Houseboat Girl by Lois Lenski

Author:Lois Lenski [Lenski, Lois]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4532-2751-0
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media LLC
Published: 2011-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

All the children stared. The Delta Queen had four decks and there were bright lights in all the windows. Music was playing and they could see women in bright-colored evening gowns dancing with men in black coats. It was a beautiful and thrilling sight.

The children waved and called out, and wondered if the people could hear them. A man threw something overboard, but it fell in the river and was gone. And then the boat, was almost past and the great big paddle wheel at the stern was splashing all wet and shiny in a whirl of spray. All too soon the beautiful vision was gone, faded away like a dream. It was gone away down river, leaving only a great wash behind. The houseboat bounced up and down on the waves, then righted itself with no damage done.

“That’s the way to go to New Orleans,” said Patsy emphatically. “When I get big, I’ll go to Cincinnati and take a ride on the Delta Queen. That’s the best boat on the river, the queen of them all.”

The houseboat looked crude and shabby after the excursion boat had passed. The children were tired but would not go to bed. Milly and Mama hung lanterns out when it grew dark—a green light on the right of the fish barge and a red light on the left of the houseboat. Daddy put a white or open light on the tail of the outfit.

“If something happens and you have no light,” said Mama, “you don’t have no show.”

“Will we get there soon?” asked Patsy, sleepily. “I want to see the place we’re gonna stay a while. I want to put my chickens out on the bank. And Blackie, too—we’re all tired of this old houseboat.”

“It won’t be long now,” said Mama. “Once Daddy finds that chute called Canadian Reach, we’ll soon be at O’Donald Bend.”

The children were sound asleep when the houseboat slipped into the cove and the motor was stilled. Only the quiet lapping of the waves around the hull and the sleepy chirping of a bird in the willows broke the silence.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.