Reube Dare's Shad Boat: A Tale of the Tide Country — Text and Context

CHAPTER I. The _Dido_ Goes Adrift 9

CHAPTER II. The Red Bull 21

CHAPTER III. The Chase of the _Dido_ 32

CHAPTER IV. The Cave by the Tide 41

CHAPTER V. A Prison House 53

CHAPTER VI. The Blue Jar 63

CHAPTER VII. Mart Gandy Hacks the Shad Net 75

CHAPTER VIII. A Midnight Visitor 86

CHAPTER IX. The _Dido’s_ First Fishing Trip 96

CHAPTER X. Besieged on the Sand Spit 107

CHAPTER XI. Foiling the Sharks 115

CHAPTER XII. The Shot from the Rocks 125

CHAPTER XIII. Gandy is Rescued from the Honey Pots 135

“She’s adrift!” he shouted. “Come on! Come on!” The bull swerved slightly and shot past Will marched ahead, carrying the torch It was coin—all coin! Then came the shining, silvery sides of a dozen shad “I think we’ll make it,” he said to himself Will and Reube bent their bodies to the pull

REUBE DARE’S SHAD BOAT. A Tale of the Tide Country.

The “Dido” Goes Adrift.

THE road from Frosty Hollow to Westcock, after climbing the hill by the red creek and passing Mrs. Carter’s yellow cottage, ran through a piece of dark and ancient fir woods. With the sighing of the firs there mixed a deeper sound, the voice of the wild tides of the changing Tantramar, unseen and far below. Turning sharply to the right, the road presently emerged from the woods and came upon a very different picture from that which it had left behind. It traversed the face of a long, wide, steep slope of upland, set here and there with a gray or white cottage, here and there a little grove. From the upland foot a mile-wide belt of marsh stretched to the waters of the open bay. The pale-green marsh was divided sharply from the yellow and flashing waves by the long lines of the dike, to which it owed its existence as good dry land. At intervals could be seen small creeks winding through the grassy level. Every creek mouth formed a little haven, clustered about with net reels, and crowded with the boats of the shad fishers.

Out from the whispering wood and into the fresh June sunlight of the open came two tallish youths, walking slowly and talking with the joyous zest of old friends who had been long parted. The older-looking of the two was Will Carter, just home from college for the summer vacation. Two years of college life had changed him little. He was the same slim, thoughtful, discreet, yet blithely dauntless lad who had lifted the mortgage from his mother’s farm and punished the ruffian Baizley, and softened the hard old heart of Mr. Hand.[A] College study had increased the somewhat scholarly pallor of his face, but college athletics had added poise and grace to the movements of his well-knit muscles. He had hastened home to his mother immediately on the close of the college, leaving his brother Ted to take a month’s canoe trip through the inland waters.

Will’s present companion, Reuben Dare, was a chum only second to Ted in his love. Reube Dare was just eighteen. He was about the same height as Will, but of a much heavier build. His was also a heavier and slower nature, but one of faithful loyalty and courage combined with strong common sense. His hair was light like Will’s, but his face was round and ruddy. At a hasty glance one might fancy that he was good-natured to the verge of being “soft,” but there was a steady, controlling gleam in his light gray eyes which made folk very slow to presume on his good nature. In fact, his eyes gave one the peculiar impression of having reached full manhood before the rest of his face. He swung his long arms loosely as he walked, and occasionally he stumbled in the ruts, being too much absorbed in watching his comrade’s words to note just where he was stepping.

It had long been Reube Dare’s keenest ambition to put himself through college, but the poverty of his widowed mother—the population of that land of sailors and fishermen is largely made up of widows—had stood sternly in the way. The success of the Carter boys, however, in reclaiming that rich marsh by the creek had proved a strong stimulus, and given him new hopes, with results which this story will show.

All at once Will Carter, who had been talking eagerly for the last half hour, stopped short, wiped his forehead, and perched himself on the rail fence under a shady roadside maple. Reube leaned against the fence, and took off his round straw hat.