MEIGS, MUSHROOMS AND MONEY.
“Will,” said Dr. Meigs, as he stopped one afternoon to lean over the
garden fence, “how are things going?”
“Pretty well, Doctor,” answered the boy, cheerfully.
“Are you getting ahead, and laying by something for the winter months,
when the vegetables won’t grow?”
“Were getting ahead _some_,” said Will, becoming grave; “but it’s
always a struggle for us in the winter, you know. I guess I’ll try to
get a job in the steel works in October. I’m pretty husky, for my age,
and I ought to be able to earn fair wages.”
“Humph!” growled the doctor, frowning upon the young fellow fiercely.
“You think you’ve had schooling enough, do you?”
“Oh, no! But mother needs help. She’s getting more tired and pale
looking every day; and Egbert can’t do much with his bad arm. So it’s a
case of force, Doctor. I’ve just _got_ to dig in and do something.”
“That’s true,” replied the big doctor. “But you’re going to be more
than a mere laboring man when you grow up, Will Carden, and I don’t
mean to let you get into those beastly mills. They’d sap your young
strength in no time, and make you an old man before your years would
warrant it. No; we’ll think of something else. Read that!”
He thrust a small book into the boy’s hand and immediately marched away
down the road.
Will looked at the book wonderingly. It was a treatise on mushroom
culture; something he had never heard of before. But he spent his
leisure during the next few days reading it carefully and the author
told how a great deal of money could be made by raising mushrooms on a
small plot of ground, under proper conditions and with intelligent care.
When again he saw Doctor Meigs Will said to him:
“Here’s your book, Doctor. It’s interesting, all right; but I can’t see
how I could possibly do anything at that business.”
“Why not?” enquired the doctor, seating himself calmly by Will’s side,
with the evident intention of arguing the question.
“In the first place,” said Will, “I’ve got no way to raise mushrooms.
They need a warm spot of earth, to do well; and a rich soil, and plenty
of shade.”
“Good!” said the doctor, nodding approval. “I see you’ve paid some
attention to the matter. Well, that old barn of yours is just the
place.”
“The barn!”
“Surely. I’ve just been examining it. It never was anything more than a
shed, without even a floor; and for a long time, while Deacon Wilder
owned this place, horses and cattle were kept there. The soil in that
barn is two feet thick and very rich. It’ll grow mushrooms like sixty!”
“But it’s cold in the barn, in winter. The boards are falling off in
places, and----”
“We’ll patch it up,” said the doctor, with decision; “and we’ll put a
heater in it--one of these regular green-house boilers, with hot-water
pipes running under the surface of the ground, so as to keep the soil
always warm. Firewood doesn’t cost much in this part of the country.”
Will smiled at such cheerful optimism.
“And when you’ve raised the things,” he said, “what are you going to
do with them? The Bingham people wouldn’t buy ten cents’ worth of
mushrooms in ten years.”
The doctor snorted contemptuously.
“The Bingham people! Do you think I’m a fool, Will Carden?”
“Who then?”
“Why, it’s only twenty-two miles to the city. There are four trains
every day. In the city are a thousand customers longing to buy
mushrooms, in season and out, and willing to pay big prices for them,
too.”
Will whistled, thoughtfully.
“It’s a bigger thing than I expected,” he acknowledged. “But, Doctor,
it’s out of the question. I wouldn’t dare risk our little savings in
this experiment, and aside from what’s put by for the winter, I haven’t
enough money to buy the spawn to start with; or patch up the barn; or
buy the water heater; or even market the stuff when it’s grown.”
“Who said anything about your spending money?” demanded the doctor,
roughly. “All I want of you, sir, is to hire out to me to raise
mushrooms. I’m going into the business.”
“You!”
“Yes, me. Confound it, Will Carden, do you think I’ve no ambition, just
because I’m a country doctor? My daughter, that married the wholesale
grocer in the city has three children already, and they’ve got to be
looked after.”
“Can’t the wholesale grocer do that?” asked Will, with twinkling eyes.
“I’ve a right to leave a fortune to my own grandchildren if I want to,”
growled the doctor; “and it’s none of your business, anyway, young
fellow. The question is, will you hire out to me? You and Egbert; I
want the two of you. The wages will be small, but they’ll be sure--even
if I have to collect some bills to pay them. And I’ll furnish all the
capital needed to fix up the barn and start things going.”
Will fairly gasped with astonishment.
“Do you really mean it, Doctor,” he asked.
“I usually mean what I say,” was the gruff retort. “Now, then, answer
me! And, by hookey, if you refuse I’ll charge you two dollars for this
consultation! Doctors can’t waste their time for nothing.”
“If you mean it, Doctor, of course I’ll hire out to you; and so will
Egbert.”
“It won’t interfere with your schooling, you know. You’ll have to get
up early mornings, and perhaps some cold nights you won’t get much
sleep, with tending the fires; but there’ll be plenty of time for you
to go to school, and poor Egbert can study his deaf-and-dumb lessons in
the shed as well as anywhere else, while you’re away.”
It must be mentioned here that Egbert had failed to learn to read and
write at the village school, and through the doctor’s influence was now
receiving lessons by correspondence from a prominent deaf-mute academy
in New York, by means of which his progress had lately become marked
and rapid.
“All right, Doctor. It’s a bargain,” announced Will, in a subdued
voice, but with a new sparkle in his eyes. “Give me that book again.
I’ll have to study it, I guess. When shall we begin?”
“The first of August,” said Doctor Meigs, seriously. “It’s a vacation
month, and you’ll have a lot to do getting things in shape. I’ll have
Joe Higgins fix the barn up. He owes me a big bill, and that’s the
only way I’ll ever get my pay. And Joe’s a pretty fair carpenter. Now,
about wages. They’ve got to be small to start with. I’ll give you and
Egbert ten dollars a month each.”
“Ten dollars!”
“That’ll make twenty for the two of you. It’s small, but it’s all I
can afford at first. But, to make up for that, I’ll give you, Will, a
working interest in the business.”
“What’s that?” asked the boy.
“Why, after all expenses are paid, including your wages, we’ll divide
the profits.”
Will looked into the kindly eyes, and his own dimmed.
“Doctor,” said he, “you’re the best friend a fellow ever had. But it’s
too much. I won’t take it.”
“How do you know there’s going to be any profit?” demanded the doctor,
sternly. “And if there is, who’ll make it? Don’t you be a confounded
idiot, Will Carden, and bother me when I’m trying to drive a bargain.
I know what I’m doing, and those grandchildren have got to be provided
for.”
“Suppose we fail?” questioned Will, half fearfully.
“Bosh! We can’t fail. I’ve talked with that wholesale grocer son-in-law
of mine, and he agrees to find customers for all the toad-stools we can
raise. So it’s up to you, old fellow, to sprout the mushrooms and then
the thing’s settled.”
“I’ll do the best I can, Doctor.”
“Then it’s all agreed, and I’ll draw up the papers for you to sign.”
“Papers!”
“Of course. This is an important business, and it’s got to be
ship-shape, and in writing, so there’ll be no backing out. Suppose that
wholesale grocer goes bankrupt--what’s to become of my grandchildren?”
Then he picked up his medicine case and stalked away, leaving the boy
thoroughly bewildered by the propositions he had advanced.
He told Egbert about it, for all of the Carden family were familiar
with the sign language, and the deaf-mute at once became greatly
interested, and eagerly agreed to undertake his share of the work.
Also he told his mother, and the poor woman sat down and cried softly,
afterward wiping away the tears with a corner of her apron. She was
really tired with all the house work, and the prospect of twenty
dollars a month added to their income seemed like a fortune to her. But
she said:
“I’m afraid the doctor can’t afford it, Will.”
“Afford it!” he exclaimed; “why, mother, I wouldn’t think of taking the
wages unless I felt sure of making a profit. He seems mighty certain
about it, and if work will help to win out, we’ll do it, sure as
shootin’!”
Which proved that he had caught some of the doctor’s own enthusiasm.
For a week the boy heard nothing more about the partnership, but at
the end of that time a load of lumber arrived from the Bingham lumber
yard, and soon after Joe Higgins, the carpenter, walked up to the barn
with his basket of tools, and with a nod to Will took off his coat and
started to work.
Next day came the doctor with a big, legal looking document for Will to
sign, which he first read in a solemn voice from beginning to end. It
set forth clearly the terms of their contract, and after the boy had
signed his name under the doctor’s he began to feel the magnitude of
the undertaking, and the responsibility put upon his young shoulders.
Doctor Meigs also brought more literature treating of mushroom culture,
which he advised Will to study carefully.
Joe Higgins worked three weeks repairing the barn. He not only made it
what he called “air-tight,” but in the east end he partitioned off a
room, and built a floor to it, and then put an outside window and door
in, making it very cozy and comfortable. This was to be the “office,”
where the heater was also to be placed, so that it would warm the room
as well as supply hot water to the pipes extending under the ground in
all directions throughout the interior of the big barn.
The room was hardly completed before the heater arrived from the city,
with men to set it up and arrange the system of pipes. Will dug all the
trenches for the pipes to lie in, and then with Egbert’s help covered
them over again. Also the two boys devoted days to another important
work, which was the placing of straw all around the outside edge of the
barn, and covering it with a bank of earth that reached well up onto
the boarding. This was to keep the frost from getting inside.
The wisdom of the doctor in starting this work in August was now
apparent, for the entire month was consumed in getting the barn in
shape and spading up the rich soil ready to receive the mushroom spawn.
Early in September the industry was started, and in a few days
thereafter small mushrooms, that looked like buttons, thrust their
heads above the earth within the warm, damp barn, and speedily grew to
a size that permitted them to be marketed.
The doctor carried the first picking home with him, and Will took
the next lot to the big house and sold them to the astonished and
delighted Nora, who placed an order for a pound of them every week. But
soon the crop began to mature very fast, and by the doctor’s orders
Will packed them in paper boxes holding a pound each, and afterward
arranged the boxes in a neat crate, which he shipped by express to
the wholesale grocer in the city whose children their grandfather was
so greatly interested in. The doctor supplied the boxes and crates,
and on the former was printed: “Carden & Co.’s Fresh Mushrooms.
Warranted Wholesome and Delicious.” And below followed several recipes
for cooking mushrooms, printed for the benefit of those who were
unaccustomed to preparing them. Nora furnished some of the recipes,
and old Mrs. Meigs the rest, so Will felt sure they would be successful.
For two or three weeks Carden & Co. shipped a crate of mushrooms daily
to the city. Then something went wrong; the crop failed suddenly, and
the spawn was discovered to be dead and useless. The doctor helped Will
to investigate the cause of the trouble, and afterward to overcome it;
and then fresh spawn was planted and the mushrooms began to grow again.
The wholesale grocer wrote that he was much annoyed by this delay. The
demand for mushrooms in the city was much greater than the supply, and
his customers were disappointed when they didn’t get them.
“We’ve been selling too cheap,” declared the doctor. “This is a good
time to raise the price. We’ll get fifty cents a pound, hereafter.”
It seemed a large price to Will, for now the mushrooms grew with
scarcely any care, and he found he was able to attend school and also
look after the work very easily. It was not until cold weather crept
on that the task became at all arduous; but the frosty nights obliged
the two boys to watch the fires carefully, and finally Will and Egbert
moved their bed to the little room at the end of the barn, and slept
there comfortably during the remainder of the winter, so they could
“attend to business properly.”
The wholesale grocer’s son-in-law sent all the money received for the
sale of the mushrooms to the doctor, so Will did not know exactly how
the business was coming along, for he had no idea how much money the
doctor had spent in preparation. But the monthly wages were paid to the
boys with great regularity, and on the first day of January the doctor
declared the first dividend, paying Will forty-three dollars as his
share of the profits up to date.
There was no prouder boy in Bingham than Will Carden when he realized
he was engaged in a successful business venture. He had already started
a bank account, for the family needs did not require all the money
the two boys earned as wages, and Will declared that this forty-three
dollars should never be touched unless absolutely necessary, as it was
to remain in the bank as the foundation of his fortune. We will know
later who it was that suggested this idea to him.
“Better than working in the mills, isn’t it?” said the doctor,
triumphantly, while for once he allowed a smile to spread over his
round, whiskered face.
“Indeed it is,” answered the grateful boy. “And I owe everything to
you, Doctor.”
“Nonsense!” returned the doctor, beginning to frown; “you owe it all
to your own industry, and to the fact that my poor grandchildren need
looking after.”