On Nantucket Wharf
All was bustle and confusion in Mrs. Maynard’s house in Boston, for she and her daughter Mattie were going to Nantucket Beach to stay a night, then to the Island Home to spend a week. It was the first time Mattie had been on the cars, for she was only six years old, and she had been but very few times on the steamboat.
At last they started. They were to go to New Bedford by the cars, and there to take a steamboat for Nantucket.
They had a very pleasant time at Nantucket, and Mattie arose bright and early on the morning in which she was to take her ride to Island Home. The boat was to start at ten o’clock. There was a great crowd on the wharf and Mattie held tight her mother’s hand for fear she might get lost.
“Why, there is Mr. Ridgeway!” Mrs. Maynard said. “He is an old friend of mine and I must speak to him.”
And she dropped Mattie’s hand, and pushed through the crowd.
Mattie did not like her mother to leave her, but she stood still where she left her, so that she might be sure and find her when she came back.
She waited there a long time, but no Mrs. Maynard was to be seen. Mattie was very much frightened, and tried to get back to the place where her mother left her, but the crowd was so great that she could hardly move at all, for a little girl was not noticed at all in it.
After wandering about for awhile, a gruff voice called:
“Passengers for the Island Home all aboard! Boat goes in ten minutes! All aboard! All aboard!”
Everybody began to push forward, and soon the wharf was nearly empty.
Mattie knew her mother had not bought her ticket, and she went up to the ticket-office and asked the man if a “pretty lady in a linen duster, with a red feather in her hat, bought a ticket for the Island Home?”
“Do you think I keep account in a note-book of the color of all the folks’ dresses and what kind of feathers they have on their hats?” he asked gruffly.
Mettle did not know what to say to this, so she said nothing, but wandered off to the farther part of the wharf and climbed up on some bags that lay behind a pile of boxes there. On these she knelt down and said:
“Dear Jesus, let mamma find me soon, and keep me safely till she comes. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.”
She repeated this simple prayer many times, and then went out from behind the pile of boxes again. She was very thirsty, and was very glad when she saw a faucet and a tin cup at the side of the ticket-office. She took a drink and was much refreshed, but was very tired, and she thought she would go and rest on the bags behind the boxes. She sat down on these, and was soon fast asleep. She awoke about four o’clock in the afternoon, and as she was rubbing her eyes and wondering where she was, she was startled by a voice exclaiming:
“And what’s the loikes of this, shure?”
She looked up, and saw a gruff, but kindly-seeming man looking down at her. He was evidently a working-man, for he had his dinner-pail in his hand, and was leaning on a pick-axe and shovel.
Said Mattie:
“I’m Mattie Maynard, and I’m lost. That is, mamma left me on the wharf in the crowd, and didn’t come back, and I’m awful hungry.”
“And shure and me name is not Patrick O’ Flannigan if I don’t give ye something to eat. Poor gir-r-l!”
Whereupon he opened his pail and offered her a generous ham sandwich.
“Oh, thank you ever so much!” cried Mattie, as she took a large bite.
True, the bread was sour and the butter was strong, but Mattie was so hungry that she did not notice the defects in the food. Patrick sat down on the bags and watched her eat with great interest.
“An’ ye can eat now, can’t ye? Poor little gir-r-l! But I must be a-goin’, shure!”
And he got up and went off the wharf.
There were many steamboats coming and going at Nantucket wharf, and Mattie climbed up on the boxes and watched the crowds as they passed by.
But at last night came on, and Mattie did not know what to do. She crept in among the bags, and covered herself up, but they smelled bad, and she knew she could not sleep on them all night. She thought once she would ask the ticket agent to let her stay in the ticket-office, but he had spoken so crossly to her that morning that she did not like to. She was not very sleepy, because of the long nap she had taken in the daytime, and wandered about on the wharf till about eleven o’clock, and then she went and sat down on the bags and fell asleep.
THE ISLAND HOME LEAVES THE WHARF.
When she woke up, the morning sun was streaming into her eyes, and from the hurrying to and fro of many feet, she knew that the morning steamer had come in from the Island Home. She got up and watched the crowd, for she thought maybe her mother might have gone to the Island Home, after all, and had come back.
Sure enough! Just as the crowd had passed, she saw the “red feather” on her mother’s hat and gave a little scream of delight as she saw her go over and speak to the ticket agent. She ran eagerly over to her, pulled her dress and called:
“Mamma! Mamma! Here I am!”
Her mother turned suddenly and caught her in her arms and cried:
“My darling child!”
Then the whole story came out. Mrs. Maynard had been detained about half an hour in getting through the crowd, and when she finally came to where she had left Mattie, and she was not there, she was very much frightened, and found Mr. Ridgeway again, and told him about it.
They followed the crowd into town, and, following them everywhere, ascertained that she was not among them. They anxiously turned back to the wharf just, as the steamer pulled up, and the crowd began to rush on board. They hoped that Mattie might also have gone on the steamer, and went through it hunting for her. But while they were hunting, the boat started, and Mrs. Maynard was obliged to stay at the Island Home all night, and was just coming off the steamer when she was discovered by Mattie. They took the ten o’clock boat for the Island Home, and spent a very happy week there. But as Mattie was going to bed that night, she said:
“Mamma, I want to tell you something.”
“Well, darling?”
“I asked God to have you find me, and to keep me safe till you did, and I think that is the reason you did.”
“Yes, darling, I think so too; and I thank him very much for sparing my Mattie to me. Let us kneel down and tell him so now.”