Houseboat Girl Read Online Free Page A

if they know us,” said Patsy, “but I couldn’t hear what they were saying.”
    Patsy thought of the friends she had left behind. What friends could a girl make on the river? Only the deckhands on a passing towboat who waved and shouted and then were gone. Deckhands who would never be seen again!
    “When those big tows come along, it worries me,” said Mama, “because I don’t swim and I know Daddy couldn’t save all of us.”
    “Who’s fallin’ in?” Milly laughed. “Remember I can swim, too.”
    Milly went around in shirt and jeans like a boy, except for the earrings in her ears. She tied her hair back with a string, except when she curled it. She liked to boss the younger children.
    “Watch out, kids!” she called. “The waves are coming.”
    Abe Foster was ready. He steered the houseboat at an angle, to meet the oncoming waves. Up and down rocked the houseboat, while the children staggered about, trying to keep their balance. Loud thumps could be heard indoors, followed by cries from Mama. A lamp slid off a shelf and some dishes fell. A chair was knocked over.
    Then the towboat, moving swiftly, passed around a bend and was gone.
    Suddenly a hen began to cackle close at hand. Patsy jumped up. Her chickens! She had forgotten all about them. She ran quickly and jumped over to the cabin boat. She fed and watered her pets and talked to them for a while. She promised them a run on the river bank whenever Daddy tied up for the night.
    She came back and slumped on the couch again. Bunny and Dan started a game of jacks on the floor. The houseboat had straight going now for seven miles. The river was wide and flowed northwest to the Joppa lights.
    Patsy felt tired and lazy, for there was nothing to do. No games to play, no place to go. No friends to see—nobody but her own family. She was cut off from everything and everybody. She watched the clouds floating by overhead. Now and then she saw a bird on the wing. Then she must have dozed off to sleep. After a time she was roused by Dan’s shouts.
    “The locks! We’re coming to the dam and the locks!” This must be Lock and Dam No. 53 above Olmstead. That meant they had passed Joppa already. The river was very wide here. There were mussel beds between Joppa and Grand Chain, and a good many mussel diggers were out. Their boats, with brails hung close with hooked lines, were scattered out over the river, outside the channel.
    Mama came out on the porch and sat down. She took Bunny on her lap.
    “No more shell digging for Daddy,” she said. “I’m glad of that.”
    “But how will he make money then?” asked Patsy. “To buy food for us to eat and clothes to wear?”
    “Don’t you worry,” said Mama. “Your daddy’s the best fisherman on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers! We’ll make out all right. Then Milly was out front pointing and shouting to Daddy back in the cabin boat. They were coming close to the locks. Patsy jumped up to see. Going through the locks was exciting. The gates had already been opened. Patsy heard the lock men shouting to Daddy. They told him how many feet the drop to the lower level would be. It was a long slow process getting Daddy’s outfit in and the gates closed behind. Then the drop began. Daddy’s motor was shut off, and it was very quiet in the lock chamber. Down they went, with the walls rising higher and higher on both sides. It was like going down in an elevator.
    “Oh, boy! This is fun!” cried Patsy.
    But Bunny got scared. She ran indoors and hid under Mama’s bed, crying. Patsy went to coax her out, but she would not come.
    Then at last, outside, the lower gates began to open, and they could see the lower level of the river ahead. Daddy started his motor and began pushing the houseboat out through the gates.
    “Come on out, Bunny,” coaxed Patsy. “We’re through the locks now.”
    Bunny came and hid her face in Mama’s apron. “I couldn’t see anything under the bed,” she said.
    “Under the bed is a good