THE JANITOR OF THE BOAT-HOUSE.
Captain Gildrock was delighted with the skill and the industry which the
students had displayed in the removal of the cottage. It was not the
difficulty of the feat they had accomplished so much as the neat and
orderly as well as quiet manner in which the work had been done. Usually
boys cannot do anything without a great noise and not a little bluster.
But the Beach Hillers had not disturbed any one on either side of the
lake.
With the machinery at their command it was not a great achievement to
move a building no larger than the home of the Bristols across the lake.
The principal had as yet no report of the work, but, taking the
appearance of the cottage at Hornet Point as a specimen of the labor
done, nothing could be better.
"Everything seems to be in good order here, Mrs. Bristol," said Captain
Gildrock, when he had examined the cottage and its surroundings.
"I can't see for the life of me how the students brought the cottage
over here and put it on the posts just as it was before, and in the
night, too," added Mrs. Bristol.
"And everything is just as neat as wax-work," said Lily.
"Just beyond the quarries is what we call the lake road, which is the
boundary of my land on the east side. There is a driveway from it
through the quarries, near the shore of the creek. I shall continue this
road to Beechwater, which will carry it by the end of the cottage,"
continued Captain Gildrock, pointing out the locality. "By this road you
can go to the town without passing through the school-grounds, though
you are entirely welcome to use the latter."
"You are very kind, sir," replied Mrs. Bristol. "I am sure I have not
the slightest claim upon you for anything, and you have done more for me
already than all others. We shall be grateful to you as long as we
live."
"I think you are a very worthy woman, and I am very glad to be able to
serve you," replied the captain. "But I have come to the conclusion that
my mission in the world is to help others to help themselves. You have a
son and a daughter."
"And they are both able and willing to work," added the woman.
"So I have heard from my nephew; and I expect to put you in the way of
earning your living. In the first place what is to be done with your
son?"
"He will do any kind of work he can get to do--work in a store or on a
farm."
"If he goes into a store, he has about one chance in ten of becoming
something more than a counter-jumper on five dollars a week. But he
ought to learn a trade."
"I should be very glad to have him do so, but we are dependent upon him
just now for the means of living. When Lily had a place in Westport, she
received only a dollar a week besides her board; and sometimes Paul
could not make any more than that."
"I have a place for Paul. I want a janitor for the boat-house, for Bates
is getting rather too old to do such work. I will give your son a salary
of twenty dollars a month for the service."
"You are very kind, sir; that is more than we ever had to live on,"
replied Mrs. Bristol.
"But I think he had better join the school at the same time. We can make
a carpenter or a machinist of him; and if he prefers some other trade,
what he learns here will not come amiss. He can do his work in the
boat-house and be a member of the school at the same time, though he
will have to work some part of the day while the students are at play."
"Paul will be very glad to work and never play, for he has always been a
very good boy," added the devoted mother.
"Your daughter, you said, had worked at the millinery business, and
perhaps a place can be found for her in Genverres," continued the
captain, as he led the way back to the boat. "We will go to breakfast
now."
The family took their morning meal at the usual hour; but not a single
student had yet appeared on the grounds. The principal would not allow
them to be disturbed until nine o'clock, when the bell was rung in the
dormitory, though a few of the boys had turned out at this hour. At
half-past nine breakfast was served to them; and they all appeared to be
in as good condition as usual.
Paul was invited to join them, though he was to board at home as soon as
his mother was established in the cottage. By this time he was pretty
well acquainted with the students, and was very popular among them. The
story of his fight with Walk Billcord and his father had been told on
board of the Sylph on the passage to Sandy Point, and his prowess made
him a hero among the boys.
"Paul, did you take the tin box from the hollow of the tree?" asked Mrs.
Bristol, as her son was leaving the mansion with the rest of the
students, for Fatima Millweed had already entered his name on the roll.
"I never thought a word about it, mother," replied Paul, not a little
mortified at the neglect. "I was so busy and so anxious that it never
came into my head. But I will go over in the Dragon and get it right
off."
"But Captain Gildrock has a place for you as janitor of the boat-house,
and perhaps he cannot spare you," added Mrs. Bristol.
"Janitor of the boat-house!" exclaimed Paul, opening his eyes very wide.
"And your salary is to be twenty dollars a month," continued Mrs.
Bristol. "The captain says his mission is to help those who are willing
to help themselves. Besides this, you are to be one of the students, and
learn to be a carpenter or a machinist."
"One of the students!" almost screamed Paul.
"But you will have to work while the other students play, my son."
"By the big wooden spoon! I shall be willing to work all night if I can
learn what the other fellows learn," replied Paul.
His mother explained to him more fully the intentions of the principal,
and the son of toil was more delighted than if a fortune had suddenly
dropped into his lap. He knew all about the course of study at Beech
Hill, and thought it was the finest school in the world. He had long
wished that he might learn a trade, and he would have sought a place
with a carpenter before, but he would have to work for nothing at first,
and his mother needed the dollar or two a week he could earn.
"When will Paul begin his work as janitor?" asked Mrs. Bristol, as the
principal was passing them in the hall.
"At once, Mrs. Bristol. His wages shall begin to-day," replied Captain
Gildrock. "But if you want him at the cottage till you get settled we
can spare him, though he had better join his class to-day."
"I wanted him to go over to Sandy Point," continued Mrs. Bristol, who
then explained the errand upon which she proposed to send Paul. "The
tin box contains my wedding ring, my mother's gold ring, and a
two-dollar bill. I was afraid to keep them in the house, for rough
characters sometimes land at the point. I didn't think of the box till I
wanted the money to buy some provisions."
"But Paul would have to row ten miles to get the box," added the
principal. "This is a broken day, and we shall not do much in the school
or the shops, and he can go over in the Goldwing after the students are
dismissed. I will pay Paul's first month's wages in advance, for I am
sure you will want some money."
The good woman took the money under protest, though it was true that she
needed it. The gold rings were of more value to her than any sum of
money, and she hoped they would not be lost.
At ten o'clock the bell rung for the forenoon studies. Paul took a desk
assigned to him, and no other boy was ever more interested in a circus
than he was in the exercises of the school-room. As soon as the school
was assembled, Captain Gildrock took the platform and called upon the
leader of the moonlight expedition to report upon the action he had
taken.
Dory modestly related all the particulars of the trip to Sandy Point,
and the removal of the cottage, and warmly commended the ship's company
for the good order they had maintained, the promptness with which his
orders had been obeyed, and the quietness with which all had done their
duty.
The principal believed in giving reasonable commendation when it was
deserved, and he bestowed handsome praise upon them on this occasion.
When the boys came into the school-room, they noticed upon the wall in
the rear of the platform a large drawing which they had never seen
before. It consisted of three plans of a vessel. On a table was a model
of the hull of a craft of some sort, resting in a cradle. The students
had kept their eyes fixed on the drawings and the model most of the time
while they listened to the commendation of the principal and the report
of their leader.
They manifested a very strong interest in these things, and they were
likely soon to forget the operations of the night before. For six months
there had been a great deal of talk among them about building a boat,
and the project was a very attractive one to them. But up to the present
time nothing had officially been said or done about it. As soon as the
spring opened, they had been required to erect a sort of shop on the
very bank of the little lake, near the old wharf of the steamer.
This structure was seventy-five feet long, with plenty of windows, and
was entirely open on the water side. In accordance with the general
policy of the principal, its use had not been explained; but all the
students believed it was to contain the ways on which the boat was to be
built. It looked now as though the desired information in regard to the
building of the boat was to be communicated to them.
"I need not ask you if you have noticed these drawings, and this model
of a vessel," said Captain Gildrock, after he had finished what he had
to say about the moving of the cottage; "for you have been looking at
these things most of the time since you came into the school-room."
"Are we to begin on the boat to-day?" Lon Dorset asked; and he was one
of the new students, not yet thoroughly broken in with the customs of
the school.
"When I set you at work you will begin; not before. It always affords me
very great pleasure to answer sensible questions, boys, and I shall do
everything I can to encourage you to ask them; but I don't believe in
foolish questions. Such is the character of all questions relating to
what we are going to do. You are never required to do anything until an
order is given. Foolish questions take up as much time as sensible
ones."
Lon Dorset was somewhat abashed at the manner in which his inquiry had
been treated; but the principal knew that some of the boys would talk
all day about nothing, if permitted to do so; and the questions he
tolerated and encouraged were those which brought out real information,
and revealed the condition of the inquirer's mind.
"The building of the boat has been somewhat delayed on account of the
difficulty of obtaining suitable lumber," continued the principal. "A
load which came from Boston yesterday will enable us to make a
beginning."
Some of the new pupils were disposed to give three cheers.