The Moffat Museum (21 page)

There it stayed. "He looks like a humpty-dumpty buoy with Joey's hat on top." This was passed along from one person to another, and Judge Bell asked to borrow the binoculars that the oldest inhabitant always carried with him to look at some bird. Everybody clapped and said, "Hurrah!"

Well, now that the excitement was subsiding somewhat, it was anybody's turn. Whoever wanted to throw his hat in did so.

Straw hats went flying through the air, dozens and dozens of them from all the piers, from the shore and beaches, from the big picnic rock. They spun around. They bumped into each other. They looked like funny birds migrating somewhere. The gentle breeze blew the hats east and west and north and south, for the wind was, as the weatherman had predicted, variable. Then after circling this way and that in the air, one by one the hats fell into the water, where they floated placidly.

"Sea giants could put them on their heads and have an underwater parade down below," said Jane.

The current gathered many of the hats together. "They look like an armada," said Rufus. "Straw Hat Armada invades Savin Rock!" he shouted.

People clapped their hands.

At first the armada headed toward New York, going past Savin Rock. Gulls, enjoying the picnic there, screamed in outrage and took a nip of this hat or that and then perched on one or another of them. They fluttered their wings sometimes to get a better balance, spreading them wide over the flat golden hat boats. This made the gathering of the hats look even more like an armada of small ships with white sails.

Joey asked if he could borrow Mr. Buckle's binoculars. He looked for his hat. There it was all right, with its bright red band, bobbing this way and that on the buoy! The armada had turned itself all around. The tide had turned, and the armada was now on the way out toward the harbor. So people had a chance to cheer and wave at their hats again as they headed now toward Lighthouse Point and the deeper waters of Long Island Sound.

Joey handed the binoculars back, and they finally reached Mr. Buckle. He observed, "This is an historic armada and, thank heavens, a peaceful one, just giving joy."

The First Selectman took the megaphone and said what a splendid straw hat morning it had been. He would have quickly thought up another limerick, but people were hungry, so he bade them farewell, instead.

Some, including the judge and the First Selectman, headed for a fine restaurant; others decided to find a shady spot or to go down to the beach and eat their sandwiches. As the crowd thinned out, again the tempting smell of soft-shell crabs filled the air and spread strongly over the pier, where the Moffats were still sitting.

"H-m-m," said Rufus. "Well, what are
we
going to have for lunch?"

"All along we thought you must have some special sort of flat sandwiches in your bag ... even apple fritters ... and it turned out to be a straw hat," said Jane. But she laughed. "The hat was better, much, much better. See it wobbling out there like a man in charge of a grand regatta?"

Joey laughed. "Yes," he said. "Good-bye, hat!" Then he looked down at his brother and sister and said, "Want to know what we're going to have for lunch? Take in a big, deep breath with your nose and mouth wide open. Smell!"

"All I smell is soft-shell crabs," said Rufus.

"Me, too," said Jane. "But they cost twenty-five cents each!"

Joey laughed again.

Nonchalantly he took a crisp one-dollar bill out of his back pocket. He waved it at them. "It's soft-shell crabs you want? Ah! It's soft-shell-crab sandwiches you get. Hold my place, Rufus," he said.

What an honor! Rufus climbed up and sat on the high pile, and he and Jane watched Joey walk through the dwindling stragglers. They imagined him lining up in front of one of the soft-shell-crab stalls and saying, "Three, please!"

"Criminenty!" said Rufus. He was so ecstatic over the way things were going that he nearly fell into the water. Jane grabbed his two legs, and he managed to straighten himself out.

They waited tensely for Joey's return. "Maybe they have sold out ... There are so many people!" said Jane.

But no. There Joey came carefully weaving his way so as not to bump into anybody. He had three little paper napkins with, of course, soft-shell-crab sandwiches in them! They must still be very hot because he passed them from one hand to the other. Now he was running. He wanted them to be piping hot when he reached Rufus and Jane.

Rufus climbed down and sat beside Jane again. Joey put one of the delicious sandwiches in each of their laps. Then he climbed back up on his high pile again, and they all began to eat!

"Oh!" gasped Jane. "How good!"

"How good!" echoed Rufus.

They ate every crunchy crumb, licked their fingers, wiped their mouths, and tossed the napkins to the gulls, who screamed with warnings to others and made off with them to settle down on one of the hats of the armada.

"That's to make it interesting," observed Rufus. "So the other jealous gulls will have a good fight over the napkins."

Then they began to talk over the happenings of this great Straw Hat Day.

"Joey, where did you get the dollar, the soft-shell-crab dollar?" asked Rufus.

"At Crowley's," said Joey. "Same dollar you couldn't use to buy the little trolley car with."

They all laughed. They dangled their feet over the water and watched their shimmering shadows down below. They lay flat on their stomachs and studied the shallow water beneath ... little fish, schools of little killies staying away from the gulls. Up above, the sky was a brilliant blue, as brilliant as the water. Far in the distance they could see the boat coming from Lighthouse Point. It must be a sight to see the Cranbury hats sailing out to meet the boat, white wings of gulls spread out like sails.

"M-m-m," said Joey. "But come on. It's time to go home."

People were strolling through the park; some were riding the merry-go-round, and the magic of its music was heard all around.

When the Moffats reached the crowded little street where the food stalls were, Joey said, "Remember, I still have a quarter. We'll buy a soft-shell-crab sandwich for Mama. If we hurry ... run ... it may still be very hot when we get home!"

Was Mama surprised! They all sat around the kitchen table and watched Mama eat her sandwich. She said, "Oh, my! This is good! It's like long-ago Straw Hat Days with your father..."

They told her about Joey's hat, how he had aimed for the buoy—"Yes, I remember the buoy," Mama interrupted—and how it had landed right smack on the buoy's bell-shaped head.

"Joey, boy," she said. "Joey buoy boy!"

She listened to other happenings ... the straw hat armada. But they couldn't recall the limerick at the beginning, even though it had been thought up by the First Selectman, Mr. John Jones!

School began again the day after Straw Hat Day. Everything started off as usual, clean inkwells, new books, different teachers to get used to. Now the month of September was nearly over. Today was Thursday and Monday would be the first of October and the beginning of "October's bright blue weather!"

Joey was now in the second year of high school ... a sophomore! He liked it. He liked the teachers, liked the lessons, studied hard. And besides that, Joey was now sixteen years old. Yesterday had been his birthday, and with one strong whoof, he blew out all the sixteen candles on his chocolate birthday cake! That meant his wish would come true, whatever it was.

Today should have been like any other school day, but it wasn't.

When Jane came home from school, nobody was home. This was strange. Where was Mama? She was almost always there when they came home from school. Sometimes she went to town to shop, but she always told them when she might be late. Jane sat down on the top step of the front porch and waited.

Soon Rufus came running up the narrow walk. He raced past Jane and into the house to get a glass of water. Then he came back and sat down beside Jane. "Where's Mama?" he asked.

There was no need to answer because right then Mama and Joey came up the walk. Joey had on his long-pants suit. Joey's being dressed that way on a weekday was so unusual that Jane knew immediately that an extraordinary thing had happened. It had!

Mama broke the news. She said, "We've been to the Town Hall to ask if Joey, now that he is sixteen, could have permission to leave school and go to work. The First Selectman, Mr. Jones, said that was all right, and he filled out Joey's working papers. Here they are! He shook hands with Joey. He said, 'Good luck, Joey!' Well..." Mama gave her shoulders a little hitch, a habit she had lately developed, and went indoors. "I'll put the papers behind the clock in the dining room, Joey," she said as she left.

Jane and Rufus were struck dumb. Joey stood beside them. He seemed to be trying to take all this in, too. He didn't sit down because he had on his long-pants suit, and he just wasn't used to it yet. He didn't say anything. Was he glad or was he not?

Finally Jane asked, awe in her voice and wondering should she ask this question at all or wait to be told, "Do you know where you are going to work?"

"Yes," said Joey. "Yesterday I got the job. In the Yellow Building in New Haven opposite the Union Depot. Where Papa used to work. The man I talked to said he remembered Papa from long ago..."

"Wow!" said Rufus. "What're you going to do there?"

"Be an errand boy," said Joey.

"Oh, my!" said Jane.

"How are you going to get there?" asked Rufus. "On the train?"

"Nope," said Joey. "On my bike. But I could go on the train for nothing. I'll have a pass. And after a while I can get passes on the train for the entire family..."

"Oh, my!" said Jane again. "We can all go down to see Sylvie for nothing. Now, I know two people on the railroad: first George, the handcar man, and now my brother, my own brother!"

Joey laughed. "I won't be a handcar man. I'll..."

"...run errands," said Rufus. "Carrying important messages ... maybe to the mayor."

Joey laughed again. He seemed now to be sort of pleased.

Jane said, "You planned all this, you and Mama, and you didn't tell Rufus and me one thing!" She sounded hurt.

"Couldn't," said Joey. "Not until it was all certain."

"It's lucky you have a long-pants suit," said Rufus.

"Yop," said Joey. "But some man, a headman, said to me, 'Joe, you can wear your knickers to work. Easier to get around in than in this good suit.'" And Joey went indoors to change into everyday clothes, leaving Jane and Rufus to ponder this startling piece of news. First, there was Sylvie getting married ... but they'd sort of suspected that was going to happen. It wasn't sprung on them like this. But now ... Joey getting working papers!

"We didn't have even one hint," said Jane.

"Not one hint," agreed Rufus. "At least he's not getting married!"

After supper Jane and Joey sat down at the square oak dining-room table to study. Joey opened a book. He seemed to be studying. Jane opened a book, but she was still too stunned to keep her mind on her work and didn't notice that her book was upside down.

Working papers! There they were, a blue ribbon around them, tucked behind the clock on the mantel. "When do you start to work?" Jane ventured to ask.

"Monday," said Joey. "At eight o'clock. But be quiet. I have to study."

Today was Thursday, so tomorrow would be Joey's last day of school!

Now his books were stacked up beside him ... his second-year high school books, all covered with sturdy brown paper jackets the teacher gave out the first day of school to keep the books clean for next year's class. There was a square printed in ink on the front cover. You put your name, your room number, and the subject of the book in these squares.

At the beginning of school, the jackets were clean and even smelled of the ink that outlined the squares. By the end of the year, they were fuzzy at the edges, had grease spots, maybe blots, or the initials of some boy or girl with a heart drawn around them and an arrow darting through the center.

Joey didn't do that, even though there was a special girl named Mary Foley whose initials he would have liked to write on his book jackets. But he didn't ... he didn't write them anywhere. He just thought them. You might say they were written on his heart.