The Green Dolphin
drawers and boxes, scattering his wife’s possessions recklessly high
and low; he swept bowls and tin cans from the pantry shelves. The
tea was not to be found. And not only was it missing but none of an
inferior quality came to light to take its place. At last having
overturned a pitcher of sour milk into the ice-chest he halted his
frenzied chase.
“I can’t find the durn stuff,” fumed he, wearied out. “An’ now the
ice-chest’s awash with milk.”
“S’pose I was to--”
“Do set down, Lemuel Gill. Ain’t I got trouble enough without you
instigatin’ more? The kindest thing you can do is to keep out of
this clutter. I know you want to help; but how can you when you’re
handcuffed? All is I’ll just have to break the news that there ain’t
no tea. They’ll have to content themselves with water.”
“But Althea advertised tea,” objected Lemuel. “’Twas the chief thing
she promised people. A tea-house without tea is like a weddin’ without
a bride.”
“Don’t I know it? If you can’t offer comfort cheerier than that you
better hold your tongue.”
For an interval nothing was heard in the kitchen but the frantic
bubbling of the kettle.
“You--you--ain’t goin’ to give ’em those kitchen plates to eat off of,
are you?” Lemmy inquired, when he could contain himself no longer.
“Yes, I am,” came curtly from his crony. “I don’t mean to run the risk
of wearin’ rings on my fingers--nor bells on my toes, neither. One of
us has got to remain able-bodied an’ seaworthy an’ that green china’s
wicked slippery. Besides, if I don’t use it none of it will get broke.”
The mention of the offending porcelain brought freshly to Lemuel’s mind
his tribulation.
“My finger’s all purple an’ numb as a dead fish,” lamented he.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t help it,” was the meagre comfort Asaph hurled
over his shoulder as he disappeared on to the veranda. “You’ll have to
grin an’ bear it.”
Left to himself Captain Gill settled gloomily back into his rocker
and with indignation surveyed the fragile barrier that stood betwixt
him and liberty. He revelled in gossip and would dearly have loved to
behold the visitors and mingle in the general hilarity.
“I knew this infernal Dolphin would ketch Asaph,” grumbled he in an
undertone. “From its christenin’ I felt squeamish about it. Dolphins
bring bad luck. I never sighted a school of ’em at sea that the breeze
didn’t die down afterwards. Asaph will be a slave to this critter all
summer--see if he ain’t! Take a dolphin into your home an’ you’ve
annexed a boarder that’ll leave you no peace. What chance is he goin’
to have henceforth for fishin’, clammin’, gardenin’, or readin’? Fur’s
that goes what chance am I goin’ to have myself?”
He was still mulling over these depressing thoughts and ruefully
regarding the calamity into which his initial encounter with the Green
Dolphin had plunged him when the door opened and his pal appeared.
“The feller they call Henry has offered me a five-dollar bill for a
dish of clam chowder,” cried he excitedly. “’Pears he comes from Denver
an’ ain’t visited New England for years. He says he ain’t seen a clam
since he can remember. An’ no sooner did he pipe up for chowder than
all the rest of ’em, findin’ there was no tea, did the same. They’re
ready to pay ’most any price for it.”
“Is there enough?”
“Oh, there’s plenty of it. I poured in a generous lot of milk so’st
we could warm it over. There’s no danger of it fallin’ short. I just
didn’t know how you’d feel about sellin’ it. You see ’twas you made it.”
“I’ll own I didn’t have in mind feedin’ it to a gang of starvin’
motorists,” retorted Lemmy. “Still, I dunno but we may’s well let ’em
have it. You’re in a tight place an’ I ain’t been able to help you
none.”
“You were tryin’ to, anyhow, Lemmy.”
The glance Asaph flashed his friend widened into a smile and with it
the cloud of irritation that hung between them vanished.
“Bail out the chowder, pardner,” ejaculated Captain Gill, instantly in
his normal spirits. “Don’t spare it. I can make another one tomorrow.”
“I reckon you’ll have to,” was the melancholy forecast.
This prediction proved to be only too true a one. Plate after plate
of the steaming viand disappeared through the kitchen door never to
return. Then at last, hot and exhausted, the panting host of the
Dolphin poked his head in at the window.
“They will have you out, Lemmy--there’s no stoppin’ ’em. Mr.
Hollingsworth--that’s Henry, from Denver--says there warn’t ever a
chowder made that could match this one. He insists on meetin’ the cook
who concocted it. An’ there’s a girl here, a Miss Margaret Davidson
(Peggy, they call her), who’s so plumb crazy over the garden she can
scarcely eat. You’ll have to come an’ tell her about the flowers.”
“But--but--how can I?” With a wan expression Lemuel held up his captive
finger.
“That? Pooh, never mind that blasted teacup, Lemmy. Smash it!”
responded Asaph with high-pitched gaiety.
CHAPTER VIII
Peggy Davidson, it subsequently proved, had forgotten more about
flowers than both Lemuel Gill and Asaph Holmes put together had ever
known. She had studied landscape architecture and her intelligent
comment soon had the two men enthralled, and as oblivious to the trials
of tea-shops and Green Dolphins as if they never existed.
“Your lilies are lovely,” exclaimed she. “And you’ve placed them
beautifully--just in front of that larkspur and blue veronica.”
“Bless your heart, I didn’t place ’em,” honest Asaph protested. “I only
planted ’em where they’d show up. White things have to have somethin’
behind ’em or they’re lost.”
“That’s placing them.”
“Is it?” queried the man in surprise. “I just call it usin’ common
sense. If you like posies you want they should grow where they’ll look
their best. Clim’in’ roses, now, ain’t ever so satisfyin’, to my way
of thinkin’, as when twinin’ over grey shingles or a cedar post; pink,
white, red, yaller--they all look fine that way.”
“So they do,” agreed Peggy, with a delighted nod. “They’re nice against
the sky, too, and the blue of the water.”
“They are, marm--they are indeed!”
Asaph did not address Miss Davidson by this austere title either
because her age demanded it, or because there was condescension or
superiority in her manner. Rather the word dropped from his lips as
an involuntary tribute of respect and admiration. Perhaps the girl
realized this and was the more pleased. At least she smiled into
his eyes with an unaffected camaraderie that instantly established
a sympathetic bond between them. She was wont to bestow this frank,
radiant smile on the especially favored, and adamantine indeed would
have been the recipient of it had he not experienced a thrill of
pleasure when it was flashed upon him. Such a response now stirred
the blood of both Asaph and Lemmy Gill. There was a wholesome,
appealing quality in the girl that was irresistible. Young as she
was (and she could not have been much over twenty) she already had a
remarkably clear-cut personality. The shifting gravity and laughter
in her grey eyes held one captive, and so did the curving mouth with
its mischievous dimples; even her hair rippled with venturesome
independence, refusing to stay primly in place. As Lemuel Gill remarked
afterward, she was winsome.
“I have a garden of my own in Cambridge,” explained she, “and so I know
what it means to raise flowers like these. I spend hours digging and
weeding. Mother says I drudge like a day laborer and is continually
imploring me to hire a man to do the cultivating. But you know how it
is. You can’t pass your flowers over to strangers to take care of. How
would they know which ones needed coaxing along?”
“That’s right,” chimed in Lemuel Gill. “Why, I’d no more turn my garden
over to hired help than I’d send somebody to represent me at the Day of
Judgment.”
Peggy laughed.
“So you have a garden, too, have you?”
“Oh, Lemmy has a regular Eden down by the shore,” interpolated Asaph.
“He’s carted loam an’ worked no end. If once you clapped eyes on his
place you’d pass mine by without a second glance.”
“Pooh, Asaph, pooh!” blushed Lemuel. “Nonsense!”
“But it’s true,” maintained his friend stoutly. “Why, marm, Lemuel can
hypnotize plants into growin’ big as cabbages. They clean forget when
to stop. I believe,” continued he with impressive solemnity, “that was
he to put ’em in the ground roots uppermost they’d grow for him.”
“I’d love to see your flowers, Captain Gill.”
“I’d be proud as ’lection to show ’em to you. Mebbe you’d like to step
over now an’ take a look at ’em. ’Tain’t far--just down that little
lane toward the shore.”
“I’m afraid I can’t,” answered the girl with genuine regret. “You see,
I’m with the Hollingsworths and must not delay them.”
“That’s a pity. If you were only summerin’ somewheres on the Cape you
might come another day an’ see ’em.”
“Oh, I am summering here. I’m close by. Mother and I are staying at the
Belleport Inn, your village hotel.”
“Don’t call it my hotel,” objected Captain Gill. “I ain’t runnin’ no
boardin’ house--no, nor tea-shop neither,” added he, a mutinous gleam
in his eye.
“You can’t, however, deny having some connection with one,” retorted
Peggy, dimpling, “for I spy its trade-mark right on you.”
Lemuel glanced down and for the first time realized that from the
finger with which he was gesticulating dangled the green teacup.
“Haw, haw!” roared Asaph. “Haw, haw, haw! That’s a good one, Lemmy!
Trade-mark indeed! My soul! I’d forgotten you were still in the stocks.
Why didn’t you bust your fetters? I gave you leave.”
“I know you did. But when it come to actually doin’ it I hadn’t the
heart. I knew Althea’d feel bad to get home an’ find her china broken.
Besides, I tore outdoors in such a hurry I didn’t wait for nothin’; an’
once out here, with the talk of gardens an’ all, the thought of the
pesky cup went clean out of my head.”
“Why do you keep it on there?” questioned the mystified Miss Davidson.
“’Cause he can’t get it off, marm. When the crowd of you hove into
sight he was that flustered he rammed his finger through that handle
like you’d run a sword through something ’way up to the hilt. He could
never do the trick again, I’ll wager. How he managed it this time beats
me. We’ve tried an’ tried to wriggle his joint back through the hole
again but it’s no use.”
“Can’t you start it with warm suds?” asked Peggy with incredulity.
“We’ve experimented with soap an’ water but it don’t do nothin’,” Lemmy
returned with a wry smile. “I reckon the damn thing is on there for
life.”
“Pledged to the Dolphin ’til death do you part, ain’t you, Lemmy?”
taunted Asaph.
“You bet I ain’t,” shot out Captain Gill.
“Maybe I could get it off,” ventured Peggy.
“Oh, leave it on him, marm,” drawled Asaph. “He may find a teacup
handy; or p’raps he can make his fortune by goin’ in a show.”
“It would serve you right, Asaph Holmes, if I never helped bail you out
of your troubles again,” exploded Lemuel, stung to the quick by his
comrade’s jests.
Suavely Peggy stepped between the two men.
“Certainly,” declared she, “no person who can make such wonderful
clam chowder should be on the disabled list. Suppose we come into the
kitchen and see if we can’t release him.”
“A capital idea,” Asaph rejoined with good humor. “The two of us
together ought to be able to put him out of his misery.”
Even Lemuel, ruffled as he was, smiled as he followed them indoors.
“My scheme is to oil him up good an’ slippery with kerosene an’ then
slide the thing off him,” announced Asaph. “What do you think of the
notion, marm?”
“We can try it and see how it works. But there--how silly of us to
blunder round when young Doctor Hollingsworth, who’s a surgeon, is