PUPILS FOR THE BEECH-HILL INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL.
Mr. Longbrook conducted Bolingbroke to another part of the wharf, and
pointed out to him an old sloop, about the size of the one sunk in the
deep water.
“I am sorry you are out of a place, young man; but you are welcome to
that boat in place of the one you lost, though I don’t feel under any
obligations to replace it. It was your misfortune that you were
accused of a crime. If you had not run away, I should have had a
chance to investigate the matter. I went out for a moment, and when I
returned you had gone. When I want another clerk, I will try to think
of you,” said the merchant, as he walked away towards the store.
Bolingbroke could hardly keep from crying at his disappointment in
losing the place, which he had expected would be a permanent one. The
salary was only four dollars a week; but he could board with a relative
for two, and he could at least relieve his father of one mouth to
feed.
“What’s the matter, my lad?” asked Captain Gildrock, as he and Dory
walked up the wharf. “You look as though you had not a friend in the
world.”
“I have lost the place I expected to have, and my father is very
poor,” replied Bolingbroke with due humility.
“What sort of a place was it?” asked the captain.
“It was a situation in Mr. Longbrook’s store. I have been looking for
a place for a year; but I am afraid I shall never find one,” replied
Bolingbroke, hoping the rich man would interest himself in his favor.
“There are ten clerks for every vacancy. Can’t you find any thing else
to do?”
“I don’t know: I never looked for any other kind of a place.”
“I should think you might find a place to work on a farm,” added the
captain in perfect good faith.
“On a farm!” exclaimed Bolingbroke, actually stopping in his walk in
his astonishment.
“I hear that there is a scarcity of help on the farms in the State,”
continued Captain Gildrock. “I should say you might earn four or five
dollars a week, or at least fifteen dollars a month, on a farm,
besides your board; and that is better pay than you can get in a
store.”
“I never worked on a farm,” added Bolingbroke, who possibly knew that
the rich man of Beech Hill had some peculiar notions.
“Where do you live?”
“I live in Genverres, on the north side, where my father has a farm.”
“Does your father carry on a farm?”
“Yes, sir: he has always been a farmer.”
“I should think you could find enough to do at home. Don’t your father
need any help on his place?”
“He hires all the help he wants. I never did any thing on the farm.”
“You look like a stout fellow; and I should think you could do a man’s
work for him,” added the captain, surprised in his turn.
“Perhaps I could, if I had been brought up to it,” replied Bolingbroke
rather sheepishly.
“Have you any brothers and sisters?”
“One brother and two sisters.”
“I should not think your father ought to be very poor, if he has a
farm, and two stout boys to help him. What does your brother do?”
“He has been looking for a place in a store for the last three years.
He has tried in Burlington, Rutland, and Brattleboro’; and he thinks
of going to New York or Boston.”
“Don’t your brother work on the farm when he is out of work?” asked
Captain Gildrock, who was beginning to get an inkling of the
situation.
“Neither of us ever did any thing on the farm. Mother has never been
willing that we should work on a farm,” replied Bolingbroke. “Father
wants us to do something else.”
“Do your two sisters do any thing? How old are they?”
“Elinora is twenty, and Fatima is twenty-two. They have never done any
thing.”
“I dare say they are both engaged, and their future is marked out,”
suggested the captain with a smile.
“Neither of them is engaged, and there is nothing to indicate their
future.”
“I suppose you have all been to school?”
“We are all graduates of the Genverres high-school.”
“Indeed!” exclaimed Captain Gildrock significantly, as though the last
item of information explained the situation fully to him. “Why don’t
you learn a trade?”
“Learn a trade!” ejaculated Bolingbroke. “I never thought of such a
thing.”
“It is a good time to think of it now then. You are not more than
sixteen or seventeen,” suggested the captain. “If you like, I will
receive you as a pupil in the Beech-Hill Industrial School, where you
can become a carpenter or a machinist, or learn to run an engine. You
can stay for a year or longer, and it will cost you nothing. I think
you said your father was very poor, and no other member of the family
seems to be earning any thing.”
“My father has hard work to get along. His farm is mortgaged for about
all it is worth, and it takes all the money he can raise to pay the
interest; and he is afraid he will lose all his property.”
“If you will come to my school, I will put you in the way of saving
money enough from your wages another year to pay your father’s
interest. If I don’t I will pay it myself.”
“I think a word from you would get me a place in some store in
Burlington. If you would recommend me”--
“How can I recommend you when I never saw you before in my life? I
don’t do things in that way,” interposed Captain Gildrock. “If you
join the school, I will see that you are in a position to earn fair
wages another year. One of our last year’s boys gets thirty dollars a
month besides his board. All of them get twenty or more. After they
have had experience they will command from fifty to a hundred dollars
a month. You can think of it, and let me know your decision in a few
days; for the school opens on the 1st of September.”
The party reached the hotel by this time. Dory and Bolingbroke were
summoned to appear as witnesses in the case of Lingerwell the next
day. Captain Gildrock found the ten recruits for the school at the
hotel. He had picked them up among his friends in Montpelier, St.
Albans, and St. Johnsbury. If he did not know it before, he had
ascertained on his trip to Burlington with them, that they were a set
of wild boys.
He was in a hurry to get them to Beech Hill before they tore any
houses down, or did any other mischief. At least five out of the ten
had been expelled from private schools or academies, because the
instructors could not manage them; three of them were the sons of
wealthy men; and all of them were supposed to have a liking for
mechanical pursuits. The captain was confident that he could manage
them after he got them to his estate.
Dory was satisfied that he could seat them all in the Goldwing, for he
had often taken out twenty in her on pleasure-excursions. But his
uncle was afraid they would “cut up,” as he expressed himself, and
make trouble on the passage. He spoke to them about going in the
schooner, and they were delighted with the idea. Most of them had
never been on the lake in any sort of a craft, and some had never even
seen a steamboat or a sailboat.
Captain Gildrock consented to the arrangement after he had charged the
recruits to behave with propriety in the boat, and to obey the orders
of the skipper. They promised to do these things, and they were
marched down to the wharf. Bolingbroke followed the party, evidently
because he did not know what else to do with himself.
“Couldn’t you say a word to your uncle in my favor, Dory?” said he on
the way to the lake. “He knows all the storekeepers, and a word from
him would make a place for me.”
“He won’t recommend you, because he knows nothing at all about you,”
replied Dory. “Why don’t you join the school, as he asked you to do?”
“I should make nothing for my father by doing that,” added
Bolingbroke. “I want to help him pay his interest-money.”
“How much can you do for him when you get only four dollars a week?”
asked Dory. “You would have to pay three for your board, and that
would leave you about fifty to pay for your clothes, washing, and all
other expenses. You would be just as well off at the end of the year,
and so would your father, if you went to the school.”
“But the idea of becoming a carpenter or a greasy machinist!”
exclaimed Bolingbroke with a curl upon his lip.
“I thought you wanted to earn money to help your father. A little oil
on your hands won’t hurt you,” replied Dory, rather disgusted with his
companion.
“I am sure my mother won’t let me become a mechanic, but I will speak
to her about it tonight. I suppose I can go down with you in the
Goldwing: I have no other way to get home.”
“Certainly, I have room enough. But how will you get the sloop Mr.
Longbrook gave you up to Genverres?”
“I will write to Sim Green, and he can go up in her when he is ready
to return.”
When the party arrived at the wharf, and the Goldwing was pointed out
to them, they were delighted with her. Some of them wondered if it
were safe to go in her, though most of the ten were afraid of nothing.
Captain Gildrock had business in Burlington which would detain him
till the next day, and it was arranged that Dory should come down in
the Sylph to attend court. His uncle would return in the steamer.
“But what are we to do with all these fellows before you come, uncle
Royal?” asked Dory. “They will tear the house down, and dry up the
lake.”
“Jepson and Brookbine are there; and, as they are to instruct the
pupils, they ought to be able to manage them,” replied the captain;
but his looks indicated that he had some anxiety about the matter.
“Tell Mr. Brookbine to assign the rooms to the boys, one to each, in
the dormitory. The rogues will not think of doing any mischief until
they are better acquainted.”
Captain Gildrock gave Dory a paper on which were written the names of
the new pupils. He called them off, one at a time, and gave to each
one his place in the boat. They behaved very well under the eye of the
captain. They were seated five on each side of the standing-room,
leaving room for the skipper to go forward and aft.
“I suppose you know all about a boat, fellows,” said Dory, as he went
forward to hoist the jib.
“Never saw a sailboat before!” exclaimed Ben Ludlow.
“Nor I!” shouted half a dozen others.
“Where have you been all your lives?” laughed Dory, as he paused on
his way.
“In the woods,” replied Ben.
The skipper shoved off, and the Goldwing stood across the lake.