[Top]CHAPTERXX.THE NEW HEAD OF THE MILLWEED FAMILY.Captain Gildrock judged, from the appearance of Oscar Chester’s face, that he had been severely punished for his assault upon his superior officer. He had not heard a word about the second battle at Plattsburg. Though Bates knew all about it, he never meddled with what did not concern him.He walked away from the pilot-house, satisfied that Dory could take care of himself if the second pilot wanted any thing more of him. Mr. Jepson had divided the firemen into watches, and two of them were now off duty. The principal saw Bolingbroke walking the hurricane deck, and called him. In answer to his question, Bolingbroke told him all the particulars of the fight on shore. Of course the statement was highly favorable to Dory.If no one else knew it, the principal did, that Will Orwell was a crony of the second pilot. From him he could get the other side of thestory, if there was any other side to it; and he called the second officer. Orwell’s story did not differ materially from that of the fireman, and the captain was satisfied that the assault upon his nephew had been entirely unprovoked. He knew all about the difficulty in the boat, and on board of the steamer the night before.The captain was satisfied that Chester had been sufficiently punished, especially when he considered what a shock the pride of the wilful boy had received in his failure to thrash Dory. Doubtless his attempt to run away had been caused by his defeat. He was humiliated and mortified at the result.Of course Peppers did not act without instructions. The principal expected a demonstration on the part of the rebel. He had written to the officer the day before, requesting him to be on the wharf when the Sylph arrived, and instructing him to watch Oscar all the time the latter was on shore. He was to bring him off if he attempted to run away.Peppers soon ascertained which of the boys he was to “shadow,” and followed him wherever he went. Orwell remained in his company till itwas time to return to the wharf. Oscar declared that he would not go on board again, and tried to induce his crony to join him in his flight into the country.Orwell was second officer, and was delighted with his experience in the Beech-Hill Industrial School so far. It was better than a play to him, and nothing could have induced him to run away from the agreeable life which had just opened upon him. He had reasoned with his friend very earnestly, and even had the pluck to tell him flatly that Dory was altogether in the right, and he was altogether in the wrong.Oscar admitted that he was pleased with the school, but he could not endure the humiliation of playing “second fiddle” to Dory after what had happened. They parted, and Orwell went on board with the other pupils; and he was utterly astonished when he saw his crony come on board at the wharf.“If you wish to steer, I will give you the wheel, Oscar Chester,” said Dory, when the second pilot had been in the room a few minutes. “It is not a new thing to me; and I am not anxious to steer, though I like to do it well enough.”“Thank you, Dory Dornwood: you are very kind. You can whip me every time; and, of course, you can bully me if you have a mind to do so,” replied Oscar, beginning very stiffly.“I have no wish to bully you or any other fellow. I don’t want to quarrel with any person; and, as we are to be in the pilot-house together, I hope we shall be able to agree,” added Dory in the most conciliatory tones.“We shall agree after this,” said Oscar, letting himself down a few pegs. “You can whip me, and that is enough. I can’t quarrel with you without getting the worst of it. I must submit, and I may as well make the best of it.”“I don’t believe in fighting, and I don’t care a straw who is the best man. I don’t mean to bully even the weakest fellow in the school. I know I speak quick sometimes, but I don’t mean any thing by it. I am told that I spoke rather sharply to you in the boat last night. I am sorry for it, and I beg your pardon,” said Dory.“You don’t owe me any apology after you have whipped me; and you are generous to let me down as easily as you can,” added Oscar.“It was since we came on board, after the affair,that I was told I spoke sharply to you. If you had told me so before hitting me, I should have begged your pardon. I mean to do the right thing.”“Your hand, Dory!” exclaimed Oscar, extending his own. “You are a good fellow, even if you are so frightfully proper.”Dory gave the rebel his right hand, and his companion shook it heartily. There was some good left in Oscar Chester.“I always thrashed every fellow in the school that didn’t fag to me, and I suppose I have been spoiled. But I will try to do better. If I don’t do well, you must thrash me again, Dory,” added the second pilot, smiling blandly. “I hope we shall be friends; and I will take the wheel now, if you will show me how to handle it.”“You handle it very well already, though there are a great many things you will have to learn, as every wheelman must,” replied Dory cordially, and without putting on any airs.There was peace in the pilot-house now, as there was in every part of the steamer. Captain Gildrock looked into the room after a while, and found that the two pilots were apparently excellentfriends. He did not say any thing, or even enter the apartment; for he thought the boys would get along better without any help.The Sylph went up the lake as far as Ticonderoga. The instruction was continued in all the departments; and as the students were required to do the work themselves, as well as listen to the theory, they made rapid progress, and enjoyed themselves to the end of the trip. They were sorry when it was finished.The steamer was secured at the temporary wharf in Beech Lake. Supper had been served on board as arranged in the morning; and the cooks and stewards had to put things in order before they went on shore. The engineers and firemen were taught in what shape to leave the engine and boilers. The first and second officers put the decks in order. But the pilots had nothing to do when the boat touched the wharf.“Is Captain Gildrock on board?” asked Mr. Millweed, who was on the wharf when Dory landed.“He is in the after cabin,” replied the first pilot; and he would have been very glad to hear what passed between the principal and the farmer.But he had been taught to mind his own business; and he walked up to the dormitory with Oscar, who had not yet visited the room appropriated to his use. Mr. Millweed went on board of the Sylph, and found the captain at the desk in his room.“I will wait till you are ready to see me, Captain Gildrock,” said he.“I am ready to see you now, and anxious to hear what you have to say,” replied the principal, as he led the way out of the state-room into the main cabin. “Both of the boys came on board before nine, and have done well. Pemberton is first cook, and Bolingbroke is third fireman.”“I suppose they don’t like these places,” added Farmer Millweed.“Both of them seem to be very well satisfied. Pemberton is an excellent cook,” answered the captain. “He thinks his position is not particularly genteel, but he will get over that in a short time. Did Mrs. Millweed consent to their joining the school?”“She did not: she objected with all her might. But I saw that the boys were inclined to go to the school. We had a regular row, but I stuck tomy text; and finally I told the boys I could not support them another day in idleness.“My wife cried; but I told her it was no use, for we should all be turned out of the house, and all that I had would be sold to pay my debts. I told the boys to hurry down here before the boat started; and they minded me, in spite of the screams of my wife. It made me feel bad, but I couldn’t help it.”“I am sorry you had any trouble, but I think you have done right,” added Captain Gildrock.“When the boys had gone, I had a talk with the girls. I told them the plain truth, and insisted that they should go to work. Both of them said they were willing; but their mother declared they should not go into a store or factory, or any thing of that sort, to work. They had been finely educated, and were fit to adorn the drawing-room of a rich man.”“Very likely they are; but the next thing is to find the drawing-room,” suggested the captain.“That is the very thing I said to Matilda—that’s my wife. I told the girls I would try to find places, and they both said they would takeany places I could get for them. Matilda said they should not. I told them I had not money enough to buy a meal of victuals, and the storekeepers and the butchers won’t trust me. I found a place in a store for Elinora myself; and she went to it, after dinner, to-day.”“Excellent! You are doing bravely!” exclaimed the captain. “I will see what can be done for the other girl as soon as I go ashore. By the way, I was thinking of getting a young man to keep the records of the school, and do some of my writing for me. A woman will do just as well. I will give your other daughter five dollars a week, and raise her wages as fast as she learns to do the work.”“God bless you, Captain Gildrock!” ejaculated the discouraged father. “If the children can support themselves, I can take care of my wife after we have lost the farm and every thing else. I can get work at day wages.”“I hope you won’t lose your farm,” added the captain.“There is no help for it. The mortgage note will be due in a short time; and I can’t pay the interest, let alone any part of the principal.”Farmer Millweed groaned in spirit, when he thought of the final blow that was about to fall upon him. He had been an honest, temperate, hard-working man all his life, though he was a person of but little force of character. His wife’s aspirations after gentility had actually ruined him. As things were going on the day before, the family were only a few steps from the poorhouse.“I think you are an honest man, and I am very sorry to see you brought to the verge of ruin in this way,” said Captain Gildrock after a few minutes’ reflection. “I will let you have the money to pay your interest when it is due, and I will take the mortgage on your place myself.”“I did not expect any thing of this sort from you, captain; and I amsure”—“Never mind that, Mr. Millweed. If any of your creditors trouble you, come to me. You have got rid of the principal trouble; and there is no reason why you should not do well,—pay all your debts, and clear off the mortgage on your farm.”The farmer was profuse in his expressions of gratitude; but the captain cut them short byinquiring still further into his affairs, and giving him much good advice. Mr. Millweed went home with hope in his soul. There was a new head to the Millweed family.
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Captain Gildrock judged, from the appearance of Oscar Chester’s face, that he had been severely punished for his assault upon his superior officer. He had not heard a word about the second battle at Plattsburg. Though Bates knew all about it, he never meddled with what did not concern him.
He walked away from the pilot-house, satisfied that Dory could take care of himself if the second pilot wanted any thing more of him. Mr. Jepson had divided the firemen into watches, and two of them were now off duty. The principal saw Bolingbroke walking the hurricane deck, and called him. In answer to his question, Bolingbroke told him all the particulars of the fight on shore. Of course the statement was highly favorable to Dory.
If no one else knew it, the principal did, that Will Orwell was a crony of the second pilot. From him he could get the other side of thestory, if there was any other side to it; and he called the second officer. Orwell’s story did not differ materially from that of the fireman, and the captain was satisfied that the assault upon his nephew had been entirely unprovoked. He knew all about the difficulty in the boat, and on board of the steamer the night before.
The captain was satisfied that Chester had been sufficiently punished, especially when he considered what a shock the pride of the wilful boy had received in his failure to thrash Dory. Doubtless his attempt to run away had been caused by his defeat. He was humiliated and mortified at the result.
Of course Peppers did not act without instructions. The principal expected a demonstration on the part of the rebel. He had written to the officer the day before, requesting him to be on the wharf when the Sylph arrived, and instructing him to watch Oscar all the time the latter was on shore. He was to bring him off if he attempted to run away.
Peppers soon ascertained which of the boys he was to “shadow,” and followed him wherever he went. Orwell remained in his company till itwas time to return to the wharf. Oscar declared that he would not go on board again, and tried to induce his crony to join him in his flight into the country.
Orwell was second officer, and was delighted with his experience in the Beech-Hill Industrial School so far. It was better than a play to him, and nothing could have induced him to run away from the agreeable life which had just opened upon him. He had reasoned with his friend very earnestly, and even had the pluck to tell him flatly that Dory was altogether in the right, and he was altogether in the wrong.
Oscar admitted that he was pleased with the school, but he could not endure the humiliation of playing “second fiddle” to Dory after what had happened. They parted, and Orwell went on board with the other pupils; and he was utterly astonished when he saw his crony come on board at the wharf.
“If you wish to steer, I will give you the wheel, Oscar Chester,” said Dory, when the second pilot had been in the room a few minutes. “It is not a new thing to me; and I am not anxious to steer, though I like to do it well enough.”
“Thank you, Dory Dornwood: you are very kind. You can whip me every time; and, of course, you can bully me if you have a mind to do so,” replied Oscar, beginning very stiffly.
“I have no wish to bully you or any other fellow. I don’t want to quarrel with any person; and, as we are to be in the pilot-house together, I hope we shall be able to agree,” added Dory in the most conciliatory tones.
“We shall agree after this,” said Oscar, letting himself down a few pegs. “You can whip me, and that is enough. I can’t quarrel with you without getting the worst of it. I must submit, and I may as well make the best of it.”
“I don’t believe in fighting, and I don’t care a straw who is the best man. I don’t mean to bully even the weakest fellow in the school. I know I speak quick sometimes, but I don’t mean any thing by it. I am told that I spoke rather sharply to you in the boat last night. I am sorry for it, and I beg your pardon,” said Dory.
“You don’t owe me any apology after you have whipped me; and you are generous to let me down as easily as you can,” added Oscar.
“It was since we came on board, after the affair,that I was told I spoke sharply to you. If you had told me so before hitting me, I should have begged your pardon. I mean to do the right thing.”
“Your hand, Dory!” exclaimed Oscar, extending his own. “You are a good fellow, even if you are so frightfully proper.”
Dory gave the rebel his right hand, and his companion shook it heartily. There was some good left in Oscar Chester.
“I always thrashed every fellow in the school that didn’t fag to me, and I suppose I have been spoiled. But I will try to do better. If I don’t do well, you must thrash me again, Dory,” added the second pilot, smiling blandly. “I hope we shall be friends; and I will take the wheel now, if you will show me how to handle it.”
“You handle it very well already, though there are a great many things you will have to learn, as every wheelman must,” replied Dory cordially, and without putting on any airs.
There was peace in the pilot-house now, as there was in every part of the steamer. Captain Gildrock looked into the room after a while, and found that the two pilots were apparently excellentfriends. He did not say any thing, or even enter the apartment; for he thought the boys would get along better without any help.
The Sylph went up the lake as far as Ticonderoga. The instruction was continued in all the departments; and as the students were required to do the work themselves, as well as listen to the theory, they made rapid progress, and enjoyed themselves to the end of the trip. They were sorry when it was finished.
The steamer was secured at the temporary wharf in Beech Lake. Supper had been served on board as arranged in the morning; and the cooks and stewards had to put things in order before they went on shore. The engineers and firemen were taught in what shape to leave the engine and boilers. The first and second officers put the decks in order. But the pilots had nothing to do when the boat touched the wharf.
“Is Captain Gildrock on board?” asked Mr. Millweed, who was on the wharf when Dory landed.
“He is in the after cabin,” replied the first pilot; and he would have been very glad to hear what passed between the principal and the farmer.
But he had been taught to mind his own business; and he walked up to the dormitory with Oscar, who had not yet visited the room appropriated to his use. Mr. Millweed went on board of the Sylph, and found the captain at the desk in his room.
“I will wait till you are ready to see me, Captain Gildrock,” said he.
“I am ready to see you now, and anxious to hear what you have to say,” replied the principal, as he led the way out of the state-room into the main cabin. “Both of the boys came on board before nine, and have done well. Pemberton is first cook, and Bolingbroke is third fireman.”
“I suppose they don’t like these places,” added Farmer Millweed.
“Both of them seem to be very well satisfied. Pemberton is an excellent cook,” answered the captain. “He thinks his position is not particularly genteel, but he will get over that in a short time. Did Mrs. Millweed consent to their joining the school?”
“She did not: she objected with all her might. But I saw that the boys were inclined to go to the school. We had a regular row, but I stuck tomy text; and finally I told the boys I could not support them another day in idleness.
“My wife cried; but I told her it was no use, for we should all be turned out of the house, and all that I had would be sold to pay my debts. I told the boys to hurry down here before the boat started; and they minded me, in spite of the screams of my wife. It made me feel bad, but I couldn’t help it.”
“I am sorry you had any trouble, but I think you have done right,” added Captain Gildrock.
“When the boys had gone, I had a talk with the girls. I told them the plain truth, and insisted that they should go to work. Both of them said they were willing; but their mother declared they should not go into a store or factory, or any thing of that sort, to work. They had been finely educated, and were fit to adorn the drawing-room of a rich man.”
“Very likely they are; but the next thing is to find the drawing-room,” suggested the captain.
“That is the very thing I said to Matilda—that’s my wife. I told the girls I would try to find places, and they both said they would takeany places I could get for them. Matilda said they should not. I told them I had not money enough to buy a meal of victuals, and the storekeepers and the butchers won’t trust me. I found a place in a store for Elinora myself; and she went to it, after dinner, to-day.”
“Excellent! You are doing bravely!” exclaimed the captain. “I will see what can be done for the other girl as soon as I go ashore. By the way, I was thinking of getting a young man to keep the records of the school, and do some of my writing for me. A woman will do just as well. I will give your other daughter five dollars a week, and raise her wages as fast as she learns to do the work.”
“God bless you, Captain Gildrock!” ejaculated the discouraged father. “If the children can support themselves, I can take care of my wife after we have lost the farm and every thing else. I can get work at day wages.”
“I hope you won’t lose your farm,” added the captain.
“There is no help for it. The mortgage note will be due in a short time; and I can’t pay the interest, let alone any part of the principal.”
Farmer Millweed groaned in spirit, when he thought of the final blow that was about to fall upon him. He had been an honest, temperate, hard-working man all his life, though he was a person of but little force of character. His wife’s aspirations after gentility had actually ruined him. As things were going on the day before, the family were only a few steps from the poorhouse.
“I think you are an honest man, and I am very sorry to see you brought to the verge of ruin in this way,” said Captain Gildrock after a few minutes’ reflection. “I will let you have the money to pay your interest when it is due, and I will take the mortgage on your place myself.”
“I did not expect any thing of this sort from you, captain; and I amsure”—
“Never mind that, Mr. Millweed. If any of your creditors trouble you, come to me. You have got rid of the principal trouble; and there is no reason why you should not do well,—pay all your debts, and clear off the mortgage on your farm.”
The farmer was profuse in his expressions of gratitude; but the captain cut them short byinquiring still further into his affairs, and giving him much good advice. Mr. Millweed went home with hope in his soul. There was a new head to the Millweed family.