appointment was that I should meet
my elderly uncle at the riverside, precisely
at nine in the morning. The skiff was to
be ready, and the apparatus to be brought
down by his grizzled old black man. As yet, the
nature of the wonderful experiment remained
a mystery to all but the projector.
I was first on the spot. The village was high
up the river, and the inland summer sun was
already oppressively warm. Presently I saw
my uncle advancing beneath the trees, hat
off, and wiping his brow; while far behind
struggled poor old Yorpy, with what seemed
one of the gates of Gaza on his back.
"Come, hurrah, stump along, Yorpy!" cried
my uncle, impatiently turning round every
now and then.
Upon the black's staggering up to the skiff, I perceived that the great gate of Gaza was transformed into a huge, shabby, oblong box, hermetically sealed. The sphinx-like blankness of the box quadrupled the mystery in my mind.
"Is this the wonderful apparatus," said
I in amazement. "Why, it's nothing but a
battered old dry-goods box, nailed up. And is
this the thing, uncle, that is to make you a
million of dollars ere the year be out ? What a
forlorn-looking, lack-lustre, old ash-box it is." "Put it into the skiff!" roared my uncle to Yorpy, without heeding my boyish disdain.
"Put it in, you grizzled-headed cherub put it
in carefully, carefully! If that box bursts, my
everlasting fortune collapses."
"Bursts?—collapses?" cried I, in alarm. "It
ain't full of combustibles ? Quick, let me go to
the further end of the boat !"
"Sit still, you simpleton!" cried my uncle
again. "Jump in, Yorpy, and hold on to the
box like grim death while I shove off. Carefully! carefully! you dunderheaded black! Mind t'other side of the box, I say! Do you mean to destroy the box?"
"Duyvel take te pox !" muttered old Yorpy, who was a sort of Dutch African. "De pox has been my cuss for de ten long 'ear."
"Now, then, we're off—take an oar, youngster ; you, Yorpy, clinch the box fast. Here we go now. Carefully! carefully! You, Yorpy, stop shaking the box ! Easy ! there's a big snag. Pull now. Hurrah! deep water at last! Now give way, youngster, and away to the island."
"The island!" said I. "There's no island
hereabouts."
"There is ten miles above the bridge, though," said my uncle, determinately.
"Ten miles off! Pull that old dry-goods box
ten miles up the river in this blazing sun?"
"All that I have to say," said my uncle, firmly, "is that we are bound to Quash Island."
"Mercy, uncle! if I had known of this great
long pull of ten mortal miles in this fiery sun, you wouldn't have juggled me into the skiff so easy. What's in that box?—paving-stones? See how the skiff settles down under it. I won't help pull a box of paving-stones ten miles. What's the use of pulling 'em?"
"Look you, simpleton," quoth my uncle, pausing upon his suspended oar. "Stop rowing, will ye! Now then, if you don't want to share in the glory of my experiment; if you are wholly indifferent to halving its immortal renown ; I say, sir, if you care not to be present at the first trial of my Great Hydraulic- Hydrostatic Apparatus for draining swamps and marshes, and converting them, at the rate of one acre the hour, into fields more fertile than those of the Genesee ; if you care not, I repeat, to have this proud thing to tell—in far future days, when poor old I shall have been long dead and gone, boy—to your children and your children's children; in that case, sir, you are free to land forthwith."
"Oh, uncle! I did not mean—
"No words, sir! Yorpy, take his oar, and
help pull him ashore."
"But, my dear uncle; I declare to you
that—"
"Not a syllable, sir; you have cast open
scorn upon the Great Hydraulic-Hydrostatic
Apparatus. Yorpy, put him ashore, Yorpy. It's shallow here again. Jump out, Yorpy, and wade with him ashore."
"Now, my dear, good, kind uncle, do but
pardon me this one time, and I will say nothing
about the apparatus."
"Say nothing about it ! when it is my express
end and aim it shall be famous ! Put him ashore, Yorpy."
"Nay, uncle, I will not give up my oar. I
have an oar in this matter, and I mean to keep
it. You shall not cheat me out my share of your
glory."
"Ah, now there—that's sensible. You may
stay, youngster. Pull again now." We were all silent for a time, steadily plying our way. At last I ventured to break water once more.