names came up again. Will didn’t really have an opinion as long an none of them were called ‘Titanic’. Minnie really wanted her boat to be called ‘Happy’, so that was settled, Naomi couldn’t decide between ‘Salt and Pepper’, or ‘Sea Monster’. Will told her to flip a coin, which for some reason had never come up before. He and Minnie had done that a couple of times, to decide things, but Naomi had never heard of it. After a bit of an explanation Minnie ran and got the coin from the wheelhouse. A careful flip showed heads. Which meant nothing as they hadn’t figured out which side represented which name. So after that was worked out the coin was flipped again, this time coming up the side for the name ‘Sea Monster’, so that was decided too. Now everyone was looking at Will, to make decision. He opened his mouth, but Minnie interrupted “Not cuppa.”. Well dang, he thought, “How about…”. This time Naomi interrupted “Not cheeseburger either.”. How well they knew him, this time for sure though “The Alvin.”. Ron and Percy laughed. Minnie too. “That’s the brother who didn’t want to come right?”, Naomi asked. Will nodded “He wasn’t very adventurous, he liked sitting and cuddling more than wandering.”. And that was decided. Minnie ran below, to her workshop, and came back with paints, varnish, brushes and went to work. But first she checked with the others if they wanted to do their own. Naomi shook her head, so did Will “Have fun sweety.”. They turned the boats and held them in place so the names could be painted on the stern and on either side of the prow. On Happy there were the so well known happy faces as well, on the stern and bow beside the name. Naomi’s had the sea monster entwined and coiled around the sides, head and tail at the stern. The bigger boat had a small grey cat sitting happily in three places, all with a happy contented cat smile.

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  As she finished up a first coat of varnish the supply wagon appeared at the lands end, followed by another smaller wagon. Driven by Wilbur’s father, there were several people aboard, including Grace and Willy. Letting the boats paint job drying in the breeze the crew set off to meet them all. Of course Minnie made it first, jumped up on the supply wagon and the quiet Dave started backing down the quay. The other wagon stopped and the riders jumped down and set to waiting. It didn’t take long to unload the supplies, Will hefted the pallets of goods, handed them up and over to Minnie and Naomi, who carried them up to the Rose. Dave just laughed quietly and guided his now empty cart back down the quay, Naomi riding beside. Will, Minnie and the sprouts followed, meeting by the lumberjacks.

  “So this is the ones that think they can cut trees down?”, one of the taller men said. He walked over to examine the crew, he looked first Minnie, then Naomi up and down, then laughed. “Such as these cannot live our life, too small, too weak, too…”, he suddenly stopped talking as Will had approached him. “Well neighbour, there’s a saying in my world. Don’t judge a book by its cover, there’s much more to my girls than you can imagine.”. Wilbur had stepped forward to intervene but Grace stopped him with a hand on his shoulder “Let him learn his lesson, uncle Jerry’s always had a big mouth.”. Her father overheard, she wasn’t really trying to be quiet, and stifled a laugh. He didn’t think his brother had seen the two youngsters, he thought of everyone as such, tossing the heavy supplies from wagon to boat with ease. Minnie had faced down much more intimidating things than the lout in front of her now, but she gave him the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps he was only making sure Willy and Grace were going to be okay, “So what’s your deal guy, got a problem?”, she said. Naomi had a half smile on her face, she could tell Minnie had a handle on this person, but was there in case of anything going awry. Jerry looked down at the small person addressing him, he was used to a bit more deference because of his height. But something worried him, the captain looked fit and ready but was deferring to this little one, might be more than meets the eye. Maybe a test, yeah that was it, to see if they were physically up to the job. After all, anyone could ride on a boat. “Have you cut down a tree before little one? And have to jump out of the way of branches, splinters flying everywhere?”, he asked the first mate. “Nope.”, Minnie replied. “Me either.”, Naomi added. “And to chop through an iron wood, will take you all day, even if Wilbur shows you how.”, Jerry continued, “You just can’t do it, maybe your captain could but he’s skinny, not strong, why are you laughing, all of you stop it!”. Will decided that was enough, the man was getting heated and that was just bad form. “We need Grace and Wilbur to show us any tips or tricks that experience teaches you.”, he said, “The physical part is handled, got an axe handy?”.

  The taller man scoffed but reached into the back of his wagon and took out an enormous double bladed axe, must have been nearly four feet high and weighing fifty pounds, at least. He handed it to Will, then rolled his eyes when Will beckoned Minnie over. Handing it to her he whispered “Make it look easy.”. She nodded and took the axe from him, letting the head fall on the ground. Jerry winced seeing that but went on with his testing. Being on the outskirts of town he pointed to an average sized fir, about two feet in diameter. The top of the tree had broken off and the tree was bereft of branches, but still sound. “That one, try to take that one if you…”, he stopped talking as Minnie went into action. She picked up the axe with one hand like it weighed an ounce, spun around and cleaved nearly completely through the trunk in one hit, then stood beside it and held the wobbly stump in place. Tossing the axe to Naomi who also cut the same depth as Minnie in the tree a few inches above. She threw the axe to Will who carefully handed it to Percy and then lifted the wobbly stump. Twisting it to break free of the remaining bark, then hefted several hundred pounds of tree over his head, then lowered it to the ground beside the stump.

  “Like I said, the physical parts no problem, just need some tips, which way to cut so it falls right. Things like that.”, he dusted off his hands where some long splinters had settled. The look on Jerry’s face was quite humorous, but at least the other man had the grace to apologize for his actions. “I should have known the crew of the Rose was special, the stories the kids tell all the time. You will all be fine, just watch out for dry rot, and long branches. The kids will set you straight.”. Minnie handed his axe back but he shook his head “Nah, that’s yours now, served me well, she’ll do you good.”. After bidding the children safe journey they climbed back on their wagon and headed off. Looking back at the tree lying on the beach. Wilbur came up and tried to apologize for his relatives behaviour but Will just waved him off, “I think he was just trying to look out for you, in a very clumsy way. It’s fine.”.

  As everybody who was going on this trip was here, it was time to go. A few younger children, some teenagers and a couple of older people were waiting by the dock, just to wave goodbye. With Wilbur and Grace in the middle of the group they trekked down the long quay and boarded. Will showed the two visitors to the bow seats and slipped below to fire up the boiler, Minnie was in the wheelhouse preparing the course. Naomi showed Percy and Ron how to safely untie and pull in the fenders, as soon as Will gave the go ahead that is, “We have to wait, dad knows what’s best for the boat. He’s dad most of the time but captain all of the time.”. “He won’t get mad if we do it wrong will he?”, Percy worried. Naomi laughed “I’ve only ever seen him truly angry once and that was at a sharp, so don’t worry about it.”. Will came back up and you could see lazy wisps of coal smoke come from the stack. Minnie stuck her head out the bridge door and yelled “Pressures up!”. Will called to untie the mooring lines, Naomi was waiting on the dock for that command and untied the stern line and tossed it to Ron, jumped the forty feet between the bollards and threw the bow line to Percy and jumped onboard. Minnie had kept a careful eye out and set the Rose moving dead slow away, but when the cleared the end of the quay she cranked the engine to half ahead. Belching black smoke, starting to rock, climbing up then down the eternal waves, they were on their way again.

  The course set, wheel roped in place it was time for a break. Leaving the wheelhouse door open Minnie joined everyone else at the bow and sat in her deck chair with a sigh. “Straight sailing back, about eight hours but I increased to three quarters.”, she informed them. Will was looking at the sky, feeling the wind, “Feels like it will be good weather all the way, it’s what…”, he checked his watch, “two o’clock now, so we’ll be anchoring well after dark. Wait for dinner, or have on the move?”. Minnie shrugged, no care really, same with Naomi except “Easier if we’re at anchor.”. Percy and Ron looked at each other, and joined Minnie’s side of not caring. Will laughed “Right, up to the visitors then, what do you two think?”. Unused to being put on the spot Wilbur blurted out “Wait til we’re anchored.”, at the same time Grace said “Eat while we’re moving.”. Will sighed “Sure glad we can make decisions.”. “Well, what are we having anyway.”, Minnie asked, looking pointedly at Naomi. She ran through the supplies that had just been brought on, some would last longer than others, “If dad wants to barbecue today, let’s have pork ribs and some fresh pork sausages on the grill, camp taters and toasted cheese buns.”. Minnie laughed at that “He always want to be grilling so that’s solved.”.

  Wilbur had a question but was a little nervous about asking, but went ahead, “Um captain, what was that thing you looked at and said it was two something.”. Grace joined in “We saw it before, while gathering the coal, you all did it. Somehow you could all get somewhere together, arrive the same time of day, everyday felt the same. Do this, then that, how?”. Will took out his watch and opened the face, showed them the hands and they could hear the ticking of the mechanism inside. “We measure every day into pieces, called seconds, minutes and hours. Each day has exactly the same amount, so when we plan things it’s to the counted pieces.”. Minnie took up the explanation “The day is broken up into those bits and the watches keep track of those bits, see?”, she compared her watch to Naomi and Wills and they all showed the same time. “If I say to meet somewhere when the little hand is on the five and the big hand is on the twelve, then we all know when to be there.”, continued Will. He could see they were struggling a bit with the concept, “It’s important to us, but your society doesn’t really function that way. Things get done but you’re not tied down to it.”. Wilbur’s face was wrinkled thinking about it, “We use candles to keep track of, I guess it’s time, the same size candles lit.”. Grace added “School teachers do that, light a candle for arithmetic, then another for writing, things like that.”. Another thing that Will hadn’t known, fascinating.

  For now though, discussions had to be put on hold, chores to do. While Minnie stayed at the helm, Will and Percy were doing some boat duties, tanks and such. Naomi and Ron were putting supplies away in the galley and pantry, Grace was helping them out while Wilbur was with Percy and Will. There was lots to do before arriving back at the logging site, time to get to it.