The Clockwork Twin Page 3

  Every evening they had a banquet. They would go down about six o’clock to the grocery department and look along the shelves, picking out the things they wanted for dinner. Then Adoniram would open all the cans and boxes and jars and they would spread them out on a long counter and start in. Sometimes there were as many as eighteen courses. Of course they all ate too much, but animals have more sense than humans about eating, and Adoniram was the only one that got sick. That was on the first day, and you can’t really blame him for eating until his eyes bulged. Most anybody would do the same. After that he took Freddy’s advice and ate more sensibly.

  It was a pretty pleasant life. There were all sorts of games, and they even gave a play, in costumes from the children’s wear department. Freddy wrote it for them. It was a detective play and he said it was based on some actual experiences of his own. Of course he added quite a lot to these, because besides detectives and burglars and watchmen he had a lot of historical characters in it—Roman soldiers and President Hoover and Lafayette and Napoleon. That made it confused, but lots of fun. Ronald quite blossomed out on the stage, too. He was splendid as Napoleon.

  But the most fun for Adoniram was exploring the store. He found the toy department, where there were hundreds of games, and aeroplanes that would fly, and construction sets, and an electric train with switches and signal lights and yards and yards of track. And he found the sporting goods department, crammed with guns and fishing tackle and bicycles and tents and camping outfits and practically everything you can use outdoors. And when he got tired of these, he could go down to the book department, and there were thousands of brand-new story books full of pictures. And he could always run down to the bakery for a pocketful of cookies or a slice of cake. Probably it was just as well for him that the candy department was on the ground floor, under six feet of water.

  On the ninth morning they heard noises in the street, and the sound of men shouting. They looked out and saw that the water was gone, and through the deep gray mud that covered everything half a dozen men in hip boots were clumping along.

  “Time to go, boys,” said Freddy. “They’ll be opening for business in a day or two now, and they won’t want us around. We’ll start in an hour. And now the question is: you three have lost your homes, so why don’t you go home with us?”

  “Sure,” said Jinx. “Mr. Bean can always use an extra dog and an extra rooster around the place. And he’d like to have you, too, Adoniram. You see, Mr. and Mrs. Bean haven’t any children of their own, although they always wanted some. A few years ago they adopted a boy and girl that we rescued from a terrible place up in the North Woods. But now Ella and Everett have gone abroad for a year with Mrs. Bean’s sister, and the Beans are alone again. We’ve been hoping we could find somebody to take their place, but most children wouldn’t want to leave their families, even if their families would let them. But from what you’ve said, I don’t expect you want to go back home much, do you?”

  “No,” said Adoniram, “I don’t. But—well, they’re my uncle and aunt. Maybe they’re worried. Maybe they’re looking for me. I—I guess I ought to go back.”

  “Well, you know best about that,” said Freddy. “We won’t try to persuade you. But if you change your mind, there’s always a home for you on the Bean farm. Come on, now. Get your stuff together.”

  In less than an hour they were ready for the road. The animals had put on their pockets, which were bulging with supplies from the grocery department, and they had even fixed a pair of pockets for Ronald which he had loaded up with puffed rice and a couple of seed rolls. The garment was much too large for him; it hunched up over the shoulders and dragged on the ground, so that except for the tail-feathers sticking out behind, he looked like a very small boy wrapped up in a large shawl.

  Adoniram had thought that he oughtn’t to take anything but food with him, but Freddy said that he was sure the store people wouldn’t mind if he outfitted himself with things that he really needed for the trip. So he wore rubber boots and a slicker and carried on his back a knapsack in which he had packed plenty of food, a change of clothing, and a few things he might need if he camped out—matches, a scout knife, a mess kit, and so on.

  “A regular swamp!” exclaimed Freddy as they came carefully down the slimy stairs to the ground floor, which was inches deep in gray mud. “Hop on my back, Ronald. And, Adoniram put Jinx on your shoulder. They can never get through this.”

  Indeed, it was almost impossible for the boy and the pig to get through. The mud sucked at their feet and hampered them so that they were ten minutes getting to the door. Outside, however, it was not so bad. The water was still running off, cutting little rivulets through the slime, and by walking in the flowing water they had easier going.

  Freddy led the way, and at first they met no one, but they were going uphill all the time and pretty soon they got into a part of the city where the flood had not been so deep. Here men were busy repairing houses and washing down the streets with fire hose. But nobody paid much attention to them, and it wasn’t until they got out into dry streets above flood level that they saw a rope stretched across the street in front of them, and several policemen on guard.

  “Hey, boy!” shouted one of the policemen. “Come out of there!”

  “Don’t let ’em know we can talk,” muttered Freddy as they went forward.

  “Don’t you know you aren’t allowed inside the flood lines?” demanded the policeman. “Where’d you get those things? You know you can be put in jail for stealing inside the lines?”

  “I didn’t steal them,” said Adoniram.

  “That remains to be seen,” said the policeman, taking out a notebook and a very small pencil. “In the meantime you’ll answer a few questions. Name?”

  “Adoniram R. Smith.”

  “Come again,” said the policeman, licking the pencil.

  So Adoniram spelled his name three times, and at last the man wrote it down. Only he spelled it “Annarodinam.” And after he had licked the pencil again and made the capital A bigger and blacker he said: “What’s the R stand for?”

  “It’s a silly name,” said Adoniram. “I don’t ever use it.”

  “All names are silly,” said the policeman. “Come on; what is it?”

  “I don’t want to tell,” said the boy.

  “Refuses to give name,” said the policeman, and wrote that down. “Residence?”

  “Snare Forks.”

  “Snare Forks!” exclaimed the policeman. “Never heard of it. You know where it is, Mike? Ed? Elmer? Any of you?” And when all the other policemen shook their heads, he licked the pencil and wrote: “Gives false address.”

  While this was going on, the animals had edged closer and closer to the rope, and all at once Freddy yelled: “Come on, boy!” and dove between the policeman’s legs, upsetting him into the street. The animals ran, and Adoniram tried to follow them, but the policeman named Elmer caught him by the tail of his slicker.

  The first policeman scrambled to his feet. “Ha!” he exclaimed. “Resisting arrest, eh? Where’s my pencil? Catch those animals, boys.”

  “Let ’em go, sarge,” said Elmer. “They’ll find their way back to their owners, I expect.”

  “But where’s my pencil?” roared the sergeant. “What is the matter with you men? Here we catch a dangerous criminal with dozens of charges against him—pig-stealing, cat-stealing, dog - stealing, rooster - stealing, boots - stealing, slicker-stealing, and goodness knows what else, and what do you do? Stand around and gawp! You look like policemen, you’re dressed up like policemen, you wear badges and carry sticks and take the city’s pay, and there isn’t one of you that can keep track of a little thing like a pencil. Bah! You—you make me ashamed of the force!”

  “Excuse me,” said Adoniram, “but I noticed you when you fell down, and I—I think you swallowed the pencil.”

  “What!” shouted the sergeant, turning pale, except for the black marks around his mouth where he had licked the pencil lead. H
e stared at the boy, then suddenly clutched his stomach. “Carry on, Elmer,” he said, and bolted into the police station.

  “Well now, Adoniram,” said Elmer, “suppose you just tell us your story in your own way. Don’t mind the sergeant. He’s kind of impetuous, and great on rules, but his heart’s in the right place.”

  “So’s his pencil,” said another policeman.

  “That’ll do, Mike,” said Elmer sternly. “Now, boy.”

  So then Adoniram told his story, though he didn’t say much about the animals, and when he had finished, Elmer said: “Well, we’ll have to find out where Snare Forks is and then try to get in touch with your folks and send you back home. In the meantime come into the station house and we’ll fix you a cup of cocoa. We’ll take care of you all right.”

  “But I didn’t mean to steal anything, really I didn’t,” said Adoniram.

  “I’m sure you didn’t,” said Elmer. “And, what’s more, the sergeant is sure of it, too. But you see, he likes to scare people. He thinks people ought to be afraid of policemen, so they won’t commit crimes. I don’t agree with him there. I don’t think scaring people does any good. But anyway, you haven’t anything to worry about.”

  So Adoniram stayed in the police station for four days. He quite got to like the sergeant, who when he wasn’t suspecting you, was as nice a person as you’d care to meet, and full of exciting stories about police work. But Adoniram missed the animals. They were the only real friends he had ever had. And when on the fifth day the sergeant told him that his uncle had been heard from, and that he was to be sent home on the train, he came very near crying, for he felt sure that he would never see Freddy and Jinx and Georgie and Ronald again.

  Adoniram changed at Winthrop to a bus which took him to Snare Forks. But from there he had to walk the three miles home, because his uncle said he couldn’t spare the time to meet him. And when he got home and had told his story, he got scolded for two hours and spanked for five minutes—which is much too long for anybody to be spanked, even a hardened criminal—and then his uncle said that since he didn’t seem to care much for his home, but preferred to go wandering about the countryside, he would have to give up the room he had always had and sleep in the barn. So his uncle gave him a blanket and another short spanking to remember the first one by and sent him out to the barn.

  The barn was really much nicer than the house. The hay was soft and sweet-smelling, and the moonlight came in through the wide doorway and splashed everything with mysterious silver light. The policemen had allowed Adoniram to keep the things he had taken from Waterman Dinkelstein & Co., and although his uncle had taken most of them away from him, he still had the scout knife and the mess kit. He kept them under a board in the barn floor, and at night he could take them out and polish them and play with them. But his uncle forced him to work harder than ever now, to make up for the time he had lost, and so he didn’t get much time to play.

  Every morning when he got up he washed his face at the pump in the barn. It wasn’t easy to do, because his uncle wouldn’t give him a basin to wash in, so he had to pump with one hand and wash with the other. His aunt wouldn’t give him a towel, either, because she said he’d only get it dirty. So he had to dry off by going out and waving his arms around in the early morning sunshine. And he was doing this one morning after he had been home about a week, and wishing he was back in Waterman Dinkelstein & Co.’s furniture department with his friends, when away up over the hill behind the house he heard a rooster crow.

  Now, there was nothing unusual about this, for roosters were crowing all over the countryside that morning. But if you have made any study of roosters, you will know that no two of them crow exactly alike. And there was a funny squeak in the middle of this rooster’s crow that was exactly like Ronald’s. For although Ronald’s cold had gone, it had left him with a very weak crow. Adoniram stopped waving his arms and listened, and in a minute the rooster crowed again.

  “Oh dear,” said Adoniram, “I wish that was Ronald. Only of course it can’t be. But still, I wonder what a rooster is doing up there. There’s nothing but woods over the hill.” And so instead of going to the house to do the work he had to do before breakfast, he climbed up across the fields to the top of the hill.

  At first he didn’t see anything but more fields sloping down toward the deep woods. And then on a stone wall about half-way down, something fluttered, and the rooster crowed three times, and at the same time in the grass in front of the wall he could just make out some animals moving about. “It is Ronald!” Adoniram shouted, and galloped down the hill.

  The animals came forward to meet him. “Well, well,” said Freddy, “what a time we’ve had finding you! All we knew was that you lived near Snare Forks, so we’ve been visiting every farm along the river, and poor Ronald has nearly worn his crow out. We were sure you’d recognize it, but it’s a good thing we found you today, because he couldn’t have lasted much longer.”

  “I should say not,” said Ronald. “You haven’t a cough drop about you, have you, old chap? My throat is raw.”

  “Oh, I’m glad you came!” Adoniram exclaimed. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”

  “It’s harder to get rid of friends than it is to make them,” said Jinx. “And we couldn’t just run off that way and leave you. We were pretty sure they’d send you home.”

  “And what we really came for,” said Georgie, “was to see if you wouldn’t change your mind and come with us.”

  “Yes,” said Adoniram, “I will. My aunt and uncle don’t like me, and I don’t see why I should have to stay with them.”

  “Hurray!” said Jinx. “Well, let’s get going.”

  “I can’t go yet,” said the boy. “My uncle would miss me, and he’d catch us and bring me back. And anyway, there are some things I want to take with me.”

  So the animals agreed to wait in the woods the rest of the day. And then when Adoniram came out to the barn to go to bed, they would meet him and start.

  Everything went smoothly. Adoniram got spanked again for being late for breakfast, but he managed to smuggle his knapsack and some clothing out of the house, and he got his scout knife and mess kit from under the barn floor and packed everything up. And at eight o’clock that night when he came down to the barn, the animals were waiting.

  “We won’t waste any time,” said Freddy. “We’ll have to travel all night, because we want to be a long way from Snare Forks by daylight. Come on.”

  So the travelers, each with his pack on his back, filed out of the barnyard and up over the hill. Jinx led the way, because cats can see better in the dark than other animals. They cut down behind the woods and struck into a road, and then as they trudged along, Freddy struck up the old marching song that he had made up when the animals took their first trip to Florida.

  Oh, it’s over the hill and down the road

  And we’ll borrow the moon for a light,

  And wherever we go, one thing we know:

  The road will lead us right.

  If you start from home by any road,

  And follow each dip and bend,

  What fortune you find, whether cold or kind,

  You find home again at the end.

  Oh, the roads run east, and the roads run west,

  And it’s lots of fun to roam

  When you know that whichever road you take—

  That road will lead you home.

  IV

  Mr. Bean’s Farm

  “The nice thing about taking a trip,” said Freddy, “is that it is just as exciting to come back home as it is to start out.”

  It was the twelfth morning since they had left Snare Forks, and they were standing on a hill looking down on a little valley, and on the side of a hill across the valley was a small white farmhouse and a big red barn and a lot of other buildings, all very neat and shining in the bright sunlight. And that was Mr. Bean’s farm.

  They sat down and rested for a few minutes, and Jinx pointed out the ho
uses where the different animals lived. “That big building with the blue curtains is the cow-barn,” he said. “Mrs. Wiggins, Freddy’s partner in the detective business, and her two sisters, Mrs. Wurzburger and Mrs. Wogus, live there. And that little house with the chimney is the henhouse, where you’ll live, Ronald. Mr. Bean put in steam heat last year, and mahogany perches. I tell you, he spares no expense where his animals are concerned.”

  “I’m pretty dirty,” said Adoniram. “Couldn’t we wash somewhere before we see the Beans?”

  So they went down and washed in the brook at the foot of the hill, and Adoniram took clean clothes out of his knapsack and put them on. And then they started for the farm.

  There was nobody in sight as they came in the gate, but when they were half-way across the barnyard the little blue curtains at one of the windows of the cow-barn were pushed aside and a big white face appeared.

  “Hi, Mrs. Wiggins!” called Freddy.

  “Mercy on us!” exclaimed the cow. “It’s Freddy and Jinx.” And she came rushing out to greet them, and Mrs. Wogus and Mrs. Wurzburger came after her.

  Now, when Mrs. Wiggins said anything, you could hear her across two fields and a pasture. And when she raised her voice, you could hear her in the next county. So in two minutes the barnyard was full of a mob of cows and dogs and horses and chickens, all pressing around the travelers and shouting and laughing and slapping them on the back. Ronald was quite terrified by the racket, and Georgie, though his tail kept wagging, pressed close against Adoniram.

  The animals all asked questions at once. “How did the pockets go, Freddy?” “Where’d you get the boy?” “Been eating any crows lately, Jinx?”

  But suddenly the noise quieted down, and a small man in overalls with bushy gray whiskers came shoving through the crowd. He carried a pitchfork with which he made threatening gestures, but Adoniram noticed that he was careful not to touch any of the animals with it. “Quiet!” he shouted. “Tarnation, animals, can’t ye stop this rumpus? Ye make more noise ’n a hop-pickers’ picnic.”