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The Old Woman Who Lived On The Canal
by
A great clatter of tin plates and knives and forks there was, and very nice did those potatoes and that bacon taste.
And it didn’t take long for them to finish that meal, either. Then they went out on deck.
The mules were pulling and pulling, and the boat was sailing on and on towards the Sea. They passed by so many places–lots of houses and lots of farms, the Red Schoolhouse and Reddy Toms’ house, and Sammy Soapstone’s, and the funny place where Fatty lived, and the pigs, fat like himself, ran all over the yard.
Fatty and Sammy were playing on the shore at that very moment. He waved to them and they waved back, but they didn’t know they were waving to their old playmate Marmaduke, he was so mixed up with all the children of the woman who lived on the canalboat that looked just like a shoe. How Sammy and Sophy and Fatty would have envied him if they had only known it was he sailing away to the Sea!
But he never arrived there, after all–at least he didn’t on that voyage. For, you see, after he had had a wonderful time, running all over the deck with the thirteen children, and looking down into the big hole where they kept the shiny coal, and exploring the little house on the deck, the Round Fat Rosy Woman and her Husband With the Red Shirt and the Pipe had a talk together.
“We must send him back home,” said she, “or his folks’ll be scared out of their wits.”
The man took a few puffs on his pipe, which always seemed to help him in thinking, then replied,
“We might let him off at the Landing it’s up the towpath a piece. We kin find someone to give him a lift.”
“That’s the best plan,” she agreed, “there’s the Ruralfree’livery now.”
And she pointed to the shore where the horse and wagon of the postman were coming up the road.
“What ho, Hi! Heave to!” she called, raising her hands to her mouth and shouting through them just like a man, “here’s a passenger for you, first class.”
“Mr. Ruralfree’liv’ry” shook his whip at them, then hollered “Whoa!” and stopped the old horse; and Jib hollered “Whoa!” and stopped his mules, right at the Landing.
Then Marmaduke said “Goodbye.” It took him some time, for there was the Man With the Red Shirt and the Pipe; and the Round Fat Rosy Woman; and Jib, Bowsprit, Cutwater, Mizzen, Maintop, Bul’ark, Gunnel, 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 were all dry by that time, and she stuffed something in his pocket besides. And what do you think it was? A toy anchor and chain that would just fit the “White Swan,” the ship the Toyman had made him.
So he rode home with Mr. Ruralfree’liv’ry and all his sacks of mail. But he kept turning his head for a long while to watch the 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 that seemed to be waving farewell to him. But soon the “Mary Ellen” drifted out of sight. She was a good boat, the “Mary Ellen.”
He almost felt like crying, for he would have liked to have gone on that voyage to see the rest of the world. But, after all, he had seen a great deal of it, and he had that anchor and chain.