A BRILLIANT SCHEME.
One morning, a few days later, Joshua was walking moodily up the village
road with his hands in his pockets. He was reflecting, in a spirit of
great discontent, on the hardships of his situation.
"Here am I," he said to himself, "eighteen years old, and father treats
me like a boy of ten. I'm most a man, and all he gives me for
pocket-money is twenty-five cents a week. There's Dick Storrs, whose
father isn't a quarter as rich as mine, gets a dollar a week. He's only
sixteen, too."
One important difference between himself and Dick Storrs did not occur
to Joshua. Dick worked in a shoe-shop, and it was out of his own wages
that his father allowed him a dollar a week. Joshua earned nothing at
all.
"It's mean!" reflected Joshua. "There aint a boy of my age in Stapleton
that's so meanly treated, and yet my father's the richest man in town.
I wish I knew what to do to get a little money."
At this moment he saw Sam Crawford approaching him. Sam was perhaps a
year younger than Joshua. He had formerly lived in the village, but was
now in a situation in New York, and was only in Stapleton for a few
days.
"How are you, Joshua?" said Sam.
"Well enough," said Joshua. "Where are you going?"
"I'm going round to the ice-cream saloon. Won't you come with me?"
"Yes, if you'll treat. I haven't got any money."
"You ought to have. The old man's got plenty."
"That's so. But he's getting meaner every day. What do you think he
allows me for spending money?"
"I don't know. A dollar a week?"
"A dollar! I should think myself lucky if I got anywhere near that. What
do you say to twenty-five cents?"
"You don't mean to say that's all he gives you?"
"Yes, I do."
"Why, I can't get along on ten times that. Why don't you ask for more?"
"I have, fifty times; but that's all the good it does."
"If my father treated me like that, I'd cut his acquaintance."
"I don't know as that would do me any good," said Joshua, rather
sensibly. "I wish I knew of any way of getting some money."
"You might hire out to saw wood for the neighbors," said Sam.
"I haven't got so low as that," said Joshua, haughtily.
"Of course I meant that in joke; but you might get a place, and earn
some money."
This suggestion, however, did not suit Joshua, for it carried with it
the idea of work, and he was as lazy as he was selfish; which is saying
as much as can well be said on that point.
"The old man ought to give me enough to spend, without work," he said.
"He don't spend more than a third of his income."
"He's saving it up for you."
"I'm not likely to get it for a good many years," said Joshua, who
actually seemed to be angry with his father for living so long. However,
though it is doubtful whether Joshua would have been a dutiful or
affectionate son under any circumstances, it must be admitted that Mr.
Drummond had done very little to inspire filial affection.
"Look here!" said Sam, suddenly, "I have an idea. Did you ever buy a
lottery ticket?"
"No," answered Joshua.
"There's a fellow I know in New York that drew a prize of a thousand
dollars, and how much do you think he paid for a ticket?"
"I don't know."
"Five dollars. How's that for high?"
"How long ago is that?" asked Joshua, becoming interested.
"Only two months ago."
"Do you know him?"
"Yes, I know him as well as I know you. He is clerk in a store just
opposite ours. When he got the money he gave half a dozen of us a big
dinner at Delmonico's. We had a jolly time."
"A thousand dollars for five!" repeated Joshua. "He was awfully lucky.
What lottery was it?"
"It was one of the Delaware lotteries."
"Do you know the name of it?"
"No, but I'll tell you what I'll do. The fellow I was speaking of gets
lottery papers regularly. I'll ask him for one, and send it to you as
soon as I get back to the city."
"I wish you would," said Joshua. "Wouldn't it be splendid if I could
draw a prize of a thousand dollars?"
"I'll bet it would. It would make you independent of the old man. You
wouldn't care much for his twenty-five cents a week then?"
"No, I'd tell him he might keep it till he got rich enough to afford me
more."
"He'd open his eyes a little at that, I reckon."
"I guess he would. When are you going back to the city?"
"The last of this month. My time will be up then."
"You won't forget to send me the paper?"
"No, I'll remember it. Come in and have an ice-cream. You can return the
compliment when you've drawn a prize."
"All right! Is a thousand dollars the highest prize?"
"No, there are some of two, three, and five thousand. Then there are
five-hundred-dollar prizes, and so along to five dollars. Five hundred
wouldn't be so bad, eh?"
"No, I should feel satisfied with that. I would come up to New York, and
spend a week."
"If you do, just step in upon me, and I'll show you round. I know the
ropes."
"I wish I could," said Joshua, enviously. "This is an awfully stupid
place. I tried to get leave to go to the city last fall, but the old man
wouldn't let me. He wasn't willing to spend the money."
I hope none of my readers will so admire the character of Joshua
Drummond as to imitate him in the disrespectful manner in which he
speaks of his father. Yet I am aware that many boys and young men, who
are not without respect and affection for their parents, have fallen
into the very discreditable way of referring to them as "the old man" or
"the old woman." They may be sure that such a habit will prejudice
against them all persons of right feeling.
Joshua and Sam went into the ice-cream saloon, which was kept, during
the summer only, in a small candy store, by a maiden lady who eked out a
scanty income by such limited patronage as the village could afford.
Joshua plied his companion with further questions, to all of which he
readily replied, though it is doubtful whether all the answers were
quite correct. But Sam, having been in the city a few months, wished to
be thought to have a very extensive acquaintance with it, and was
unwilling to admit ignorance on any point.
Early the next week Sam returned to his duties in the city, and Joshua
awaited impatiently the promised lottery papers.
Sam did not forget his promise. On the third day after his departure a
paper came to the village post-office, directed.
"Joshua Drummond, Esq.,
Stapleton."
This was promptly taken from the office by Joshua, who had called on an
average twice a day for this very paper. It proved to be printed on
yellow paper, and fairly bristled with figures, indicating the large
sums which were weekly distributed all over the country by the
benevolent managers of the lottery. Here was a scheme in which the
principal prize was but a thousand dollars. However, the tickets were
but a dollar each, and a thousand dollars for one was certainly a
handsome return for a small outlay. There were others, however, in which
the principal prize was five thousand dollars, and the tickets were, in
due proportion, five dollars each.
Joshua went off to a somewhat secluded place, for he did not wish to be
interrupted, and eagerly read the paper through from beginning to end.
Certainly the representations made were of a very seductive character.
One might suppose, from reading the paragraphs sandwiching the several
schemes, that the chances were strongly in favor of every holder of a
ticket drawing a prize, though a little calculation would have shown
that the chances of drawing even the smallest prize were scarcely more
than one in a hundred. Here, for instance, is one of the paragraphs:--
"A mechanic in a country town in New York State met with an accident
which confined him to his home for three months. He had a large family
of children, and had never been able to lay up any money. The
consequence was, that the family was reduced to great distress, and he
saw no resource except to try to borrow a little money, which would
create a debt that he might be years in paying off. But fortunately,
only a week before the accident, his wife had seen one of our
advertisements. She had five dollars by her, which she had intended to
appropriate to the purchase of a new dress. Instead of doing this, a
happy impulse led her to send for one of our tickets. She concealed this
from her husband, however, thinking that he would blame her. What was
her joy, when they were reduced to their last dollar, to receive from us
intelligence that she had drawn a prize of two thousand dollars! The
joy of the poor family can better be imagined than described. They were
enabled at once to purchase the house in which they lived, and thus to
lay the foundation of permanent prosperity. Thus, as in numberless other
cases, have we been the means of bringing joy to lucky households."
Now, this story was probably manufactured out of whole cloth. At any
rate, even if true, for every such fortunate household there were a
hundred to which the lottery had carried disappointment and privation.
But of course the lottery managers could not be expected to allude to
these, nor did Joshua, as he greedily read such paragraphs, consider
them. On the contrary, his imagination and cupidity were both excited,
and he was foolish enough to suppose that his chances of success in case
he invested would be very good indeed.