VII

Mattaponi

June, summer, and vacation visited the Brownpants again. A year had passed, and Sammy Brownpants had reached the ripe old age of ten; Johnny Brownpants was now eight and Elva, seven.

Mr. Brownpants had his vacation in June, and although it would begin in one week, the Brownpants had not yet decided what to do. After dinner one night, they sat around the dining room table discussing the problem. "Let's go to New York," said Johnny. "I've never been there."

"That would cost too much money," said his mother.

"We couldn't take Need-Indeed," chimed Elva.

"Let's go to the beach," Sammy suggested, "or to the mountains. Either place would be fun."

Mr. Brownpants had been sitting quietly with an amused smile on his face while the family debated their fate. "I have made up our mind where we are going," Mr. Brownpants said. (Mr. Brownpants ran his family in a very democratic way. Everyone except Need-Indeed was entitled to one vote on family decisions, and Mr. Brownpants got four. If your arithmetic is good, you can see how this arrangement worked.) "It won't cost too much money where we are going, we can take Need-Indeed along, and I'll guarantee that everyone will enjoy the trip." Mr. Brownpants paused. There was complete silence around the table while they waited to hear his decision.

"I've borrowed a good motor boat for a few days, and we are going to take a trip on the boad down the Mattaponi," he said.

This was quite a surprise, particularly since no one, other than Mr. and Mrs. Brownpants, knew what or where the Mattaponi was. Mr. Brownpants quickly explained that the Mattaponi was a river which they would learn more about as they took their trip. He also explained that during the next week everyone would be quite busy preparing for the trip. He told them that they were going to carry all their food with them and camp out as they went.

Part of the fun was that they were going to make the 100 mile trip from the source of the Mattaponi right back up the Hunting Creek to their own home. Jimmy's father, Mr. Jones, was going to take them near Spottsylvania, Virginia, where the trip would begin. From there on they would be on their own.

The week passed quickly, and at 4 o'clock Monday morning their trip began. The Brownpants family, including Need-Indeed, crowded into Mr. Jones' car. Their boat, with all of its provisions, was hauled in the trailer behind the car. Mr. Jones was a fast driver, and by 7 a.m. they were at their starting point, a little bridge with a sign on it saying "Ni River".

Down the Matta, the Po and the Ni

Johnny, Sammy and Elva were full of questions, but Mr. Brownpants refused to answer any of them until they had gotten the boat into the river. So Mr. Jones carefully backed the boat trailer down by the river, and he and Mr. Brownpants slid the boat into the water. The boat, which was painted blue, was 18 feet long and had an outboard motor on it. It had a steering wheel just like a car's. It had a windshield, but no top, and no side windows.

Since the water was shallow, Mr. Brownpants explained that for a short distance they would have to use the oars until the water became deep enough to lower the outboard motor. Taking one oar, Mr. Brownpants shoved off from the side, and the boat went into the current of the creek and began to drift downstream. They all looked back and waved at Mr. Jones who was now standing on the bridge watching them start on their way down the Mattaponi.

"Now I'm ready for your questions," said Mr. Brownpants, and the questions came quickly.

"It only took us three hours to get here," said Johnny. "Won't we be home by the end of the day?"

Mr. Brownpants laughed. "No, you'll see that it takes much longer to travel by water than by land."

"This is such a small river. Its hardly as big as Hunting Creek. Are you sure that it goes anywhere?" asked Elva.

"Dad, are we on the right river?" questioned Sammy. "The sign back there said 'Ni River": and you said that we were going to be on the Mattaponi River."

"This is the beginning of the Mattaponi River," said Mr. Brownpants. "It gets much bigger as we go along. It is the Ni River now, but after ten miles, it joins the Po River, and then it becomes the Poni River; and five miles farther the Poni River joins the Matta River, and then we will be on the Mattponi River."

"What a funny name," said Elva. "Which was named first, the three little rivers or the one big one?"

"I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that," Mr. Brownpants laughed. "There was once a tribe of Indians called the Mattaponi Indians who lived on the shore of the river. But whether the Indians were named after the river or whether the river was named after the Indians, I don't know. I suppose the river was named after the Indians, and when the three small rivers forming the big river were discovered, the name of the big river was divided in three. We'll have to find out when we get home."

By now they had rounded the first big curve, and lost sight of the bridge and Mr. Jones. The questions were momentarily over, and they began the serious job of traveling down the river.

Everyone was assigned a task. Johnny and Sammy pulled the oars at each side of the boat. Elva rode on the bow — the front end or forward part of the boat — and brushed away low hanging branches. Mr. Brownpants was the helmsman. His job was to steer the boat using the steering wheel. Mrs. Brownpants watched Need-Indeed and spent her time persuading him not to jump overboard.

In the distance they saw another bridge, but a much bigger one than the one which they had left Mr. Jones. "That is Route No. 1," explained Mr. Brownpants. "It carries traffic from Florida to Maine." They went under the bridge and waved at a man fishing by its side.

The river wound on its way amid small wooded hills rising on each side. They heard animals scurrying back and forth in the underbrush along the way. There were a large number of rabbits to be seen, Johnny saw a beaver, and shortly afterward, Elva saw a deer.

At noon they stopped for lunch where the Po joined the Ni and became the Poni River. Where the two rivers joined together to form a V, there was a flat, grassy spot. Mr. Brownpants guided the board over to the shore, and when they were close, Sammy jumped off the bow of the boat and helped to ground it. After Mr. Brownpants had tied the boat to a nearby tree, the rest of the party climbed out of the boat and on to the shore.

Mrs. Brownpants had prepared their first lunch before they had left home, and she promptly handed sandwiches, milk and fruit to the hungry travelers. The Brownpants ate their lunch on the point of the peninsula while looking down the river that they would follow in the afternoon.

After lunch the boat swam down the river more rapidly. Since the Poni River was deeper and wider than the Ni River, Mr. Brownpants felt it safe to let down the outboard motor and to proceed under power. It was no longer necessary for Elva to sit on the bow of the boat to brush away branches, so she returned to a seat beside Need-Indeed. Johnny was assigned the job of catching their evening supper, and he went about it merrily, trolling his fishing line off the rear of the boat.

Since Sammy had reached his tenth year, his father thought him old enough to be a helmsman. Mr. Brownpants let Sammy take a hand at the steering wheel, and he spent the remainder of the afternoon teaching an eager pupil how to steer a boat properly. He showed Sammy how he could tell by the shadows and ripples in the water what part was deep enough for the boat and what part of the river hid a sandbar or a rock beneath its surface. He taught Sammy to slow down when they passed another boat or a dock along the side so that his boat wouldn't cause any damage by the waves which it left in its path. Sammy was told that boats, like cars, have rules of the road which they must follow. While they had no traffic lights on the river, there were rules regarding the side on which you must pass an approaching boat, and regarding the side on which you must pass another boat going in the same direction. Sammy also learned that sailors had a language of their own. Instead of saying "the rear of the boat" the said "aft" or "stern". The front of the boat was referred to as the "bow", or sometimes, just "up forward" (pronounced 'fow'd'). Instead of saying "over the left" or "over the right", sailors would say "port side" or "starboard side".

While Sammy was going to Mariners' school, Johnny was being a successful breadwinner or, in this case, fishwinner. Johnny not only excelled in the number of fish he caught (10), he also excelled in the variety of the fare — four perch, two catfish, two sunfish and two fish which no one could name, but which looked very edible all the same. When they were ready to stop for dinner, Johnny had their meal swishing in a bucket in the rear (or if you are now a sailor, the stern) of the boat.

That evening they stopped at a bend in the river that Mr. Brownpants said was midway between the towns of Reedy Mill and Beulahville. Having passed the juncture where the Matta joined the Poni, they were now well on their way down the main river. Mr. Brownpants chose a spot where there was a small, clean beach with a large log jutting out into the water where they could securely tie their boat. Behind the beach, the land rose gradually to form a slight knoll overlooking the river. On the knoll, eight tall oaks reached toward the sky, and fifteen yards to the rear of the knoll, a seemingly impenetrable pine forest stretched in every direction.

The three Brownpants children and Need-Indeed were sent to collect dry, fallen branches for firewood, while Mr. Brownpants dug a hole in the knoll and lined it with rocks. Soon after the children returned with the branches and put them in the rock-encircled hole.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Brownpants had begun to clean the fish and to prepare them for cooking. To everyone's surprise, Elva volunteered to help her mother clean the fish. To no one's surprise, Need-Indeed also volunteered to clean the fish, but his services were not accepted.

While Mrs. Brownpants and Elva were preparing the fish, Mr. Brownpants, Sammy and Johnny carried their tents and sleeping bags from the boat to the knoll. By the time that Mrs. Brownpants had cooked the fish, the tents were erected with the sleeping bags inside ready for their occupants.

No one was too weary to eat crisp, fried fish, fried in dough, Southern style, or to busily chat about the first day of their adventure on the Mattaponi. A serene, beautiful peacefulness fell upon the knoll as they sat around the fire watching the sun set on the river that they had traveled that day.

After dinner, they washed in the river, and then slipped into their sleeping bags as night descended upon the knoll. Johnny lay in his sleeping bag looking at the big dipper through the hole in his tent and listening to the frogs croak, and to the crickets singing their evening song.

An Unrequested Bath

Tuesday morning passed uneventfully as they wove down the river. They passed near Beulahvillle and under route 360 between Aylett and St. Stephen's Church. By noon they were at the pretty little town of Walkerton where the Mattaponi blossomed from a childlike stream into the maturity of a river 100 yards wide. They stopped for lunch and gas at Walkerton, and then proceeded on their way.

The bright sun beat a path in the river, and with the throttle on "fast", they zipped down the middle of that path. By midafternoon, Johnny had caught the evening's fish, Sammy was at the wheel and Mother and Elva in the middle of the boat, napped in the warmth of the sun.

At this point, Need-Indeed must have thought that things were just too peaceful. Or, perhaps, he simply decided to go fishing himself. In any event, before anyone had a chance to stir, Need-Indeed dove over the side of the boat into the middle of the river running past.

When Johnny saw Need-Indeed dive, he jumped over the boat after him. And when Mr. Brownpants saw Johnny jump, he plunged into the water, too. Sammy would have joined them, but he knew that he was responsible for steering the boat. He abruptly pushed in the throttle, and whipped the wheel around, almost laying the boat on its side. Fifty feet to the rear of the boat, Johnny, who was an excellent swimmer, swam toward Need-Indeed bobbing in the water a few feet away. "Over here, Dad," he shouted.

"You come over here," his dad commanded. But by this time Johnny had reached Need-Indeed. Mr. Brownpants swam to the point where Johnny and Need-Indeed were treading water. Need-Indeed cocked his head and looked at his would-be rescuers. With a total lack of concern, he seemed to be saying, "I am enjoying my swim. Why are you making all this fuss?"

Soon Sammy had eased the boat along-side the swimmers. Amid scolding, laughing and shouting, two drenched people and one drenched dog clambered aboard the boat. As soon as Need-Indeed was aboard, he rewarded those who remained dry for their efforts by shaking himself vigorously, giving them a thorough shower.

That evening they passed West Point where the Pamunkey River joins the Mattaponi to form the broad York River. On the shores of the York, they stopped for the night.

A Stormy Sea

The Mattaponi and its three tributaries, the Matta, the Po, and the Ni, twist about through the wooded Virginia hills like a snake that doesn't much care where its going and often decided to turn around and get another look at where its been. Not so the York. It runs straight as a ruler for twenty-five miles between Westpoint and Yorktown, dips upward a bit, and runs five more miles until its mouth broadens out into the Chesapeake Bay.

The last day of their travels would take the Brownpants to a point five miles west of Yorktown, where Hunting Creek runs into the York River. As they started out that day they expected to cover this distance by noon, or shortly thereafter. The sun rose brightly behind them, and the wind and the current pushed at their stern. The York seemed nearly a mile wide, in sharp contrast to the little Ni where they had begun, and Mr. Brownpants held the throttle open sending the boat with skips and jumps down the river.

Toward midmorning the sun slid under a cloud, but the Brownpants were so intent on getting home that no one noticed the black, ominous rain clouds forming behind them. With a suddenness that surprised them, the wind increased its pitch and the sky darkened into a gloomy appearance of near night.

Mr. Brownpants looked toward the shore for a safe place to land the boat and wait out the oncoming storm. But on his left, the York tapered off into a uninviting swamp, and on his right the river was bordered by a military weapons center, its fences reaching out into the river. "Perhaps we can beat the storm" he said to the others, "around the bend and down to Hunting Creek."

But the sky opened and dropped its tons of rain almost as soon as he had said it. Although he did not want to let the others know, Mr. Brownpants was worried. He knew that their little boat was not made for raving storms in the widest part of the York River. The wind stirred up waves, which tossed the boat about, and began to wash over the side. The rain drew a curtain over the river, and they could no longer see the shoreline on either side.

To keep the rest of the family form catching his fear, Mr. Brownpants yelled, cheerily, "Looks like we have another unwanted bath today. Let's not make this boat a bathtub, though. Sammy, Johnny, get the buckets and start pitching the water out of the boat." With that he turned around and steered the boat on its stumbling way.

Thunder shook the sky, followed by a streak of lightening. In the lightening, Mr. Brownpants saw two things, one the source of hope, and the other the source of more fear. In the distance, and to his right, he saw Hunting Creek. Straight ahead, and coming towards them, was an ocean-going freight ship which, as some such ships do, was heading up stream toward West Point. In the same moment that he saw the ship, he heard its fog horn blasting its mournful, warning, signal. "Look out! We're going to collide," it seemed to say. The ship had been constantly blowing its horn, but with the wind at their backs, they had not heard it before. Mr. Brownpants yanked the wheel sharply to the right, and the wheel, with reluctance, responded. In the nick of time they were out of the on-coming ship's way and headed for Hunting Creek. Once within the safe waters of Hunting Creek, the water and wind quieted, and they knew they were safe.

Two hours later they had worked their way up Hunting Creek to the reservoir which was the creek's source. The sun had ventured out and was shining crisply in the cool air which had been left by the storm.