"What if he won't? He is so bound up in you and your business, and his
own many interests and duties, that he will make excuses innumerable."
"Quite likely, but I ought to be ingenious enough to devise some way of
making it appear a matter of duty."
"I hope you can, and that you'll begin at once, if only for my sake,
professionally, so that I may study the results."
Then, for a day, Philip became almost as silent as Caleb, and Grace
assisted him. The next morning, he said:--
"Caleb, I want to start a new enterprise that will revolutionize this
part of the country and part of Europe, too, if it succeeds, but it
won't work unless you join me in it."
"You know I'm yours to command," Caleb replied, at the same time
forcing a tiny gleam of interest.
"That's kind of you, but this project of mine is so unusual that I
almost fear to suggest it. You know that the farmers of this section
plant far more corn than anything else."
"Yes, 'n always will, I reckon, no matter how small the price of what
they can't put into pork. The idee o' corn-plantin' 's been with 'em
so long that I reckon it's 'petrified in their brain structure,' as a
scientific sharp I once read about, said about somethin' else."
"Quite so, and we can't hope to change it unless labor and horses
should suddenly become cheaper and more plentiful. Now I propose
that we take advantage of this state of affairs by making some money
and getting some glory, besides indirectly helping the farmers, by
increasing the future demand for corn. You yourself once told me that
if the people of Europe could learn to eat corn-bread, 'twould be
money in their own pockets, relieve corn-bins here of surplus stock,
and perhaps lessen the quantity of the corn spoiled by being made into
whiskey."
"That's a fact," said Caleb.
"Very well. Corn never was cheaper here than it is now,--so I'm
told,--nor were the mills ever so idle. I can buy the best of
corn-meal, barrelled, and deliver it in London or Liverpool, freight
paid, at less than two dollars per barrel, and I can buy all I want of
it on my note at six months. If you'll go into the enterprise with me,
every barrel shall be labelled 'Claybanks Western Corn-Flour: trademark
registered by Philip Somerton.'"
"Hooray for Claybanks! Hooray for the West!" shouted Caleb, becoming
more like his old self.
"Thank you. But as I've quoted to you about your bath-house project,
'You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.' Meal
has often been sent to the English market, and some dealers have even
sent careful cooking and bread-making directions. The different methods
of making good food from corn-meal must, I am satisfied, be shown,
practically, before the eyes of possible consumers. So my plan is this:
to send over, say, two hundred barrels to London; hire for a month
a small shop in a district thickly inhabited by people who know the
value of a penny saved, cook in various forms--hasty pudding, hoe-cake,
dodgers, muffins, corn-bread, etc., at the rate of a barrel of meal a
day, or as much as can be sold, or even given away as an advertisement
of the 'Claybanks Western Corn-Flour'--meanwhile persuading grocers
in the vicinity to keep the meal for sale to persons who are sensible
enough to appreciate it. And finally, as you know how to make all sorts
of good things of corn-meal, I'd like you to go over to England and
manage the entire business."
"Wh-e-e-e-e-e-ew!"
"That's somewhat non-committal, isn't it?"
"Well!" said Caleb, "I reckon the malary's knocked plumb out o' me!"
"I hope so; but if it isn't, it will be; for Doctor Taggess says that
a month at sea is the newest treatment prescribed for malaria, and
that is said to be a sure cure. The trip over won't take a month, but
a week or ten days of the ocean ought to make a beginning, and show
you how 'twill act, and if the enterprise makes a hit, I'll show my
appreciation by standing the expense of a trip up the Mediterranean and
back by direct steamer to the United States. By the way, while you're
up the Mediterranean, you might join one of Cook's tourist parties,
and see the Holy Land. How does the entire plan strike you?"
"How--does it--strike me?" drawled Caleb. Then he pulled himself
together and continued: "Why, it's struck me all of a heap. Say,
Philip, you've got a mighty long head--do you know it? I ain't sayin'
that I can't do the work middlin' well, though I have heard that it
takes a pickaxe an' a corkscrew to get any new idee into the commoner
kinds of the English skull. An' a trip through the Holy Land! But
say--who'd look after my Sunday-school class while I was away?"
"Oh, I will, if you can't find a better substitute. You've been doing
your best to get me into church work--you know you have, you sly scamp.
Now's your chance."
"To break you into that sort o' work," said Caleb, slowly, "I'd be
willin' to peddle ice in Greenland, an' live on the proceeds. But
there's my other class--though I s'pose I could farm that out for a
spell. Then there's a lot o' folks that's been lookin' to me for one
thing an' another so long that--"
"That perhaps 'twould do them good to be obliged to depend upon
themselves for a few weeks."
"Phil dear, don't be heartless! Caleb, couldn't you trust those people
to a woman for a little while?"
"Oh, couldn't I! An' I thank you from the bottom of my heart besides.
London! Then I could see Westminster Abbey, an' the Tower o' London,
an' go to John Wesley's birthplace, an'--"
"Yes," said Philip, "and you could run over to Paris, too."
"No, sir!" exclaimed Caleb. "When I want to see Satan an' his kingdom,
I won't have to travel three thousan' mile to do it. But--"
"But me no more buts, Caleb--unless you would rather not go."
"Rather not, indeed! If I was dyin' as hard of malary as I'm dyin' to
see some things in England, I guess I'd turn up in kingdom-come in
about three days, almanac-time. What I was 'buttin'' about was only
this: are you plumb sure that I'm the right man for the job?"
"Quite sure; for you're entirely honest, industrious, and persistent;
you're as corn-crazy as any other Western man; you've taught my wife
and me how to work a lot of unsuspected delicacies out of corn-meal;
and, more important than all else, for this purpose, you've the special
Western faculty of taking a man's measure at once and treating him
accordingly. If that won't work with the English,--and the worst of
them can't be any stupider than certain people here,--nothing will.
So the matter is settled, and you're to start at once--to-morrow, if
possible; for first I want you to buy me a lot of goods in New York. My
wife and I have determined to carry a larger stock and more variety,
and--"
"Start to-morrow!" interrupted Caleb, incredulously.
"Yes; the longer you wait, the longer 'twill take you to get away.
Besides, I want to keep the corn-meal enterprise a secret, and you're
so honest that it'll leak from you if you don't get off at once."
"But I can't get--"
"Yes, you can, no matter what it is. And while you are attending to
business in New York you must sleep down by the seaside, so that the
sea air shall begin its fight with the malaria as soon as possible.
I shall engage a room for you by telegraph to-day; you can reach it
by rail within an hour from any part of the city, and return in the
morning as early as you like."
"But, man alive, you haven't got the corn-meal yet."
"I shall have a lot of it on the rail by a week from to-day; the rest
can follow. You'll need a fortnight in New York, to do the buying
and see the sights, for the town is somewhat larger than Claybanks.
Besides, no self-respecting American should go abroad until he has
seen Niagara Falls, Independence Hall, Bunker Hill Monument, and the
National Capital. The Falls are directly on your route East, Washington
is a short and cheap trip from New York, with Philadelphia between
the two cities, and you can take a steamer from Boston. Now pack
your gripsack at once--there's a good fellow, and don't say a single
good-by. I'm told they're dreadfully unlucky. After you've started,
I'll explain to every one that you've gone East to buy some goods
for me. At present I'll settle down to making you a route-book, with
information about all sorts of things that you may wish, after you're
off, that you'd asked about."
Caleb retired slowly to his room over the store; Philip and Grace
took turns for an hour in watching the street for Doctor Taggess and
in sending messengers in every direction for him, and when the Doctor
arrived, they unfolded to him, under injunctions of secrecy, the entire
plan regarding Caleb. The Doctor listened with animated face and
twinkling eyes, until the story ended; then he relieved himself of a
long, hearty laugh, and said:--
"What would your Uncle Jethro say to such an outlay of money?"
"If he's where I hope he is," Philip replied, "he knows that Caleb
richly deserves it in addition to his salary, for his many years of
service. Besides, we've earned the money, in excess of any previous
half-year of trade; so even if the commercial project fails I shall be
out only three or four hundred dollars."
"And without doubt," said the Doctor, "'twill be the remaking of Caleb."
"I hope so," Philip replied, "for he has been remaking me."