“IT”
There is not much more of this story for me to tell. The voyage up the
river involved very little of work, and nothing at all of adventure. The
steamboat was a slow one. She plodded along, day and night, never
landing except when it was necessary to take on fifty cords or so of
wood, with which to make steam.
Phil and his comrades took pride in keeping the decks in most
scrupulously clean condition, and doing with earnest care the other
tasks--mostly very small ones--which fell to their lot.
It took about nine days for the pottering old freight steamer to make
the journey to Louisville; for although the great flood had considerably
subsided, the Ohio was still sufficiently full for the boat to pass over
the falls and land her cargo at the city, instead of discharging it at
Portland, four miles below.
Bidding farewell to their captain, the crew of _The Last of the
Flatboats_ donned their new clothes, and took passage for Vevay on the
mail boat.
They landed at their home town late in the afternoon, hired a drayman to
haul their small baggage to their several homes, and proudly marched up
Ferry Street like the returning adventurers that they were, while all
the small boys in town trudged along with them precisely as they would
have followed a circus parade.
After briefly visiting their homes and having reunion suppers there with
their families, the boys reassembled in their old meeting-place, Will
Moreraud’s room over a store. There they made out all their accounts,
trying hard to make them look like those prepared by Mr. Kennedy’s
bookkeepers in New Orleans. They were then ready to settle, on the next
day, with all the owners of the cargo they had carried.
When all was arranged, Phil figured a while, and then said:--
“Fellows, we’ve netted a profit of exactly four hundred and fifty
dollars clear, by our trip. That’s ninety dollars apiece to add to our
college fund. The money’s in bank to my credit. I’ll draw a check for
each fellow’s share.”
When he had delivered to each of his comrades a check for ninety
dollars, he rose and stretched himself and said, with accents of
relief:--
“Now I’m not ‘IT’ any longer.”
“Oh, yes, you are,” said Irv. “We fellows are going to stick together
now, you know. There’s the study club, you remember. That will need an
‘IT,’ and you’ll be the ‘IT,’ won’t he, boys?”
“You bet!” said all in a breath.
* * * * *
When Irv and Ed reported the voyage and the study club plan to Mrs.
Dupont, she entered enthusiastically into the scheme.
“Don’t go to school at all this year,” she said. “Come to me instead.
When bright boys have made up their minds to study as hard as they can
without any forcing, all they need is a tutor to help them when they
need help. I’ll be the tutor. The old schoolroom in my house, where I
taught you boys and your fathers the multiplication table long before
graded schools were thought of in this town, is unoccupied. Everything
in it is just as it was when you boys were with me. I’ll have the maids
dust it up, and it shall be the home of the ‘Study Club.’”
When the boys told the wise old lady how Phil had been made “IT” on the
voyage, and how splendidly he had risen to his responsibilities, she
smiled, but showed no surprise.
“I’m glad you boys had the good sense to choose Phil for your leader,”
she said. “If you had asked me, I should have told you to do just that.
I am older than you by nearly half a century. I have taught several
generations of boys, and I think I know boys better than I know anything
else in the world. Now let me tell you about Phil. He was born to be
‘IT,’ he will always be ‘IT,’ though he will never try to be. He has a
gift--if I didn’t detest the word for the bad uses it has been put to,
I’d say he has a ‘mission’ to be ‘IT’ in every endeavor that he may be
associated with. Whenever you’re in doubt, be very sure that Phil is
your best ‘IT.’”
Here this story comes to an
END
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
Where the original work uses text in italics, this e-text uses _text_.
Small capitals in the original work are represented here in all
capitals.
Footnotes have been renumbered and moved to directly below the paragraph
to which they belong.
Illustrations that were located mid-paragraph in the original work were
moved below the including paragraph.
This text has been preserved as in the original, including archaic and
inconsistent spelling, punctuation and grammar, except as noted below.
Obvious printer’s errors have been silently corrected.
Page 12: ‘tussel’ changed to ‘tussle’.
Page 90: ‘Ouashita’ changed to ‘Ouachita’.
Pages 100, 101 and 102: ‘Pittsburg’ is likely referring to ‘Pittsburgh’.
Page 140: ‘fusilade’ changed to ‘fusillade’.
Page 124: ‘spliting’ changed to ‘splitting’.
Page 337: ‘Alleghanies’ changed to ‘Alleghenies’
End of Project Gutenberg's The Last of the Flatboats, by George Cary Eggleston