1
AN OLD FRIEND OF PAPA'S
Eleven-year-old Marie-Grace smiled, and leaned over the edge of the double-decker riverboat, as the ship Liberty pulled into the dock of Cairo, Illinois. A breeze on the water pulled at her long, light-brown hair, which was tied back in a blue silk ribbon, to match her wool coat.
Her father, Doctor Thaddeus Gardner, came to stand by her.
"Are you excited to meet your aunts and uncles and cousins, Grace?" he asked his daughter.
"Oh, yes!" Marie-Grace answered. "And I can't wait to meet my great-aunt Lisette, too."
"I must warn you, though," Papa told her, "your cousins speak French better than English, and they speak it all the time."
"But I've learned French so much better now," Marie-Grace pointed out. "I'm sure I will have no trouble talking with them."
They were quiet a moment, then Marie-Grace asked shyly, "Papa, what are their names?"
"You have two uncles and aunts each in Illinois," Papa told her. "There is Aunt Isabelle and Uncle Pierre, and Aunt Odette and Uncle Alex, who is an American man. Your cousins are Bruno, Alice, André, Édith, Gilbert, Marc, Elise, and two babies, Brigitte and Emilie."
"How old are the children?" Marie-Grace inquired.
"Gracious me!" Papa exclaimed. "I would never be able to remember all their ages. There are nine children total. But I think Gilbert is the oldest, who is sixteen, and then fifteen-year-old Édith, and then Bruno. Gilbert and Bruno are brothers, and Édith is their sister. Their parents are Alex and Odette."
"What about the rest of them?" Marie-Grace inquired.
"I can't remember," Papa said thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. The wind blew at his spectacles, making them slide a bit off his nose. He pushed them back with a hand and said, "I'm sure Marc is seven now, and he is the only son of Isabelle and Pierre."
"Poor Marc," Marie-Grace murmured. I'm sure if I was a boy, I wouldn't like to have all sisters as my only siblings. And a lot of sisters, too, she thought
"But he has his two older cousins," Papa reminded Marie-Grace. "Gilbert and Bruno. And their houses are only a stone's throw away from each other."
"And my great-aunt Lisette's house is near, too," Marie-Grace remembered.
"Yes," Papa said. "We will stay with her. She has a lot of room in her house, now that all of her children have grown up, and her husband died last year."
Marie-Grace was quiet, then Papa said, "I should get our trunks from the ship."
He turned, and Marie-Grace heard his footsteps across the wood deck.
A few minutes later, Papa returned with a large trunk. He set it down on the deck next to Marie-Grace. "I'll get your trunk next, Grace," he told her.
Marie-Grace waited as Papa got her trunk from the storage deck on the ship. She watched people hurry off the ship, carrying trunks and other baggage. They had to walk on a thin, wide board plank to get off the ship, and onto the dock, which led into the town of Cairo.
Marie-Grace shivered, not wanting to go on the plank herself. She wondered if it had ever snapped under the weight of people.
Suddenly a man's deep voice said behind her, "Are you Miss Marie-Grace?"
She turned her head to see a tall, dark-haired man. Marie-Grace had been on the ship for days, and she hadn't seen him before. He must have boarded the ship in the last town Liberty stopped at.
Marie-Grace nodded in answer to the stranger's question.
"And where is your father?" the man asked. He had a heavy French accent. Marie-Grace knew that it was French, for she was from New Orleans, and many people spoke French there. She knew the sound of the language well.
When Marie-Grace faltered to answer the man for a moment, he snapped at her, "Don't you know how to speak English, girl?"
Marie-Grace instantly didn't like him. He seemed rude to her, and had deep frown lines around his mouth.
"My father is below deck, getting my trunk," Marie-Grace told him. She didn't like talking to strangers because of her shy personality, but knew it would be rude to stay silent.
"Hmm," the man said. He rubbed his chin, which was covered by a thick, black beard.
Suddenly Papa came onto the deck, carrying Marie-Grace's trunk. He set it on top of his own trunk, then saw the stranger.
"Rupert Anon?" Papa asked.
"Thaddeus!" the man cried, and ran to hug Papa. Papa laughed, seeming to know the man.
"Where have you been all this time?" Papa demanded.
"I haven't seen you for so long," Mr. Anon murmured. "The girl was just a little thing." He paused. "But where is Mrs. Gardner, and the baby, Daniel?"
Papa swallowed, and the deck was silent.
"Oh, dear," Mr. Anon stammered, guessing the truth.
He must not have seen Papa in a very long time, Marie-Grace thought, if he doesn't know Mama and my brother Daniel are dead.
"My wife and son passed on from the yellow fever five years ago," Papa told Mr. Anon in a husky voice.
"I'm sorry," Mr. Anon said stiffly, and Marie-Grace didn't think he sounded very sorry at all.
"But where are you staying in Cairo?" Papa asked Mr. Anon, quickly changing the subject.
"At the hotel," Mr. Anon replied. "And where are you and your daughter staying?"
"We are staying with my aunt," Papa said.
"Ah, Lisette," Mr. Anon murmured. Marie-Grace was surprised that he seemed to know her great-aunt Lisette. "Well, I had better leave," Mr. Anon said quickly, picking up a small trunk near his feet, and moving toward the plank to leave the ship.
"Perhaps I will see you in Cairo!" Papa called after him, but Mr. Anon didn't seem to hear. He was in a great hurry, and almost ran into a woman as he crossed the board plank to the dock, and from there he was lost to Marie'Grace's eyes in the crowd.
"Papa, who is Mr. Anon?" Marie-Grace asked him, as Papa picked up his trunk in his arms.
"He is an old friend of mine, Marie-Grace," Papa replied. "But I'll tell you about him when we are on our way to Lisette's. Now, I must rent a carriage." He hurried off the ship, saying over his shoulder, "Stay here."
Marie-Grace stood by her own trunk as she tried to keep track of Papa, but he kept getting lost in the sea of people.
Finally she saw him talking to a driver at a carriage, then he gave the man something, and put his trunk in the carriage.
He came quickly back to Marie-Grace, and picked up her small trunk easily, saying, "Come, Grace."
They walked toward the ship's plank to leave Liberty, when Captain Obadiah Smith, the captain of the ship, came toward them, with Mr. Stevens, a pilot of the ship, walking behind him.
"Doctor Gardner!" Captain Smith called. He came to Papa's side, and Papa set Marie-Grace's trunk down.
"I wanted to say goodbye, and to thank you for doctoring the hurt men while on the ship," the captain told Papa, offering his hand.
Papa shook it, then said, "Good-bye, sir, and it was a small help I could do, doctoring the men."
Papa was talking about when another ship had hit a raft, a few days ago. Three men had been on the raft, and had been hurt. They had been taken onto Liberty, and Papa had tended to their injuries.
"Also, Mr. Stevens said he would like to say goodbye," Captain Smith said, motioning to the pilot.
"Goodbye, Thaddeus," Mr. Stevens said, shaking Papa's hand.
In the yellow fever epidemic, Papa had doctored Mr. Stevens's son, and saved the boy's life, so Mr. Stevens was grateful.
"Also, I am staying in Cairo awhile," Mr. Stevens said, to Papa's shock.
"Who will pilot the ship?" Papa asked him.
"There is another pilot," the dark-haired man assured him, "as well as Obadiah, and I am only staying off a little while. When Liberty comes back to Cairo I'm getting back on it."
"Well, then it is not really a goodbye," Papa said. "Perhaps we will visit you in Cairo, or you could visit at my aunt's house. Where will you be staying?"
"At the hotel," Mr. Stevens said.
Marie-Grace thought of Mr. Anon, who was also staying at the hotel.
"We had better leave," Papa said, taking up Marie-Grace's trunk again. "The cabby won't wait in the carriage for us much longer."
"Goodbye again," Captain Smith said. He looked to Marie-Grace and said, "Goodbye to you too, Miss."
"Goodbye, sir," Marie-Grace said shyly.
She and Papa walked down the plank of the ship, and Mr. Stevens disappeared in front of them.
Marie-Grace wanted to clutch Papa's arm as she thought of the thin board below her feet, but Papa was carrying her trunk and she didn't want to accidentally throw him off balance.
The carriage driver was still waiting for them, but he was impatient. Papa loaded the trunk in the carriage, and he and Marie-Grace climbed in.
Marie-Grace heard the snap of reins, and the horses pulled the carriage, rattling, through the street.
"You were going to tell me about Mr. Anon," Marie-Grace reminded Papa.
"Ah," Papa remembered. "Well, there is not much to tell. He was an old friend of mine and lived in New Orleans for a while. Just before your mother and Daniel caught the fever"—here sadness crept into his voice—"he left, to Mississippi, I think."
"Does he have a family?" Marie-Grace inquired.
"No," Papa said, frowning. "I don't believe he has a family. It has been many years since I saw him, though, but he didn't mention a family on the boat."
"Perhaps we will see him while we stay in Cairo," Marie-Grace said, half to herself.
"Perhaps," Papa repeated.
Although Marie-Grace didn't like the man, she was still curious about him. Why hadn't she remembered Mr. Anon from when she was a little girl?
She sat a while, staring out the carriage's window.
"Is Great-Aunt Lisette's house far from here?" Marie-Grace sighed.
"No," Papa told her, reaching down to smooth her hair. "We are nearly there."
And as he spoke, the carriage turned out of town, and drove a ways into the woods, where a lovely cottage house stood.
"Your aunts' and uncles' houses are behind Lisette's," Papa told Marie-Grace. "And a pond near the Cairo river is not far away. It should be frozen at this time." Papa sighed wistfully. "Ah, I remember when I was a boy. We skated on the frozen pond every year in the winter."
"I wonder if my cousins skate on the pond," Marie-Grace said.
"They most likely do. And perhaps you could skate with them," Papa said. "I'm sure an extra pair of ice skates are lying around somewhere."
"I haven't skated much," Marie-Grace admitted.
"But it is such fun!" Papa said, his voice teasing.
The carriage stopped in front of Marie-Grace's great-aunt's house. The driver, hopping to the ground from his seat on the carriage, went to the carriage door and opened it, saying to Papa, "Here is the place, sir."
"Thank you," Papa said, nodding his head.
He and Marie-Grace stepped out of the carriage. Pine trees were all around. Marie-Grace thought she could hear running water close by. She wondered if it was the pond Papa had spoken of, or perhaps the Cairo river itself.
"I'll get the trunks," Papa told Marie-Grace quietly. He went and took the trunks out of the carriage, heaving them onto the ground. The carriage drove off.
Marie-Grace could spy two houses behind her great-aunt's.
