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STRANDED
STRANDED
A STORY OF FRONTIER SURVIVAL
MATTHEW P. MAYO
FIVE STAR
A part of Gale, Cengage Learning
Copyright © 2017 by Matthew P. Mayo
Five Star™ Publishing, a part of Cengage Learning, Inc.
“You’re old . . . why don’t you die and get it over with?”
Janey’s whispered words hung in the close air of the small room,
between her and the old, wrinkled woman in the bed behind her.
The girl heard the quiet, grinding gears of the wooden clock on the
cold fireplace mantle. Rain peppered the window and a gust of wind
rattled the sash before moving on.
She was sure the old lady heard her. Janey had never sounded so
mean before. Her mother’s voice in her head said, “That’s the
trouble, Janey. You never think.” But it was too late to take it back.
She didn’t know what made her say such things, did not know how
to stop.
Janey’s eyes half closed and she smiled. Maybe she didn’t want to
take it back. After all, before she left for her silly job at the hospital
this morning, hadn’t her mother nagged her about telling the truth?
Janey stared through the rain-smeared window panes and
listened to the wind. She thought about all that had happened to her
over the past year. Too much, that’s what. This had been the worst
ever of her fourteen years—the war in Europe had ruined her life. It
all began when her father had shown her that map. Over there, he
had said, tapping France.
Over there. Like the song.
All to help people he didn’t even know. She told him she didn’t
want him to go, had begged him to stay. It was too far. He’d never
come back to her, she said. But he hadn’t changed his mind.
And now he was gone. The telegram said something about him
being lost in action. Janey didn’t want to think about what that really
meant. But she knew.
She also knew her mother felt as bad as she did. And knowing
they had this horrible thing in common made it worse. Janey sighed,
then stopped—she was beginning to sound like her mother.
“Janey.”
The voice startled the girl. It was not what she expected, but
strong and clear, like the old woman’s eyes. Janey turned from the
window.
Those odd, bright eyes gazed at Janey, eyes that looked as if they
belonged to someone Janey’s age, not set in a withered face. It was
as if the old woman was always about to smile.
“Janey, please do me a favor.”
The old woman, Janey’s very own great-grandmother, hadn’t said
five words to Janey in the two weeks she and her mother had been
there. Not that Janey had tried talking to her. Why should she? She
didn’t want to be here any more than the old woman wanted them
in her house. They’d been forced to move in, all because of that
horrible telegram and the stupid, stupid war.
“What?” The word came out tight, like a finger snap. Janey tried
to look as though she didn’t care, as if she might ignore the old
woman anyway.
“I said I would like you to do me a favor, please.”
All the while the old woman wore that half smile, as if she knew
something no one else did. A favor? Hadn’t she heard what Janey
said to her?
The old woman reached a bony hand, like a pink old bird’s claw,
into the front of her nightgown and lifted a worn brass skeleton key
that hung on a thin leather thong around her neck. Janey had not
seen it before, but it looked like it had always been there.
“Here, Janey.” She slipped it with effort up and over her head, her
long white hair gathered in a soft bun. “I would like you to take this
key, please.” She held her long, bony arm out, the key dangling from
it, hanging in the air between them.
Janey stared at the key, eyes wide. It could be a key to anything.
This house was full of mysteries, there were rooms she hadn’t yet
seen. Maybe the old woman was giving her gold, jewels!
Then Janey’s eyes narrowed again. Why would she do that? No,
she was an old, crazy woman. And I’m stuck with her all day. And
the day after that. And the day after that.
“There is a steamer trunk in the attic. This unlocks it.”
The old lady continued to hold the key, and still wore that
annoying almost-smile.
A trunk in the attic? Anything had to be better than sitting here,
watching an old woman who didn’t talk, who refused to do them all
a favor and die. Older than dirt, that’s what Janey’s friend, Beatrice
Little, had said about her own grandfather. He had lived with
Beatrice and her family for a whole year before he finally died one
night in his sleep.
Janey smiled. She liked that phrase, “older than dirt.” She’d save
it for later, for when the old woman was really getting on her nerves.
“Why? What’s in it?”
“There is a small bundle, wrapped in pretty beaded cloth.” Janey
stared at her for a few seconds more.
“If you would be so kind as to bring it to me.”
Janey sighed and reached out, snatching the key. The old woman
let her hand drop, laid back against her pillows, and watched Janey.
They regarded each other like that for a few seconds, then Janey
stomped across the room to the door.
“Bring an oil lamp, dear. It’s dark up there.”
Janey turned one last time in the doorway, her bottom jaw
outthrust, teeth set, her eyes half closed. It was her best angry look,
one that drove her mother crazy. As she left the room, Janey said,
“I’m not your slave, you know.” But she paused passing the kitchen
doorway, and with a loud, long sigh retrieved an oil lamp and a
couple of wooden matches.
“Dark, ha,” she said, walking down the long hallway.Why didn’t
the old lady have electricity in the entire house and not just the
kitchen? Everyone else in the world had electricity. It was 1917, after
all.
Janey mounted the stairs two at a time, wincing as the wood
creaked and popped beneath her shoes. In truth, she was only too
glad to get out of that stuffy sickroom. She doubted the old bird
would last much longer, especially in this nasty weather.
The attic door stood closed above her, at the very top of the
stairs. It looked like all the other doors in the house, polished wood
the orange-brown of a bold sunset. Janey had yet to go up the
narrow stairwell. Her mother said there was nothing much up there
but old things, and a window at the gabled end. She’d go up there
and find that trunk and open it with the old lady’s magic key. Then
she’d grab the beaded bundle—probably silly old love letters.
A smile spread over Janey’s face. Now there’s an idea, she
thought as she climbed the dusty steps. What if they are love
letters? Who’s to stop me reading them? The old lady can’t walk, not
without much help, anyway, and Mother’s not here. But I am, and I
have the key.
She looked down at the plain, wor n brass key in her palm. It
almost made her forget what a spooky place the attic promised to
be. Almost.
As she stepped upward, one tread at a time, she wondered if
maybe the old woman wasn’t tr ying to trap her up there. Janey
paused before the narrow door one step above her. She grasped the
knob, turned it. The door inched away, swinging inward toward the
darkness of the attic.
Janey swallowed, her throat dry. The glass globe of the oil lamp
jostled, made a hollow chattering sound. She hugged it closer. She’d
made it this far, might as well get the bundle and get out of there.
She could read the letters on the stairs. If they were letters at all.
She nudged the door open wider, enough for her to pass through,
but first she peered in.
The attic was brighter than she expected. Directly across from her
was a dusty window, square, but set into the wall on end, as if it
were a diamond. It was the same window she’d seen when they first
arrived at the old woman’s house. Janey had liked how it looked,
fancy even though it wasn’t.
Beneath the window, tucked to one side, sat a dust-covered
trunk. Had to be the one. Janey stepped in and looked around. The
attic was filled with all sorts of stuff, mostly junk.
She took a deep breath, let it out. “May as well get it over with.”
She turned her gaze once more toward the trunk, but couldn’t help
taking in the few other items stuck up there. Really, there wasn’t
much, now that her eyes had gotten used to the ill-lit space.
The attic smelled of dryness, of old things. She saw dust trapped
in dull light from the window. The sky had darkened more and the
big tree out front waved its branches as if it were a slow dancer.
A tall brass lamp stood to the left, its cloth shade in tatters, like
an old flower not wanting to shed its petals. Closer to her, also on
the left, though tucked further under the eaves, an open-top crate of
books sat under a thick film of dust. To the right, a wooden drying
rack lay on its side like a bony, tired dog. Then there was the trunk.
Janey walked to it, trying to ignore the squeaks and pops of the
attic’s plank floor. Without breathing, she stuck the key into the dark,
glaring keyhole at the top of the trunk’s face. Her hand shook
slightly. “Silly girl,” she whispered, echoing something her mother
often said to herself when she made a mistake knitting.
There was resistance inside the mechanism and she squeezed the
key firmer between her thumb and forefinger. She was rewarded
with a click-click—something deep inside slid into place.
Before lifting the lid, Janey held the rawhide thong a moment,
then looped it over her head. She lifted her hair, letting the thin
strap rest against her neck. The key settled at the same spot on her
chest as on the old lady.
With a quick breath, Janey knelt before the trunk, unlatched two
buckles on leather straps, and lifted the lid.
There was so little in there. At the top of the tr unk sat a tray
covered in paper of delicate blue flowers with three evenly spaced
compartments, but they were all empty. She grasped the dividers,
lifted out the tray, and set it on the floor. Inside the dark bulk of the
tr unk, atop a few old, folded cloth items—quilts, maybe—sat the
beaded-cloth-wrapped bundle. She lifted it and found it surprisingly
heavy. The covering felt like leather, but old and delicate. It
reminded Janey of the papery skin on the backs of the old lady’s
hands and arms.
What did the old lady want with this bundle, anyway? Sure, the
beads were pretty. Or maybe had been at one time. Now, though,
they were dull, and some had fallen off. The thin threads holding
them were frayed and loose. As Janey held the bundle, a small white
bead, then a blue one, popped free and rolled along the rough plank
floor before finding a crack between boards where they disappeared.
The girl sighed again. Just like an old person, she thought, to
want something that was useless. Then she would ask to be
propped up in bed. She would hold this thing in her bony, trembling
hands and get all wet and blubbery over it, whatever it was.
Janey felt through the soft, supple cloth.What was inside? A book,
maybe? Yes, that’s what it felt like. A book.
And then, somehow, Janey knew what it was. It was a diar y.
Maybe the old lady’s diary from when she was a girl. Oooh, think of
all the juicy details of the old bird’s life from what—a hundred years
ago? Ha! She could only imagine what it might reveal . . . “I saw a
boy today. He was cute . . . for a farmhand. But I didn’t dare say
anything to him because this is the olden times and we don’t do
things like that. Maybe someday people will have guts to speak to
each other! Until then I’ll write silly little girl things in my diary.”
Janey snickered at her wicked thoughts. And then she untied the
narrow leather wrappings from around the bundle. Three more
beads popped free and dropped, despite the care with which she
tried to hold it. The leather covering flopped apart to reveal what
she’d thought it might be—a book with plain, brown, hardboard
covers. It was thick, though, more than an inch, and measured
longer than her hand and nearly twice as wide.
Janey sat with the book on her lap, resting on the opened leather
wrap. She wanted to open the cover, to see what it said, but
something told her that if she did, somehow the old lady would
know.
Of course she’ll know. You’ve undone the threadbare wrapping.
But Janey knew it was more than that. She knew that reading the
book was something that once done could never be undone. And as
soon as the thought occurred to her, it was replaced with another—
that she was acting silly.
A tentative smile crept onto her face. Then she heard the little
voice, the one she’d been listening to lots lately. It told her, almost in
a chant, that she should read the old lady’s secret thoughts. Go
ahead, said the voice, it will be a stitch!
And so, Janey Pendergast opened the old book’s cover and began
to read.
THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 1849
The only answer which the Newtonians could at this time make to
the difficulty thus presented, was, that an arc so short as that thus
measured, was not to be depended upon for the determination of
such a question; inasmuch as the inevitable errors of observation
might exceed the differences which were the object of research. It
would, undoubtedly, have become the English to have given a more
complete answer, by executing measurements under circumstances
not liable to this uncertainty. The glory of doing this, however, they
for a long time abandoned to other nations. The French undertook
the task with great spirit. 102 In 1733, in one of the meetings of the
French Academy, when this question was discussed, De la
Condamine, an ardent and eager man, proposed to settle this
question by sending members of the Academy to measure a degree
of the meridian near the equator, in order to compare it with the
French degrees, and offered himself for the expedition. Maupertuis,
in like manner, urged the necessity of another expedition to measure
a degree in the neighborhood of the pole. The government received
the applications favorably, and these remarkable scientific missions
were sent out at the national expense.
102 Bailly, iii. 11.
The attraction of all the parts of the earth to one another was thus
proved by experiments, in which the whole mass of the earth is
concerned. But attempts have also been made to measure the
attraction of smaller portions; as mountains, or artificial masses. This
is an experiment of great difficulty; for the attraction of such masses
must be compared with that of the earth, of which it is a scarcely
perceptible fraction; and, moreover, in the case of mountains, the
effect of the mountain will be modified or disguised by unknown or
unappreciable circumstances. In many of the measurements of
degrees, indications of the attraction of mountains had been
perceived; but at the suggestion of Maskelyne, the experiment was
carefully made, in 1774, upon the mountain Schehallien, in Scotland,
the mountain being mineralogically surveyed by Playfair. The result
obtained was, that the attraction of the mountain drew the plumb-line
about six seconds from the vertical; and it was deduced from this, by
Hutton’s calculations, that the density of the earth was about once
and four-fifths that of Schehallien, or four and a half times that of
water.
The mode in which these secret methods were invented, was that
which we have pointed out;—the analysis of a considerable series of
observations. Probably the best example of this was afforded by the
Liverpool Tide-tables. These were deduced by a clergyman named
Holden, from observations made at that port by a harbor-master of
the name of Hutchinson; who was led, by a love of such pursuits, to
observe the tides carefully for above twenty years, day and night.
Holden’s Tables, founded on four years of these observations, were
remarkably accurate.
The theory with which Mr. Lubbock was led to compare his results,
was the Equilibrium-theory of Daniel Bernoulli; and it was found that
this theory, with certain modifications of its elements, represented
the facts to a remarkable degree of precision. Mr. Lubbock pointed
out this agreement especially in the semi-mensual inequality of the
times of high water. The like agreement was afterwards (in 1833)
shown by Mr. Whewell 106 to obtain still more accurately at Liverpool,
both for the Times and Heights; for by this time, nineteen years of
Hutchinson’s Liverpool Observations had also been discussed by Mr.
Lubbock. The other inequalities of the Times and Heights (depending
upon the Declination and Parallax of the Moon and Sun,) were
variously compared with the Equilibrium-theory by Mr. Lubbock and
Mr. Whewell; and the general result was, that the facts agreed with
the condition of equilibrium at a certain anterior time, but that this
anterior time was different for different phenomena. In like manner it
appeared to follow from these researches, that in order to explain the
facts, the mass of the moon must be supposed different in the
calculation at different places. A result in effect the same was
obtained by M. Daussy, 107 an active French Hydrographer; for he
found that observations at various stations could not be reconciled
with the formulæ of Laplace’s Mécanique 460 Céleste (in which the
ratio of the heights of spring-tides and neap-tides was computed on
an assumed mass of the moon) without an alteration of level which
was, in fact, equivalent to an alteration of the moon’s mass. Thus all
things appeared to tend to show that the Equilibrium-theory would
give the formulæ for the inequalities of the tides, but that the
magnitudes which enter into these formulæ must be sought from
observation.
106 Phil. Trans. 1834.
[2d Ed.] [That there would be, in the tidal movements of the ocean,
inequalities of the heights and times of high and low water 461
corresponding to those which the equilibrium theory gives, could be
considered only as a conjecture, till the comparison with observation
was made. It was, however, a natural conjecture; since the waters of
the ocean are at every moment tending to acquire the form assumed
in the equilibrium theory: and it may be considered likely that the
causes which prevent their assuming this form produce an effect
nearly constant for each place. Whatever be thought of this
reasoning, the conjecture is confirmed by observation with curious
exactness. The laws of a great number of the tidal phenomena—
namely, of the Semi-mensual Inequality of the Heights, of the Semi-
mensual Inequality of the Times, of the Diurnal Inequality, of the
effect of the Moon’s Declination, of the effect of the Moon’s Parallax
—are represented very closely by formulæ derived from the
equilibrium theory. The hydrodynamical mode of treating the subject
has not added any thing to the knowledge of the laws of the
phenomena to which the other view had conducted us.
W Emathematical
have travelled over an immense field of astronomical and
labor in the last few pages, and have yet, at the
end of every step, still found ourselves under the jurisdiction of the
Newtonian laws. We are reminded of the universal monarchies,
where a man could not escape from the empire without quitting the
world. We have now to notice some other discoveries, in which this
reference to the law of universal gravitation is less immediate and
obvious; I mean the astronomical discoveries respecting Light.
This discovery, like so many others, once made, appears easy and
inevitable; yet Dominic Cassini had entertained the idea for a
moment, 114 and had rejected it; and Fontenelle had congratulated
himself publicly on having narrowly escaped this seductive error. The
objections to the admission of the truth arose principally from the
inaccuracy of observation, and from the persuasion that the motions
of the satellites were circular and uniform. Their irregularities
disguised the fact in question. As these irregularities became clearly
known, Römer’s discovery was finally established, and the “Equation
of Light” took its place in the Tables.
114 Ib. ii. 419.