STEELE, PERKINS AND STEELE.
Captain Steele was extremely grateful to Uncle Naboth for his care of
me, and was delighted by the relation of our adventures on the golden
island, as well as pardonably proud of the financial success we had
attained.
A new firm was created under the title of “Steele, Perkins and Steele,”
and a new ship was soon found that seemed to have been especially
constructed to meet our requirements. Captain Steele, declaring that his
wooden leg would in no way interfere with his usefulness, decided to
command the ship himself, and Ned Britton was made first mate. Uncle
Naboth and I were appointed to look after all the finances and attend to
the trading at the various ports, and Nux and Bryonia were brought from
San Francisco and given posts on the new ship, to their great delight.
By the advice of his shrewder brother-in-law my father converted all his
accumulated treasures into money, which was safely invested in
Government bonds that were deposited in a Boston bank.
“Whatever happens now,” observed Uncle Naboth, “nobody can’t rob you
again; and if our business ventures proves unsuccessful, and Sam and I
go bankrupt, you’ve always got something to fall back on in your old
age.”
But success seemed to follow in the wake of the new firm, and the
“Cleopatra,” as our ship is named, has made voyage after voyage with
unvarying good fortune.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
● Transcriber’s note:
○ Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected.
○ Typographical errors were silently corrected.
○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only
when a predominant form was found in this book.