"Where did Sally go?" I asked of Captain Sproule.
"Home," said he; "and may God have mercy on her soul!"
4
I looked forward more longingly than ever to the time when I should be
able to drop off the boat at Tempe, and run up to see my mother; and I
fixed it up with Captain Sproule so that when we made our return trip I
was to be allowed to stop over a day with her, and taking a fast boat
catch up with our own craft farther east. I was proud of the fact that I
had two good suits of clothes, a good hat and boots, and money in my
pocket. I expected to turn my money out on the table and leave it with
her. I thought a good deal of my meeting with John Rucker, and hoped
fervently that I should find him absent on one of his peddling trips, in
which case I meant to stay over night with my mother; and I seriously
pondered the matter as to whether or not I should fight Rucker if he
attacked me, as I expected he might; and Ace and I had many talks as to
the best way for me to fight him, if I should decide on such a course.
Ace was quite sure I could best Rucker; but I did not share this
confidence. A fight with a boy was quite a different thing from a battle
with a man, even though he might be a coward as I was sure Rucker was.
This proposed visit became the greatest thing in my life, a great
adventure, as we glided back from Buffalo, past the locks at Lockport,
where there was much fighting; past lock after lock, where the
lock-tenders tried to sell magic oils, balsams and liniments for man and
beast and once in a while did so; and to whom Ace became a customer for
hair-oil; after using which he sought the attention of girls by the
canal side, and also those who might be passengers on our boat, or
members of the emigrant families which crowded the boats going west;
past the hill at Palmyra, from which Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet,
claimed to have dug the gold plates of the Book of Mormon; past the
Fairport level and embankment; for three days floating so untroubled
along the Rochester level without a single lock; through the Montezuma
Marsh again; and then in a short time would come Tempe, and maybe my
great meeting with Rucker, my longed-for visit to my mother.
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