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Updated: June 13, 2025
I'm as tired of pet names and baby talk as I am of waiting here for high-water that won't ever come." With this the petulant lad rose to his feet, and leaping ashore, disappeared among the trees of the river-bank, leaving Elta to gaze after him with a grieved expression, and a suspicion of tears in her brown eyes. In spite of this little scene, Winn Caspar was not an ill-tempered boy.
"Yes, he certainly had names to spare; but if he was half as well able to take care of himself as our Winn is, no one ever had an excuse for worrying about him." "No, indeed!" broke in the young man, eagerly; "but I tell you he was Why, you just ought to have seen him when " "Here comes father!" cried Elta, joyfully, running to throw open the door as she spoke. See Campmates, by the same Author.
It was a note which read as follows: "DEAR BROTHER, As you didn't come home to supper, I thought perhaps you were going to spend the night on the raft, and so brought yours down here. You can heat the tea on the stove. I'm awfully sorry I said anything to make you feel badly. Please forget it, and forgive your loving sister, ELTA." "Bless her dear heart!" cried the boy.
Only a flood of turbid waters, fully two feet higher than they had been the evening before, swept over the spot, and seemed to beckon mockingly towards the great river. "Why, the raft has gone!" exclaimed Elta, in a dismayed voice. "It certainly has," answered the Major, grimly; "and as it cannot possibly have floated up-stream, it must have gone towards the Mississippi.
Caspar was laughing and crying at the same time, while both she and the young man were talking at once. Near them, and regarding this tableau with the utmost gravity, was a powerful-looking bull-dog, who would evidently be pure white when washed. For a full minute Elta stood in the doorway gazing wonderingly at this strange scene.
"Love to Elta. Tell her that last evening I ran across the queerest craft I ever saw, with the queerest name I ever heard of. It is called the Whatnot. Of course its Captain knew nothing of Winn, and I did not expect he would; but I make it my business to inquire of every one I meet or pass. "Hoping to be able to send you better news within a day or two, I am your loving brother,
Well, any way, he had just such a habit of getting into all sorts of messes; but he always came out of each one bright and smiling, right side up with care, and ready for the next." "He had names enough, whoever he was," said Elta, a little coldly; for it seemed to her that this flippant young uncle was rather inclined to disparage her own dear brother.
I am going down to see what Winn thinks of it." "Oh, can't I go with you, papa? I should dearly love to!" cried Elta. "Well, I don't know," hesitated the Major. "I suppose you might if you were rigged for it." This permission was sufficient, and the active girl bounded away full of glee at the prospect of a battle with the storm, and of surprising Winn on the raft.
By his own desire he was to go alone in the skiff, except for the companionship of his trusty Bim, who made a point of accompanying his master everywhere. The young man was provided with an open letter from Major Caspar, giving him full authority to take charge of the raft and do with it as he saw fit. Both Mrs. Caspar and Elta wrote notes to Winn, and gave them to Billy Brackett to deliver.
"I don't believe this old raft is ever going to float any more than the mill itself," he remarked pettishly to his sister Elta one day in October, as they sat together on the Venture and watched the sluggish current of the little river. "Father thinks it will," answered Elta, quietly. "Oh yes. Of course father thinks so; but he may be mistaken as well as other folks.
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