[Top]CHAPTERVIII.PUPILS FOR THE BEECH-HILL INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL.Mr. Longbrook conducted Bolingbroke to another part of the wharf, and pointed out to him an old sloop, about the size of the one sunk in the deep water.“I am sorry you are out of a place, young man; but you are welcome to that boat in place of the one you lost, though I don’t feel under any obligations to replace it. It was your misfortune that you were accused of a crime. If you had not run away, I should have had a chance to investigate the matter. I went out for a moment, and when I returned you had gone. When I want another clerk, I will try to think of you,” said the merchant, as he walked away towards the store.Bolingbroke could hardly keep from crying at his disappointment in losing the place, which he had expected would be a permanent one. The salary was only four dollars a week; but he couldboard with a relative for two, and he could at least relieve his father of one mouth to feed.“What’s the matter, my lad?” asked Captain Gildrock, as he and Dory walked up the wharf. “You look as though you had not a friend in the world.”“I have lost the place I expected to have, and my father is very poor,” replied Bolingbroke with due humility.“What sort of a place was it?” asked the captain.“It was a situation in Mr. Longbrook’s store. I have been looking for a place for a year; but I am afraid I shall never find one,” replied Bolingbroke, hoping the rich man would interest himself in his favor.“There are ten clerks for every vacancy. Can’t you find any thing else to do?”“I don’t know: I never looked for any other kind of a place.”“I should think you might find a place to work on a farm,” added the captain in perfect good faith.“On a farm!” exclaimed Bolingbroke, actually stopping in his walk in his astonishment.“I hear that there is a scarcity of help on the farms in the State,” continued Captain Gildrock. “I should say you might earn four or five dollars a week, or at least fifteen dollars a month, on a farm, besides your board; and that is better pay than you can get in a store.”“I never worked on a farm,” added Bolingbroke, who possibly knew that the rich man of Beech Hill had some peculiar notions.“Where do you live?”“I live in Genverres, on the north side, where my father has a farm.”“Does your father carry on a farm?”“Yes, sir: he has always been a farmer.”“I should think you could find enough to do at home. Don’t your father need any help on his place?”“He hires all the help he wants. I never did any thing on the farm.”“You look like a stout fellow; and I should think you could do a man’s work for him,” added the captain, surprised in his turn.“Perhaps I could, if I had been brought up to it,” replied Bolingbroke rather sheepishly.“Have you any brothers and sisters?”“One brother and two sisters.”“I should not think your father ought to be very poor, if he has a farm, and two stout boys to help him. What does your brother do?”“He has been looking for a place in a store for the last three years. He has tried in Burlington, Rutland, and Brattleboro’; and he thinks of going to New York or Boston.”“Don’t your brother work on the farm when he is out of work?” asked Captain Gildrock, who was beginning to get an inkling of the situation.“Neither of us ever did any thing on the farm. Mother has never been willing that we should work on a farm,” replied Bolingbroke. “Father wants us to do something else.”“Do your two sisters do any thing? How old are they?”“Elinora is twenty, and Fatima is twenty-two. They have never done any thing.”“I dare say they are both engaged, and their future is marked out,” suggested the captain with a smile.“Neither of them is engaged, and there is nothing to indicate their future.”“I suppose you have all been to school?”“We are all graduates of the Genverres high-school.”“Indeed!” exclaimed Captain Gildrock significantly, as though the last item of information explained the situation fully to him. “Why don’t you learn a trade?”“Learn a trade!” ejaculated Bolingbroke. “I never thought of such a thing.”“It is a good time to think of it now then. You are not more than sixteen or seventeen,” suggested the captain. “If you like, I will receive you as a pupil in the Beech-Hill Industrial School, where you can become a carpenter or a machinist, or learn to run an engine. You can stay for a year or longer, and it will cost you nothing. I think you said your father was very poor, and no other member of the family seems to be earning any thing.”“My father has hard work to get along. His farm is mortgaged for about all it is worth, and it takes all the money he can raise to pay the interest; and he is afraid he will lose all his property.”“If you will come to my school, I will put you in the way of saving money enough from yourwages another year to pay your father’s interest. If I don’t I will pay it myself.”“I think a word from you would get me a place in some store in Burlington. If you would recommendme”—“How can I recommend you when I never saw you before in my life? I don’t do things in that way,” interposed Captain Gildrock. “If you join the school, I will see that you are in a position to earn fair wages another year. One of our last year’s boys gets thirty dollars a month besides his board. All of them get twenty or more. After they have had experience they will command from fifty to a hundred dollars a month. You can think of it, and let me know your decision in a few days; for the school opens on the 1st of September.”The party reached the hotel by this time. Dory and Bolingbroke were summoned to appear as witnesses in the case of Lingerwell the next day. Captain Gildrock found the ten recruits for the school at the hotel. He had picked them up among his friends in Montpelier,St.Albans, andSt.Johnsbury. If he did not know it before, he had ascertained on his trip to Burlington with them, that they were a set of wild boys.He was in a hurry to get them to Beech Hill before they tore any houses down, or did any other mischief. At least five out of the ten had been expelled from private schools or academies, because the instructors could not manage them; three of them were the sons of wealthy men; and all of them were supposed to have a liking for mechanical pursuits. The captain was confident that he could manage them after he got them to his estate.Dory was satisfied that he could seat them all in the Goldwing, for he had often taken out twenty in her on pleasure-excursions. But his uncle was afraid they would “cut up,” as he expressed himself, and make trouble on the passage. He spoke to them about going in the schooner, and they were delighted with the idea. Most of them had never been on the lake in any sort of a craft, and some had never even seen a steamboat or a sailboat.Captain Gildrock consented to the arrangement after he had charged the recruits to behave with propriety in the boat, and to obey the orders of the skipper. They promised to do these things, and they were marched down to the wharf. Bolingbrokefollowed the party, evidently because he did not know what else to do with himself.“Couldn’t you say a word to your uncle in my favor, Dory?” said he on the way to the lake. “He knows all the storekeepers, and a word from him would make a place for me.”“He won’t recommend you, because he knows nothing at all about you,” replied Dory. “Why don’t you join the school, as he asked you to do?”“I should make nothing for my father by doing that,” added Bolingbroke. “I want to help him pay his interest-money.”“How much can you do for him when you get only four dollars a week?” asked Dory. “You would have to pay three for your board, and that would leave you about fifty to pay for your clothes, washing, and all other expenses. You would be just as well off at the end of the year, and so would your father, if you went to the school.”“But the idea of becoming a carpenter or a greasy machinist!” exclaimed Bolingbroke with a curl upon his lip.“I thought you wanted to earn money to help your father. A little oil on your hands won’thurt you,” replied Dory, rather disgusted with his companion.“I am sure my mother won’t let me become a mechanic, but I will speak to her about it tonight. I suppose I can go down with you in the Goldwing: I have no other way to get home.”“Certainly, I have room enough. But how will you get the sloop Mr. Longbrook gave you up to Genverres?”“I will write to Sim Green, and he can go up in her when he is ready to return.”When the party arrived at the wharf, and the Goldwing was pointed out to them, they were delighted with her. Some of them wondered if it were safe to go in her, though most of the ten were afraid of nothing. Captain Gildrock had business in Burlington which would detain him till the next day, and it was arranged that Dory should come down in the Sylph to attend court. His uncle would return in the steamer.“But what are we to do with all these fellows before you come, uncle Royal?” asked Dory. “They will tear the house down, and dry up the lake.”“Jepson and Brookbine are there; and, as theyare to instruct the pupils, they ought to be able to manage them,” replied the captain; but his looks indicated that he had some anxiety about the matter. “Tell Mr. Brookbine to assign the rooms to the boys, one to each, in the dormitory. The rogues will not think of doing any mischief until they are better acquainted.”Captain Gildrock gave Dory a paper on which were written the names of the new pupils. He called them off, one at a time, and gave to each one his place in the boat. They behaved very well under the eye of the captain. They were seated five on each side of the standing-room, leaving room for the skipper to go forward and aft.“I suppose you know all about a boat, fellows,” said Dory, as he went forward to hoist the jib.“Never saw a sailboat before!” exclaimed Ben Ludlow.“Nor I!” shouted half a dozen others.“Where have you been all your lives?” laughed Dory, as he paused on his way.“In the woods,” replied Ben.The skipper shoved off, and the Goldwing stood across the lake.
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Mr. Longbrook conducted Bolingbroke to another part of the wharf, and pointed out to him an old sloop, about the size of the one sunk in the deep water.
“I am sorry you are out of a place, young man; but you are welcome to that boat in place of the one you lost, though I don’t feel under any obligations to replace it. It was your misfortune that you were accused of a crime. If you had not run away, I should have had a chance to investigate the matter. I went out for a moment, and when I returned you had gone. When I want another clerk, I will try to think of you,” said the merchant, as he walked away towards the store.
Bolingbroke could hardly keep from crying at his disappointment in losing the place, which he had expected would be a permanent one. The salary was only four dollars a week; but he couldboard with a relative for two, and he could at least relieve his father of one mouth to feed.
“What’s the matter, my lad?” asked Captain Gildrock, as he and Dory walked up the wharf. “You look as though you had not a friend in the world.”
“I have lost the place I expected to have, and my father is very poor,” replied Bolingbroke with due humility.
“What sort of a place was it?” asked the captain.
“It was a situation in Mr. Longbrook’s store. I have been looking for a place for a year; but I am afraid I shall never find one,” replied Bolingbroke, hoping the rich man would interest himself in his favor.
“There are ten clerks for every vacancy. Can’t you find any thing else to do?”
“I don’t know: I never looked for any other kind of a place.”
“I should think you might find a place to work on a farm,” added the captain in perfect good faith.
“On a farm!” exclaimed Bolingbroke, actually stopping in his walk in his astonishment.
“I hear that there is a scarcity of help on the farms in the State,” continued Captain Gildrock. “I should say you might earn four or five dollars a week, or at least fifteen dollars a month, on a farm, besides your board; and that is better pay than you can get in a store.”
“I never worked on a farm,” added Bolingbroke, who possibly knew that the rich man of Beech Hill had some peculiar notions.
“Where do you live?”
“I live in Genverres, on the north side, where my father has a farm.”
“Does your father carry on a farm?”
“Yes, sir: he has always been a farmer.”
“I should think you could find enough to do at home. Don’t your father need any help on his place?”
“He hires all the help he wants. I never did any thing on the farm.”
“You look like a stout fellow; and I should think you could do a man’s work for him,” added the captain, surprised in his turn.
“Perhaps I could, if I had been brought up to it,” replied Bolingbroke rather sheepishly.
“Have you any brothers and sisters?”
“One brother and two sisters.”
“I should not think your father ought to be very poor, if he has a farm, and two stout boys to help him. What does your brother do?”
“He has been looking for a place in a store for the last three years. He has tried in Burlington, Rutland, and Brattleboro’; and he thinks of going to New York or Boston.”
“Don’t your brother work on the farm when he is out of work?” asked Captain Gildrock, who was beginning to get an inkling of the situation.
“Neither of us ever did any thing on the farm. Mother has never been willing that we should work on a farm,” replied Bolingbroke. “Father wants us to do something else.”
“Do your two sisters do any thing? How old are they?”
“Elinora is twenty, and Fatima is twenty-two. They have never done any thing.”
“I dare say they are both engaged, and their future is marked out,” suggested the captain with a smile.
“Neither of them is engaged, and there is nothing to indicate their future.”
“I suppose you have all been to school?”
“We are all graduates of the Genverres high-school.”
“Indeed!” exclaimed Captain Gildrock significantly, as though the last item of information explained the situation fully to him. “Why don’t you learn a trade?”
“Learn a trade!” ejaculated Bolingbroke. “I never thought of such a thing.”
“It is a good time to think of it now then. You are not more than sixteen or seventeen,” suggested the captain. “If you like, I will receive you as a pupil in the Beech-Hill Industrial School, where you can become a carpenter or a machinist, or learn to run an engine. You can stay for a year or longer, and it will cost you nothing. I think you said your father was very poor, and no other member of the family seems to be earning any thing.”
“My father has hard work to get along. His farm is mortgaged for about all it is worth, and it takes all the money he can raise to pay the interest; and he is afraid he will lose all his property.”
“If you will come to my school, I will put you in the way of saving money enough from yourwages another year to pay your father’s interest. If I don’t I will pay it myself.”
“I think a word from you would get me a place in some store in Burlington. If you would recommendme”—
“How can I recommend you when I never saw you before in my life? I don’t do things in that way,” interposed Captain Gildrock. “If you join the school, I will see that you are in a position to earn fair wages another year. One of our last year’s boys gets thirty dollars a month besides his board. All of them get twenty or more. After they have had experience they will command from fifty to a hundred dollars a month. You can think of it, and let me know your decision in a few days; for the school opens on the 1st of September.”
The party reached the hotel by this time. Dory and Bolingbroke were summoned to appear as witnesses in the case of Lingerwell the next day. Captain Gildrock found the ten recruits for the school at the hotel. He had picked them up among his friends in Montpelier,St.Albans, andSt.Johnsbury. If he did not know it before, he had ascertained on his trip to Burlington with them, that they were a set of wild boys.
He was in a hurry to get them to Beech Hill before they tore any houses down, or did any other mischief. At least five out of the ten had been expelled from private schools or academies, because the instructors could not manage them; three of them were the sons of wealthy men; and all of them were supposed to have a liking for mechanical pursuits. The captain was confident that he could manage them after he got them to his estate.
Dory was satisfied that he could seat them all in the Goldwing, for he had often taken out twenty in her on pleasure-excursions. But his uncle was afraid they would “cut up,” as he expressed himself, and make trouble on the passage. He spoke to them about going in the schooner, and they were delighted with the idea. Most of them had never been on the lake in any sort of a craft, and some had never even seen a steamboat or a sailboat.
Captain Gildrock consented to the arrangement after he had charged the recruits to behave with propriety in the boat, and to obey the orders of the skipper. They promised to do these things, and they were marched down to the wharf. Bolingbrokefollowed the party, evidently because he did not know what else to do with himself.
“Couldn’t you say a word to your uncle in my favor, Dory?” said he on the way to the lake. “He knows all the storekeepers, and a word from him would make a place for me.”
“He won’t recommend you, because he knows nothing at all about you,” replied Dory. “Why don’t you join the school, as he asked you to do?”
“I should make nothing for my father by doing that,” added Bolingbroke. “I want to help him pay his interest-money.”
“How much can you do for him when you get only four dollars a week?” asked Dory. “You would have to pay three for your board, and that would leave you about fifty to pay for your clothes, washing, and all other expenses. You would be just as well off at the end of the year, and so would your father, if you went to the school.”
“But the idea of becoming a carpenter or a greasy machinist!” exclaimed Bolingbroke with a curl upon his lip.
“I thought you wanted to earn money to help your father. A little oil on your hands won’thurt you,” replied Dory, rather disgusted with his companion.
“I am sure my mother won’t let me become a mechanic, but I will speak to her about it tonight. I suppose I can go down with you in the Goldwing: I have no other way to get home.”
“Certainly, I have room enough. But how will you get the sloop Mr. Longbrook gave you up to Genverres?”
“I will write to Sim Green, and he can go up in her when he is ready to return.”
When the party arrived at the wharf, and the Goldwing was pointed out to them, they were delighted with her. Some of them wondered if it were safe to go in her, though most of the ten were afraid of nothing. Captain Gildrock had business in Burlington which would detain him till the next day, and it was arranged that Dory should come down in the Sylph to attend court. His uncle would return in the steamer.
“But what are we to do with all these fellows before you come, uncle Royal?” asked Dory. “They will tear the house down, and dry up the lake.”
“Jepson and Brookbine are there; and, as theyare to instruct the pupils, they ought to be able to manage them,” replied the captain; but his looks indicated that he had some anxiety about the matter. “Tell Mr. Brookbine to assign the rooms to the boys, one to each, in the dormitory. The rogues will not think of doing any mischief until they are better acquainted.”
Captain Gildrock gave Dory a paper on which were written the names of the new pupils. He called them off, one at a time, and gave to each one his place in the boat. They behaved very well under the eye of the captain. They were seated five on each side of the standing-room, leaving room for the skipper to go forward and aft.
“I suppose you know all about a boat, fellows,” said Dory, as he went forward to hoist the jib.
“Never saw a sailboat before!” exclaimed Ben Ludlow.
“Nor I!” shouted half a dozen others.
“Where have you been all your lives?” laughed Dory, as he paused on his way.
“In the woods,” replied Ben.
The skipper shoved off, and the Goldwing stood across the lake.