CHAPTER XXV.WOLF’S SPEECH.I was never so “taken aback” in my life as when I heard the silvery voice of Miss Grace Toppleton, and saw the magnificent gift in her hand. At any time I should have looked at her with interest; but just then it seemed to me that the sun had ceased to shine, and all the light which flowed down upon the brilliant scene around me came from her beautiful face. I wished there was a hole in the platform beneath me, through which I might sink out of sight; but then, I am sure, if I had gone down into the gloom of the space beneath me, I should instantly have wished myself back again; for I was the hero of the occasion, and the soft eyes of Miss Grace were fixed upon me.As I listened to the silvery tones of the fair orator, I became conscious that I was presenting avery awkward appearance. My hands seemed to be as big as the feet of an elephant, and altogether too large to go into my pockets. I did not know what to do with them, or where to put them. I felt like a great clumsy booby. But when the thought flashed upon me that Miss Grace was looking at me, and that she must consider me a boorish cub, I felt the necessity of doing something to redeem myself. When I was fully conscious that she was observing me, I quiteforgotthat anybody else was engaged in a similar occupation. I straightened up, stiffened the quaking muscles in my frame, and permitted my cumbrous hands to fall at my side, just as the professor of elocution in the Wimpleton Institute had instructed me to do when I spoke “in public on the stage.”If the change of attitude produced no effect upon others, it did in me, for I knew then that I looked like a civilized boy, and bore myself with the dignity becoming the young engineer of the Lake Shore Railroad. Miss Grace handed me the watch, and I took it with my best bow. She finished her “neat little speech,” and, as her silvery tones ceased,I was painfully conscious that something was expected of me. It was a hard case. Clinging to the cow-catcher of a locomotive going at thirty miles an hour was nothing to it. Again I longed for a hole in the platform through which I might disappear from the public gaze. But there was no hole in the platform, and no chance to escape. The audience were heartily applauding the presentation speech of Miss Grace; and I think the major was prouder of her then than he had ever before been in his life.While this demonstration was in progress, I tried to gather up my thoughts for the mighty effort I was to make. A labored apology, with something about being in a “tight place,” flashed upon my mind as a suitable preface to my speech; but I almost as quickly decided not to make any apology; for, since no one could suspect me of being a speech-maker, I was not likely to fall below their expectations as an orator. Before I had concluded what I should say, or try to say, the applause ceased for an instant, and then the Toppletonians began to shout, “Speech! Speech!”If I could run an engine, there was no good reason why I should not make a speech. I had something to say, and all I had to do was to say it. Really it seemed to be the simplest thing in the world, and I determined to “go in,” however I might come out of it. In a word, I was resolved to put it “through by daylight.”“Miss Grace Toppleton,” I began, and the uttering of the whole name seemed to afford me a grateful respite of some fraction of a second in which to gather up the next idea. “I am very much obliged to the students of the Toppleton Institute for this beautiful gift. A gold watch is something I never expected to have. I didn’t think of anything of this kind when I came in here, and for that reason I was very much surprised. I shall always keep this watch, and, whenever I look at its face, it will remind me of the generous fellows who gave it to me. I shall”—I was interrupted by a burst of rapturous applause from the students; and while I was waiting for it to subside, I was satisfied that I was doing very well.“I shall endeavor, with the help of this watch, always to be on time; and I hope I shall be able to do my duty to the officers and to the liberal patron of the Lake Shore Railroad. Miss Toppleton, I am very grateful to all the good fellows who have given me this splendid watch; and though I don’t believe in wearing two faces, I shall never look at the face of this watch without thinking of another face—the face of the one who so prettily presented it.”“Good! Good!” shouted the students; and another round of applause encouraged me in my arduous task.“I shall always prize this watch,” I continued, glancing at the beautiful time-keeper, “for the sake of those who gave it to me; and I am sure I shall give it a double value because of the fair hands from which it passed into my own. With ten thousand thanks for the beautiful gift, I shall try to perform my duty better than ever before; and whatever work is given me to do, I shall put it through by daylight.”I made my best bow again, and retired from thestage amid a storm of applause. As Miss Grace followed me, I helped her down the steps. The pleasant, arch smile she bestowed upon me made me feel that I had not said anything which she disliked.“Mr. Wolf, you are quite a speech-maker,” said she.“I don’t know; I never did any such thing before,” I replied, blushing like a little girl.“You did it real well, Mr. Wolf; and when they don’t want you to run the engine, you must go to Congress.”“If I had only known what was going on, I should have got ready for it, and shouldn’t have felt quite so sheepish.”“That would have spoiled the whole. You did splendidly. Now let me fasten the chain to your vest, and see how you look with the watch on.”She took the watch from my hand, adjusted the chain in a button-hole of my vest with her own fair hands, and I could hardly resist the temptation to do or say something intensely ridiculous; but I did resist it, and only thanked her as coolly as Icould for the service. Major Toppleton came up and congratulated me on my speech. I think they did not expect me to be able to say anything, and perhaps some of the students would have enjoyed the scene quite as much if I had broken down completely. But I am confident that all the compliments I received were based upon the very meagre expectations of my intelligent audience.The students used me very handsomely, and for the time did not put on any airs. They treated me as an equal, and even Tommy Toppleton was as gracious as though I had been the scion of a great house like his own. Miss Grace walked with me to the refreshment tables, and while the band, whose leader seemed to be an awful satirist, wickedly played, “Hail to the Chief,” I partook of chicken salad, cake, and ice-cream, being actually waited upon by the fair oratorical divinity who had presented me the watch. I was afraid she would scold me for saying that I should think of her face whenever I looked at the face of the watch; but she did not, and I suppose she regarded the daring expression as a piece of “buncombe” tolerated by the license of such an occasion.I spent an hour in the most agreeable manner in the Sandy Beach Grove; indeed, the whole scene is still a bright spot in my memory. But I was obliged to return to the dummy, for after all I was only a poor boy, an employee of the magnate of Toppleton. I was out of place at the feast and the revel; but I was very grateful to the students, and to all the people, especially Miss Grace Toppleton, who had treated me with such “distinguished consideration.” I resumed my place on the engine, and as there were a great many people to convey back to Middleport, I made quick trips, and literally succeeded in putting them all “through by daylight.”After I had put up the dummy for the night, I went over to Centreport with my father, mother, and sisters in the major’s sail-boat, which he placed at my disposal for the purpose. I had never seen my parents so happy before. If they were proud of me, I could afford to forgive them for it. We had almost forgotten that the cloud of misfortune had ever lowered above us. My father had not tasted a drop of liquor since the fatalday on which he had lost his money, and this was enough to make us all happy, without any of the other pleasant events which had gladdened our hearts. God had been very merciful to us, and had turned the wrath of man into blessings for us, and I am sure we were all grateful to him for his goodness.Nothing definite had been heard from Christy Holgate, but it was believed that he had gone to the South. A close watch was kept upon his family in Ucayga; for it was supposed that he would send for them, and it was hoped that their movements would enable the officer in charge of the case to ascertain his present residence. My father despaired of ever hearing from the runaway or the money, and all agreed that it would be but a poor satisfaction to have the wretch sent to the state prison for even a short term.We walked from the mill wharf up to the house after I had securely moored the sail-boat. We were still talking over the pleasant events of the day, and for the third time I had showed my watch to my sisters, who were prouder of it than I was.As we approached the house, I saw Captain Synders sitting on the fence, and apparently waiting for the return of my father or myself. I could not believe that he had any business with me, for Colonel Wimpleton had paid the honest skipper for the destruction of his boat, and nothing had been said for a week about arresting me for taking part in the mischief.“I’m waiting for you, Mr. Penniman,” said Synders, as we went up to the gate.“I hope you haven’t had to wait long,” replied my father, gently.“Long enough,” added the constable, gruffly.“What can I do for you?” inquired my father, rather anxiously, I thought, though his face wore a good-natured smile.“Nothing for me, but you can do something for Colonel Wimpleton.”“What can I do for him?”“Pay the note of two thousand dollars which was due at noon to-day,” continued Synders, maliciously.“Colonel Wimpleton knows very well that mymoney was stolen from me, and that I cannot pay him,” replied my father.“It’s nothing to him that your money was stolen. You must pay the note.”“I can’t do that.”“Well, we know you didn’t do it, and this afternoon the colonel foreclosed the mortgage. I’m here to give you notice of it, and to warn you out of the house.”“Does he mean to turn me out to-night?” asked my father.“I shall give you legal notice to quit, before witnesses.”“I will pay rent for the house,” suggested my father.“That won’t do,” answered Synders, shaking his head. “The house must be sold after legal notice has been given; and in my opinion it won’t bring a dollar over the mortgage, under the hammer.”“Well, I can’t help myself,” added my father, gloomily.“You made a bad mistake when you turned upon the colonel,” sneered the officer.“I didn’t turn upon him; but we will not talk about that.”My father was very much depressed at the thought of losing the thousand dollars which he had invested in his house. All he had saved was to be swept away from him. The constable procured his witnesses, served his legal notices, and went away chuckling over the misery he left behind him. Doubtless he exaggerated the confusion and dismay of my father when he reported his doings to his employer, and the great man gloated proportionally over the wreck he was making.
WOLF’S SPEECH.
I was never so “taken aback” in my life as when I heard the silvery voice of Miss Grace Toppleton, and saw the magnificent gift in her hand. At any time I should have looked at her with interest; but just then it seemed to me that the sun had ceased to shine, and all the light which flowed down upon the brilliant scene around me came from her beautiful face. I wished there was a hole in the platform beneath me, through which I might sink out of sight; but then, I am sure, if I had gone down into the gloom of the space beneath me, I should instantly have wished myself back again; for I was the hero of the occasion, and the soft eyes of Miss Grace were fixed upon me.
As I listened to the silvery tones of the fair orator, I became conscious that I was presenting avery awkward appearance. My hands seemed to be as big as the feet of an elephant, and altogether too large to go into my pockets. I did not know what to do with them, or where to put them. I felt like a great clumsy booby. But when the thought flashed upon me that Miss Grace was looking at me, and that she must consider me a boorish cub, I felt the necessity of doing something to redeem myself. When I was fully conscious that she was observing me, I quiteforgotthat anybody else was engaged in a similar occupation. I straightened up, stiffened the quaking muscles in my frame, and permitted my cumbrous hands to fall at my side, just as the professor of elocution in the Wimpleton Institute had instructed me to do when I spoke “in public on the stage.”
If the change of attitude produced no effect upon others, it did in me, for I knew then that I looked like a civilized boy, and bore myself with the dignity becoming the young engineer of the Lake Shore Railroad. Miss Grace handed me the watch, and I took it with my best bow. She finished her “neat little speech,” and, as her silvery tones ceased,I was painfully conscious that something was expected of me. It was a hard case. Clinging to the cow-catcher of a locomotive going at thirty miles an hour was nothing to it. Again I longed for a hole in the platform through which I might disappear from the public gaze. But there was no hole in the platform, and no chance to escape. The audience were heartily applauding the presentation speech of Miss Grace; and I think the major was prouder of her then than he had ever before been in his life.
While this demonstration was in progress, I tried to gather up my thoughts for the mighty effort I was to make. A labored apology, with something about being in a “tight place,” flashed upon my mind as a suitable preface to my speech; but I almost as quickly decided not to make any apology; for, since no one could suspect me of being a speech-maker, I was not likely to fall below their expectations as an orator. Before I had concluded what I should say, or try to say, the applause ceased for an instant, and then the Toppletonians began to shout, “Speech! Speech!”
If I could run an engine, there was no good reason why I should not make a speech. I had something to say, and all I had to do was to say it. Really it seemed to be the simplest thing in the world, and I determined to “go in,” however I might come out of it. In a word, I was resolved to put it “through by daylight.”
“Miss Grace Toppleton,” I began, and the uttering of the whole name seemed to afford me a grateful respite of some fraction of a second in which to gather up the next idea. “I am very much obliged to the students of the Toppleton Institute for this beautiful gift. A gold watch is something I never expected to have. I didn’t think of anything of this kind when I came in here, and for that reason I was very much surprised. I shall always keep this watch, and, whenever I look at its face, it will remind me of the generous fellows who gave it to me. I shall”—
I was interrupted by a burst of rapturous applause from the students; and while I was waiting for it to subside, I was satisfied that I was doing very well.
“I shall endeavor, with the help of this watch, always to be on time; and I hope I shall be able to do my duty to the officers and to the liberal patron of the Lake Shore Railroad. Miss Toppleton, I am very grateful to all the good fellows who have given me this splendid watch; and though I don’t believe in wearing two faces, I shall never look at the face of this watch without thinking of another face—the face of the one who so prettily presented it.”
“Good! Good!” shouted the students; and another round of applause encouraged me in my arduous task.
“I shall always prize this watch,” I continued, glancing at the beautiful time-keeper, “for the sake of those who gave it to me; and I am sure I shall give it a double value because of the fair hands from which it passed into my own. With ten thousand thanks for the beautiful gift, I shall try to perform my duty better than ever before; and whatever work is given me to do, I shall put it through by daylight.”
I made my best bow again, and retired from thestage amid a storm of applause. As Miss Grace followed me, I helped her down the steps. The pleasant, arch smile she bestowed upon me made me feel that I had not said anything which she disliked.
“Mr. Wolf, you are quite a speech-maker,” said she.
“I don’t know; I never did any such thing before,” I replied, blushing like a little girl.
“You did it real well, Mr. Wolf; and when they don’t want you to run the engine, you must go to Congress.”
“If I had only known what was going on, I should have got ready for it, and shouldn’t have felt quite so sheepish.”
“That would have spoiled the whole. You did splendidly. Now let me fasten the chain to your vest, and see how you look with the watch on.”
She took the watch from my hand, adjusted the chain in a button-hole of my vest with her own fair hands, and I could hardly resist the temptation to do or say something intensely ridiculous; but I did resist it, and only thanked her as coolly as Icould for the service. Major Toppleton came up and congratulated me on my speech. I think they did not expect me to be able to say anything, and perhaps some of the students would have enjoyed the scene quite as much if I had broken down completely. But I am confident that all the compliments I received were based upon the very meagre expectations of my intelligent audience.
The students used me very handsomely, and for the time did not put on any airs. They treated me as an equal, and even Tommy Toppleton was as gracious as though I had been the scion of a great house like his own. Miss Grace walked with me to the refreshment tables, and while the band, whose leader seemed to be an awful satirist, wickedly played, “Hail to the Chief,” I partook of chicken salad, cake, and ice-cream, being actually waited upon by the fair oratorical divinity who had presented me the watch. I was afraid she would scold me for saying that I should think of her face whenever I looked at the face of the watch; but she did not, and I suppose she regarded the daring expression as a piece of “buncombe” tolerated by the license of such an occasion.
I spent an hour in the most agreeable manner in the Sandy Beach Grove; indeed, the whole scene is still a bright spot in my memory. But I was obliged to return to the dummy, for after all I was only a poor boy, an employee of the magnate of Toppleton. I was out of place at the feast and the revel; but I was very grateful to the students, and to all the people, especially Miss Grace Toppleton, who had treated me with such “distinguished consideration.” I resumed my place on the engine, and as there were a great many people to convey back to Middleport, I made quick trips, and literally succeeded in putting them all “through by daylight.”
After I had put up the dummy for the night, I went over to Centreport with my father, mother, and sisters in the major’s sail-boat, which he placed at my disposal for the purpose. I had never seen my parents so happy before. If they were proud of me, I could afford to forgive them for it. We had almost forgotten that the cloud of misfortune had ever lowered above us. My father had not tasted a drop of liquor since the fatalday on which he had lost his money, and this was enough to make us all happy, without any of the other pleasant events which had gladdened our hearts. God had been very merciful to us, and had turned the wrath of man into blessings for us, and I am sure we were all grateful to him for his goodness.
Nothing definite had been heard from Christy Holgate, but it was believed that he had gone to the South. A close watch was kept upon his family in Ucayga; for it was supposed that he would send for them, and it was hoped that their movements would enable the officer in charge of the case to ascertain his present residence. My father despaired of ever hearing from the runaway or the money, and all agreed that it would be but a poor satisfaction to have the wretch sent to the state prison for even a short term.
We walked from the mill wharf up to the house after I had securely moored the sail-boat. We were still talking over the pleasant events of the day, and for the third time I had showed my watch to my sisters, who were prouder of it than I was.As we approached the house, I saw Captain Synders sitting on the fence, and apparently waiting for the return of my father or myself. I could not believe that he had any business with me, for Colonel Wimpleton had paid the honest skipper for the destruction of his boat, and nothing had been said for a week about arresting me for taking part in the mischief.
“I’m waiting for you, Mr. Penniman,” said Synders, as we went up to the gate.
“I hope you haven’t had to wait long,” replied my father, gently.
“Long enough,” added the constable, gruffly.
“What can I do for you?” inquired my father, rather anxiously, I thought, though his face wore a good-natured smile.
“Nothing for me, but you can do something for Colonel Wimpleton.”
“What can I do for him?”
“Pay the note of two thousand dollars which was due at noon to-day,” continued Synders, maliciously.
“Colonel Wimpleton knows very well that mymoney was stolen from me, and that I cannot pay him,” replied my father.
“It’s nothing to him that your money was stolen. You must pay the note.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Well, we know you didn’t do it, and this afternoon the colonel foreclosed the mortgage. I’m here to give you notice of it, and to warn you out of the house.”
“Does he mean to turn me out to-night?” asked my father.
“I shall give you legal notice to quit, before witnesses.”
“I will pay rent for the house,” suggested my father.
“That won’t do,” answered Synders, shaking his head. “The house must be sold after legal notice has been given; and in my opinion it won’t bring a dollar over the mortgage, under the hammer.”
“Well, I can’t help myself,” added my father, gloomily.
“You made a bad mistake when you turned upon the colonel,” sneered the officer.
“I didn’t turn upon him; but we will not talk about that.”
My father was very much depressed at the thought of losing the thousand dollars which he had invested in his house. All he had saved was to be swept away from him. The constable procured his witnesses, served his legal notices, and went away chuckling over the misery he left behind him. Doubtless he exaggerated the confusion and dismay of my father when he reported his doings to his employer, and the great man gloated proportionally over the wreck he was making.