[Top]CHAPTERXV.SOMETHING ABOUT THE AFFAIRS OF THE MILLWEED FAMILY.Long before breakfast-time the new boys were roaming about the estate, with Dory as their guide. He showed them the place, and treated them as handsomely as he knew how. They were not in a boat, with a fresh wind blowing; and he had no occasion to use a single sharp word, and he had not on board of the Goldwing, except to Oscar Chester. By this time he had become quite popular with the students.“Dory,” called Captain Gildrock, as the skipper and his party came to the shop: “what was the name of the man that stole the money at the store?”“Tim Lingerwell: he was the head man of Mr. Longbrook,” replied Dory. “He came from this place.”“I know all about him,” said a stranger who had been talking with the captain. “He neverwas any too good to do such a thing; and my son was lucky to get out of the scrape as well as he did.”This man was the father of Bolingbroke Millweed. For the first time he had heard about the Beech-Hill Industrial School that morning. His wife had told him about the captain’s offer to take Bolingbroke into the school. He had been telling the shipmaster his troubles, and he wanted his son to accept the offer.“I am a peaceable man, Captain Gildrock, and my wife has always had her own way,” continued Farmer Millweed. “I don’t like to have any trouble in the family, but I have gone just about as far as I can go.”The early visitor looked very sad, and choked a little, as though a few tears would relieve him. He stood looking upon the ground, trying to check his emotions.“Things have gone hard with you, have they?” said Captain Gildrock in a sympathizing tone.“Very hard, captain; and I don’t know what is going to become of me and my family. I expect we shall fetch up in the poorhouse; as we certainly shall if things keep on as they havebeen,” replied the farmer with a suppressed groan.“I am sorry for you,” added the captain. “I will take your son, and he shall be of no expense to you for a year; and at the end of that time, I will guarantee that he will be able to do something for you, and take care of himself besides.”“Just as soon as I heard of your offer, I came right over here; for I want to have Bolly learn a trade,” said the farmer. “He will be provided for, whatever becomes of the rest of us. When my oldest girl was a dozen years old, I owned my farm free and clear; and I didn’t owe any man on earth a single cent. Now there is a mortgage of two thousand dollars on my place, and I owe over a thousand dollars besides.”“You have been making bad speculations then,” suggested Captain Gildrock.“I never went into a speculation of any kind, captain; and I never lost any money in any way. Ten years ago I used to get a good living off my farm. We had plenty to eat, drink, and to wear. Now we don’t have any thing.” And, in spite of his struggles to restrain them, a flood of tears poured down his wan cheek.“If you have had no misfortunes, I don’t understand why things have gone so badly with you. But it is best to look into the matter, and find out what the trouble is, so that you can correct the errors of the past. You are not a very old man, and you may get out of the trouble yet.”“I know what the difficulty is well enough; and I have known it for two or three years, if not for ten. I have to take care of my family, consisting of my wife, two sons, and two daughters. The oldest is twenty-two, and the youngest is sixteen. My wife has high notions for a farmer’s wife, and I have given in to her. She would not let the boys work on the farm; and, when I wanted any help, I had to hire. I suppose the girls helped their mother, but all of them had to dress like ladies. And that is where all the money I could get went to,” said Millweed bitterly.“The first thing is to stop the leak,” suggested the captain in nautical terms. “If you don’t stop it, the ship will go to the bottom.”“I know that very well, but I don’t see how I’m going to stop the leak. All the children had to go to the high-school, and dress as smartly as the sons and daughters of rich men; though it wasmore than I could do to get the money to pay for it.”“But couldn’t your wife see how things were going?” asked the captain.“I talked with her, and told her seven years ago that I was running behindhand. I have talked with her twenty times since, and told her we should all fetch up in the poorhouse if we kept on. She said the boys would soon find places in stores, and help me. The girls could have had plenty of work at good wages, but their notions were as high as their mother’s.”“I see how it is,” said Captain Gildrock, nodding his head, as much as to declare that it was the old story.“The girls are too proud to marry a farmer or a mechanic, and rich men’s sons don’t seem to want them. They are good girls enough, but they have got high notions. The boys never did do any thing, and I don’t know whether they can or not. I want Bolly to try. Pemberton is eighteen, and I suppose he is too old for your new school.”“Not at all: I will take them both, but they will have to work.”“That’s what they need. If I could get the boys into your school, I should like it first-rate, and I should have some hopes that I might get along; though I have got to lose my farm, and it won’t fetch any thing over the mortgage,” added the farmer very gloomily.“I will take the two boys into my school; and, if the girls will go to work, I will find places for them in a store or factory.”“You are very kind, Captain Gildrock; but I am afraid my wife won’t allow the boys to go to your school, or the girls to do any thing to help support themselves,” added Farmer Millweed.“I shall not meddle with the affairs of your family; but, if it was my case, I should set the boys and girls to work,” added Captain Gildrock. “You must take the helm in your own hands.”“It will make trouble,” said Farmer Millweed, shaking his head.“You are very sure to have trouble if you don’t do it.”“That’s so!” exclaimed the unhappy man. “I have always had to work hard, and I never drank a drop of liquor in my life. I’m not as smart as some, but I’ve done my best to get along. Nextmonth the mortgage and interest are due, and I have not a dollar to pay either. I am behindhand on my interest now. Of course Stubbs will take possession, and my family will be turned out of the house. I have no place to go, and the best I can do will be to go to work on wages; for all I have got will not pay my debts. I shall have to take the helm, as you call it, captain.”“If I can do any thing for you, I shall be glad to do it,” added the captain.“I haven’t any claims on you, Captain Gildrock, and it is very kind of you to offer to take my boys. I will go home, and see what can be done,” replied Farmer Millweed, as he left the captain.There was an expression of resolution on his face as he passed out of the yard, and it was evident to the captain that he meant to do something in the emergency. The captain wondered if his pluck would hold out long enough to enable him to do it.“If the boys are going to join the school, I want them here by nine this forenoon; for we are about to organize a ship’s company for the steam-yacht,” he called to the discouraged farmer, as he was passing through the gate.“I intend to have them both here,” answered Mr. Millweed.“If they come, I shall do them more good than the high-school ever did,” said the captain to himself, as he went into the house.The captain insisted, at the breakfast-table, that the high-school had spoiled the Millweed boys and girls. Mr. Brookbine dissented, and was sure it was the mother who had made the mischief.“It was she who sent them to the high-school; and the matter is about as broad as it is long,” added the captain.“But the mother could have spoiled them just as fully if they had not gone to the high-school,” persisted the master-carpenter, who had opinions of his own. “I believe the high-school is a good thing; and, if these boys and girls had gone to work when they got through, it would have been all right with the family. It was the high notions, and not the high-school, that did the mischief; and the children got them from the mother. The father is a man of no great force.”“But he had force enough to take care of his family, and lay up something, until he was brokendown by the demands of his family upon him. There was a screw loose somewhere, and the children ought never to have gone to the high-school.”“Perhaps not: I think myself that the high-school business is sometimes overdone,” replied the mechanic. “I never went to a high-school or an academy, but I don’t think I should have been any the worse off for a great deal more learning than I ever got.”“I am willing to admit that the high-school is a necessity in an American community, but I think it ought to be combined with something of an industrial character. The occupation of the mechanic should be redeemed from the odium which has attached to it.”“I agree with you there,” added Mr. Brookbine heartily. “The Millweed boys must have been good scholars to get through when they were only sixteen. Most of the scholars that graduate are eighteen and nineteen.”“And those who are not going into the learned professions have wasted three years which ought to have been spent in the shop, or in learning the business of life. The graduates come out, a yearor two before they are of age, with too high notions to do any thing but measure tape; and that they call being merchants.”Captain Gildrock was very radical in his notions, and he continued the conversation until the meal was over. The boys were directed to take their overcoats, and go on board of the Sylph.“The prisoner in the brig wants to see you, Captain Gildrock,” said Mr. Brookbine, just as the captain was going on board of the steamer.“He must be attended to at once, for he needs more care than all the others,” replied the captain, as he went back to the dormitory with the carpenter.The mechanic unlocked the doors, and the captain presented himself before the rebel. Oscar looked very pale, and his chest heaved with emotion. It was evident, from the appearance of his eyes, that he had not slept well in his new quarters. A small portion of the bread on the table had been eaten, but not enough to indicate that he had been very hungry.“I am told that you wish to see me,” said the captain.“I don’t care to stay any longer in this place;and I should like to have you send me back to my uncle,” replied Oscar.“If that is all you want, nothing more need be said. You will not be sent back to your uncle under any circumstances.”“Then I will do the best I can if you will let me out,” added the rebel.Oscar was promptly released without a question.
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Long before breakfast-time the new boys were roaming about the estate, with Dory as their guide. He showed them the place, and treated them as handsomely as he knew how. They were not in a boat, with a fresh wind blowing; and he had no occasion to use a single sharp word, and he had not on board of the Goldwing, except to Oscar Chester. By this time he had become quite popular with the students.
“Dory,” called Captain Gildrock, as the skipper and his party came to the shop: “what was the name of the man that stole the money at the store?”
“Tim Lingerwell: he was the head man of Mr. Longbrook,” replied Dory. “He came from this place.”
“I know all about him,” said a stranger who had been talking with the captain. “He neverwas any too good to do such a thing; and my son was lucky to get out of the scrape as well as he did.”
This man was the father of Bolingbroke Millweed. For the first time he had heard about the Beech-Hill Industrial School that morning. His wife had told him about the captain’s offer to take Bolingbroke into the school. He had been telling the shipmaster his troubles, and he wanted his son to accept the offer.
“I am a peaceable man, Captain Gildrock, and my wife has always had her own way,” continued Farmer Millweed. “I don’t like to have any trouble in the family, but I have gone just about as far as I can go.”
The early visitor looked very sad, and choked a little, as though a few tears would relieve him. He stood looking upon the ground, trying to check his emotions.
“Things have gone hard with you, have they?” said Captain Gildrock in a sympathizing tone.
“Very hard, captain; and I don’t know what is going to become of me and my family. I expect we shall fetch up in the poorhouse; as we certainly shall if things keep on as they havebeen,” replied the farmer with a suppressed groan.
“I am sorry for you,” added the captain. “I will take your son, and he shall be of no expense to you for a year; and at the end of that time, I will guarantee that he will be able to do something for you, and take care of himself besides.”
“Just as soon as I heard of your offer, I came right over here; for I want to have Bolly learn a trade,” said the farmer. “He will be provided for, whatever becomes of the rest of us. When my oldest girl was a dozen years old, I owned my farm free and clear; and I didn’t owe any man on earth a single cent. Now there is a mortgage of two thousand dollars on my place, and I owe over a thousand dollars besides.”
“You have been making bad speculations then,” suggested Captain Gildrock.
“I never went into a speculation of any kind, captain; and I never lost any money in any way. Ten years ago I used to get a good living off my farm. We had plenty to eat, drink, and to wear. Now we don’t have any thing.” And, in spite of his struggles to restrain them, a flood of tears poured down his wan cheek.
“If you have had no misfortunes, I don’t understand why things have gone so badly with you. But it is best to look into the matter, and find out what the trouble is, so that you can correct the errors of the past. You are not a very old man, and you may get out of the trouble yet.”
“I know what the difficulty is well enough; and I have known it for two or three years, if not for ten. I have to take care of my family, consisting of my wife, two sons, and two daughters. The oldest is twenty-two, and the youngest is sixteen. My wife has high notions for a farmer’s wife, and I have given in to her. She would not let the boys work on the farm; and, when I wanted any help, I had to hire. I suppose the girls helped their mother, but all of them had to dress like ladies. And that is where all the money I could get went to,” said Millweed bitterly.
“The first thing is to stop the leak,” suggested the captain in nautical terms. “If you don’t stop it, the ship will go to the bottom.”
“I know that very well, but I don’t see how I’m going to stop the leak. All the children had to go to the high-school, and dress as smartly as the sons and daughters of rich men; though it wasmore than I could do to get the money to pay for it.”
“But couldn’t your wife see how things were going?” asked the captain.
“I talked with her, and told her seven years ago that I was running behindhand. I have talked with her twenty times since, and told her we should all fetch up in the poorhouse if we kept on. She said the boys would soon find places in stores, and help me. The girls could have had plenty of work at good wages, but their notions were as high as their mother’s.”
“I see how it is,” said Captain Gildrock, nodding his head, as much as to declare that it was the old story.
“The girls are too proud to marry a farmer or a mechanic, and rich men’s sons don’t seem to want them. They are good girls enough, but they have got high notions. The boys never did do any thing, and I don’t know whether they can or not. I want Bolly to try. Pemberton is eighteen, and I suppose he is too old for your new school.”
“Not at all: I will take them both, but they will have to work.”
“That’s what they need. If I could get the boys into your school, I should like it first-rate, and I should have some hopes that I might get along; though I have got to lose my farm, and it won’t fetch any thing over the mortgage,” added the farmer very gloomily.
“I will take the two boys into my school; and, if the girls will go to work, I will find places for them in a store or factory.”
“You are very kind, Captain Gildrock; but I am afraid my wife won’t allow the boys to go to your school, or the girls to do any thing to help support themselves,” added Farmer Millweed.
“I shall not meddle with the affairs of your family; but, if it was my case, I should set the boys and girls to work,” added Captain Gildrock. “You must take the helm in your own hands.”
“It will make trouble,” said Farmer Millweed, shaking his head.
“You are very sure to have trouble if you don’t do it.”
“That’s so!” exclaimed the unhappy man. “I have always had to work hard, and I never drank a drop of liquor in my life. I’m not as smart as some, but I’ve done my best to get along. Nextmonth the mortgage and interest are due, and I have not a dollar to pay either. I am behindhand on my interest now. Of course Stubbs will take possession, and my family will be turned out of the house. I have no place to go, and the best I can do will be to go to work on wages; for all I have got will not pay my debts. I shall have to take the helm, as you call it, captain.”
“If I can do any thing for you, I shall be glad to do it,” added the captain.
“I haven’t any claims on you, Captain Gildrock, and it is very kind of you to offer to take my boys. I will go home, and see what can be done,” replied Farmer Millweed, as he left the captain.
There was an expression of resolution on his face as he passed out of the yard, and it was evident to the captain that he meant to do something in the emergency. The captain wondered if his pluck would hold out long enough to enable him to do it.
“If the boys are going to join the school, I want them here by nine this forenoon; for we are about to organize a ship’s company for the steam-yacht,” he called to the discouraged farmer, as he was passing through the gate.
“I intend to have them both here,” answered Mr. Millweed.
“If they come, I shall do them more good than the high-school ever did,” said the captain to himself, as he went into the house.
The captain insisted, at the breakfast-table, that the high-school had spoiled the Millweed boys and girls. Mr. Brookbine dissented, and was sure it was the mother who had made the mischief.
“It was she who sent them to the high-school; and the matter is about as broad as it is long,” added the captain.
“But the mother could have spoiled them just as fully if they had not gone to the high-school,” persisted the master-carpenter, who had opinions of his own. “I believe the high-school is a good thing; and, if these boys and girls had gone to work when they got through, it would have been all right with the family. It was the high notions, and not the high-school, that did the mischief; and the children got them from the mother. The father is a man of no great force.”
“But he had force enough to take care of his family, and lay up something, until he was brokendown by the demands of his family upon him. There was a screw loose somewhere, and the children ought never to have gone to the high-school.”
“Perhaps not: I think myself that the high-school business is sometimes overdone,” replied the mechanic. “I never went to a high-school or an academy, but I don’t think I should have been any the worse off for a great deal more learning than I ever got.”
“I am willing to admit that the high-school is a necessity in an American community, but I think it ought to be combined with something of an industrial character. The occupation of the mechanic should be redeemed from the odium which has attached to it.”
“I agree with you there,” added Mr. Brookbine heartily. “The Millweed boys must have been good scholars to get through when they were only sixteen. Most of the scholars that graduate are eighteen and nineteen.”
“And those who are not going into the learned professions have wasted three years which ought to have been spent in the shop, or in learning the business of life. The graduates come out, a yearor two before they are of age, with too high notions to do any thing but measure tape; and that they call being merchants.”
Captain Gildrock was very radical in his notions, and he continued the conversation until the meal was over. The boys were directed to take their overcoats, and go on board of the Sylph.
“The prisoner in the brig wants to see you, Captain Gildrock,” said Mr. Brookbine, just as the captain was going on board of the steamer.
“He must be attended to at once, for he needs more care than all the others,” replied the captain, as he went back to the dormitory with the carpenter.
The mechanic unlocked the doors, and the captain presented himself before the rebel. Oscar looked very pale, and his chest heaved with emotion. It was evident, from the appearance of his eyes, that he had not slept well in his new quarters. A small portion of the bread on the table had been eaten, but not enough to indicate that he had been very hungry.
“I am told that you wish to see me,” said the captain.
“I don’t care to stay any longer in this place;and I should like to have you send me back to my uncle,” replied Oscar.
“If that is all you want, nothing more need be said. You will not be sent back to your uncle under any circumstances.”
“Then I will do the best I can if you will let me out,” added the rebel.
Oscar was promptly released without a question.