Half-Past Seven Stories

side, and Marmaduke thought they were like two brothers. The Canal was the older brother, it was always so sure and steady and ready for work. It flowed

years couldn't make that River grow old. It was full of frolicsome ripples that gleamed in the sun, and of rapids and waterfalls. Here it would flow swiftly, and there almost stop as if it wanted t

fish, like Marmaduke, seemed to prefer the River. There were pickerel and trout and catfish and eels, and in the Spring

whistled to Wienerwurst, who was always the best company in the world, and the little dog came leaping and barking

s a mistake to walk too fast on a Spr

t skimming, skimming, like swift little tugboats at play. In the fields on the other side of the road a meadowlark sang; swallows twittered overh

the towpath. He could see the Red Schoolhouse, and, not so far away, the Lock of

es who walked on shore quite a distance ahead of it. A long thick rope stretched from the collars of the mules to the bow of the boat. A little boy walked behind the mules, yelling to them and now and then poking them

children running in and out of the door. A round fat rosy woman with great big arms was calling to the children to "take care," and a man

oat. There it was now, painted in big letters, right under the tiller. He spell

, and all the children waved their hands to Marmaduke and he waved back, then hurried a

iable, and he trotted along with the mules and watched their long funny ears go wiggle-waggle when a fly buzzed near them. But they never paused or stopped, no matter what annoyed them, but

e Red Shirt and the Pipe, and the little house on the deck. He wished he could go on board and steer the "Mary Ellen," and play in that little house, it looked so cute. The Roun

e in the Canal like a harbour, with two pairs of gates, as

e canalboat would float in the Lock and rest there for a while like a ship in harbour. Then those gates would shut tight, and the man who tended the Lock would open the gates at the end where the water was low. And the water

yet. There was much work to

e mules, without taking the pipe out of his mouth. The great towrope was untied and the mules rested while the man who tended the Lo

boat. And down, down, went the deck and the little house on it, and down, down, went the Man With the Red Shirt and the Pipe, and the Round Fat Rosy Woman With the Great Arms, and all the children. Marmaduke star

hen the water in the Lock was even with the water on the lower side of the Canal it stopped falling, and the "Mary Ellen" stopped, too. At lea

inly to be expected that one of the thirteen chi

e gurgly brown water. Then he c

help!"

er he we

Fat Rosy Woman

band in a voice that sounded like a ma

t the tiller, still keep

into the b

there's where

e coal, or the Canal, or something, that he didn't think it was a serious matter, for he came t

was true or not, Marmaduke didn't know, for he had never been drowned before, and no one who had, had ever come back to t

, as well she might, and she shouted again

n Injun in front of a cigar-sto

e grabbed Marmaduke by the collar with one hand and swam towards the "Mary Ellen" with the other. The woman threw a rope over the side; he grasped it with his free hand, and the woman drew them up--she certainly was strong--and in

e Round Fat Rosy Woman, "get

ls and a little blue jumper which belonged to one of the thirteen children. Of course, she found the right size, with so many

cook stove and in another jif

ease," for he knew his mother wouldn't have wanted him to take regular t

an, "don't talk. Just wrap yourself in this blan

the Forty White Horses stopped their galloping, and while the men were hitching the mules up again, a

from home, in the little cabin of the "Mary Ellen." It was a cosy place, with all the little beds for the children around the cabin. And these beds were not like the ones he usually slept in. They were little shelves

rosy like herself, and it poked its pipe through the house just above his head. In the pot upon it

in the wind. He could hear the children who owned those skirts and pairs of pants running

children, and the Round Fat Rosy Woman was forever running to

all to one boy as she pulled him

ould yell to another, as sh

r must be. The boat was shaped just like a huge shoe and she surely had so many children she didn't know wh

t the funny name

ames?" he asked, as he

e his family on a ship. We had a lot of trouble finding names for the children started to call 'em Mary and Daniel and such, but the names ran out. So, seeing my h

lack from the coal. Cutwater's the girl leaning over the stern; Maintop, the

rest?" Marmaduke asked, think

e pretty stout; the twins, Anchor and Chain; Squall, the crybaby; Block, the fattest of all; Topmast, the talles

Cutwater, Maintop, Mizzen, Bul'ark, Gunnel, Anchor, Chain, Block, Squall, Topmast, and Ste

shoe, and she surely had so many ch

view la

ng. On deck was a great bar of iron with another beside it. She took up one bar of iron and with it struck the other--twelve times. The blows sounded way out over the Canal and over

es and forks there was, and very nice

hem to finish that meal, eith

o many places--lots of houses and lots of farms, the Red Schoolhouse and Reddy Toms' house, and Sammy So

e waving to their old playmate Marmaduke, he was so mixed up with all the children of the woman who lived on the canalboat that lo

ing all over the deck with the thirteen children, and looking down into the big hole where they kept the shiny coal, and explor

" said she, "or his folks'll

pipe, which always seemed to hel

g it's up the towpath a piece. We k

she agreed, "there's t

ere the horse and wagon of the

nds to her mouth and shouting through them just lik

lered "Whoa!" and stopped the old horse; and Jib holler

el, Anchor, Chain, Block, Squall, Topmast, and Stern; the "Mary Ellen"; and the mules, to say "Goodbye" to. Just before he went ashore the Round Fat Rosy Woman gave him his clothes back, for they we

Man With the Red Shirt and the Pipe, and the Round Fat Rosy Woman, and the Thirteen Children, and all the little pairs of pants

e on that voyage to see the rest of the world. But, after all,