The Project Gutenberg eBook of Julius, The Street Boy, by Horatio Alger, Jr.

BY
HORATIO ALGER, JR.

Author of

Brave and Bold, Bound to Rise, Risen from the Ranks, Erie Train
Boy, Paul, the Peddler, Phil, the Fiddler,
Young Acrobat, Etc.

colophon

Made in U. S. A.

M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY
CHICAGO :: NEW YORK

JULIUS, THE STREET BOY.

CHAPTER I.

RETIRED FROM BUSINESS.

“Where are you goin’, Julius? Where’s yer blackin’ box?” asked Patrick Riley.

“No, but he’s goin’ up the river to Sing Sing, for the benefit of his constitushun, and I’m goin’ West fer my health.”

“No, I ain’t, I’m goin’ in a few days, along of Mr. O’Connor, and a lot of other chaps.”

“More’n a hundred miles,” said Julius, whose ideas of geography and distances were rather vague.

“Yes, I do, I’m goin’ on to a farm, or into a store, and grow up respectable.”

“I don’t think I’d like the country,” said Pat, reflectively.{6} “New York’s a bully place. There’s always something goin’ on. I say, did you hear of that murder in Center Street last night?”

“A feller stabbed a cop that was trottin’ him round to the station house for bein’ tight. There’s always something to make it lively here. In the country there ain’t no murders, nor burglaries, nor nothin’,” concluded Pat, rather contemptuously.

“I hope there’s theayters,” said Julius, thoughtfully. “I like to go when there’s a good lively piece.”

“Yes, me and some of the boys have got up a theayter. We do the pieces and actin’ ourselves.”

“It’s No. 17 Baxter Street, down in the basement. We call it ‘The Grand Duke’s Oprea House.’ We don’t have to pay no rent. It’s Jim Campara’s place, an’ he’s treasurer, so his father don’t charge nothin’.”

“Yes; we can’t expect to get so much as Tony, ’cause yer know we ain’t purfessional. We’re amatoors.”

“How much do you get for your valuable services, Pat?” asked Julius, laughing.

“I’ll tell yer the way we do. Jim Campara—he’s the treasurer—keeps all the stamps till the end of the week, and then it is divided between us. Last week I got three dollars.”

“Well,” said Pat, “there’s some expenses. I have to pay for my wardrobe.”

“My stage clo’es. Besides I have to practice dancin’ in the daytime. I ain’t Pat Riley on the stage.”

“Oh, there’s Dan Conroy, Pete Connors, Teddy Sullivan, Jim McGrath, Dick Burke, Jim Gillispie and Campara.”{8}

“Maybe you ain’t got a genius for it,” responded the eminent negro comedian. “Lots of boys wants to come in, but we don’t take none if they can’t act. There was Billy Burke wanted to come; but we tried him, an’ he couldn’t play no more’n a stick. We want fellers that’ll draw. You come round to-night, an’ you’ll see what we can do.”

“‘Laughin’ Gas’ and ‘Dick Turpin’ is the principal pieces, but the ‘Mulligan Guards’ is the best. Yer better be on time, for it’s my benefit, and my friends will be out in crowds.”

Here’s Pat’s keen eyes detected a gentleman with soiled boots, and he called out, “Shine yer boots, mister?”

The gentleman submitted his boots to the professional efforts of Pat, unaware that the young bootblack was the celebrated Miles O’Reilly of the “Grand Duke’s Oprea House.” Probably he had never visited that famous and fashionable place of amusement, or he would{9} have recognized the face of one of the most brilliant stars in the galaxy of talent which nightly appeared upon its humble stage.

Julius went on his way, being for a few days a gentleman of leisure. For the benefit of such readers as may not be familiar with the details of his story as told in “Slow and Sure,” it is well to record the fact that he had been brought up by Jack Morgan, a thief and burglar, who, for the last four years, had spent half of his time on Blackwell’s Island. When at liberty, Julius lived with him. When he was in seclusion, Julius looked out for himself, and, being sharp and shrewd, and accustomed to depend upon his own exertions, managed just as well without his guardian as with him. He had no particular reason to like Jack, who merely gave him the liberty of earning his own living, and frequently borrowed his scanty earnings without thinking it necessary to repay them.

Some weeks before, Jack, with a friend and confederate, Marlowe, formed a plan for entering a house on Madison Avenue, which, they had reason to believe, contained a considerable amount of plate. The owner was absent in Europe and the house was left during his absence under the care of Paul Hoffman and his mother. Paul, whose early history is recorded in “Paul, the Peddler,” was the proprietor of a street necktie stand, near the Astor House. He had on one occasion shown kindness{10} to Julius, and the latter was grateful. Learning that Jack and Marlowe proposed to enter the house occupied by Paul, he showed his gratitude by giving the young street merchant an intimation of their intentions. Thus, when the attempt was made, Paul was prepared, and the two burglars walked into a trap. Jack was caught on the spot, but Marlowe for the time escaped. Had he left the city at once, he might have escaped wholly. But he was inflamed with bitter anger against the boy Julius, who, as he rightly judged, had betrayed them, and he was determined to be revenged. Following the boy to Staten Island, he overtook him in a lonely place, and but for timely interference might have murdered him, in which case the present volume would never have been written.

But Julius was reserved for better things. His dangerous enemy was arrested, and being identified as having been concerned in the Madison Avenue robbery, was tried in due form, and sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment in Sing Sing.

I have anticipated matters a little, as at the time the present story opens both he and Jack Morgan were temporarily confined in the Tombs, while awaiting trial.

As for Julius, he was rewarded by a gift of fifty dollars, and, by the advice of his new friends, determined to seek a home in the West, going out under the auspices of the Children’s Aid Society. The company of which{11} he was to be one was to start in a few days. Meanwhile Julius decided to enjoy a rest from his usual labors, having an ample supply of money to meet his small expenses. On the whole, he was pleased with the idea of going West. But, apart from this consideration, he felt that his life would not be safe in the city should Jack Morgan or Marlowe succeed in breaking jail, as they had done more than once before. The boy had good reason to apprehend danger, for he well knew their brutal natures, and their unscrupulousness, and that they would stop at no crime in wreaking vengeance upon him. Once out West, however, he would be out of their reach, and it was not likely that they would follow him out there.{12}

CHAPTER II.

THE “GRAND DUKE’S OPREA HOUSE.”

Some minutes before eight, Julius reached the “Grand Duke’s Oprea House.” It is very eligibly located on Baxter Street not far from the famous Five Points. Perhaps in consequence of the filthy condition of the streets in the immediate neighborhood, visitors are not expected to appear in full dress, and nothing is more common than for the young gentlemen who patronize it to dispense with coat or vest, or both. As for kid gloves, these are not tolerated at the Oprea House, and a fellow who indulged in them would be regarded as “puttin’ on airs,” and probably be hustled out unceremoniously, as guilty of a gross insult to the rest of the spectators.

The entrance to the Grand Duke theatre is not imposing. In fact, the visitor is obliged to descend a shaky staircase into a cellar about ten feet below the level of the sidewalk.

“It’s like goin’ down into a coal mine,” remarked Julius to Pat Riley, who was acting as his guide.

Reaching the bottom of the flight of steps, Julius found himself confronted by the ticket seller who was looking out of a square hole, over which were marked the prices of admission.

“That’s where yer pay,” said Pat. “I go in free, coz I’m one of the actors.”

The treasurer pulled a cord connecting with the door of entrance, and Julius entered.

The Oprea House proved to consist of a room twenty feet by thirty, and six and a half feet high. A portion of this was set apart as a stage, in front of which hung a curtain of turkey-red calico, four breadths wide. On one side was a lofty pillar with a scroll, on which was written the ambitious name of this temple of the muses, “Grand Duke’s Oprea House.” In place of the customary footlights was a kerosene lamp, which with the aid of a concave reflector illuminated the room.

Pat pointed to a large broadside of brown packing paper, on which was rudely scrawled:{14}

“That’s me!” said Pat, with professional pride. “It looks big, don’t it?”

“There’s lots of chaps would give all they could make on shines in a week, to hev their names put up there,” said Pat, confidentially.

“Ef you wos goin’ to stay in the city, I’d learn you some jigs,” said Pat, “and see what you was made of. It isn’t every feller that can make a good jig dancer.”

“How are you, Miles?” said a large boy, slapping Pat on the shoulder. “I guess you’ll have a good house.”

“I hope I will. Dave, this is a friend of mine. He ain’t been to the Oprea House before.”

“Glad to see yer,” said David Conroy, with dignified affability. “Hope yer’ll get yer money’s worth.”

“Dave is stage manager,” said Pat. “He kin do anything, kin Dave. He painted the sceneries; you’ll see ’em bimeby, and he’s the best actor we’ve got. He’s captain of the Mulligans. There ain’t nothin’ that feller{15} can’t do,” concluded Pat, with unmistakable admiration expressed in his tone.

“Dave fixes ’em up out of plays at the Theatre Comique, and some of the songs we gits from Tony Pastor’s. If there was time I’d take you behind the sceneries. But it’s most time to begin.”

“Miles O’Reilly is wanted,” was heard from behind the curtain, and the great comedian left our hero and hurried behind the scenes.

By this time the cellar was nearly full of boys, varying in age from five to twenty, who were crowded together in such near proximity as the limited size of the auditorium rendered imperatively necessary. The front row was close up to the curtain, and here Julius was fortunate enough to secure a place.

The stiffness and reserve which characterize the spectators at other theatres was dispensed with at the free and easy “Grand Duke’s Oprea House.” Cheerful and jocose remarks were interchanged, spiced with genial humor, and occasionally tinged with sarcastic remarks of a personal character. But all was taken in good part. At last, however, the patrons became impatient, and calls were heard, such as, “What yer waitin’ fur?” “Hurry{16} up de overture!” “Have yer gone ter sleep behind there?”

At last the manager responded to the flattering impatience of his patrons. The curtain arose and displayed the orchestra consisting of two musicians, a performer on an accordeon and a bone-player. The overture was made up of pieces skillfully selected by the manager to suit the tastes of the audience. Choice gems from “Norma,” “Trovatore,” and “Faust” would not have satisfied the fastidious tastes of the Grand Duke’s patrons. Instead of these, such choice airs as “Squeeze me, Joe,” and “Up in Avenue A,” afforded unmistakable pleasure, and the whole closed with “The Campbells Are Coming,” which was rendered with spirit and general acceptance.

Next came the comedy, “Laughing Gas,” in which the gas is administered to a variety of patients, who are differently affected, one laughing, another dancing, another combative, and so on. The acting was rude, but lively, and the piece was rapturously applauded. In this applause Julius bore his full part. Though he is my hero I have no desire to represent him as more refined or better educated than the majority of his companions. The classic drama or the opera, as brought out at the Academy, would have been far less attractive to him than this rude performance.

He was no less pleased with the next piece, in which{17} two boys, representing Tom King and Dick Turpin, appear on the stage with dark lanterns, and attempt the robbery of a house, but become panic-stricken, and exhibit more alarm than the occupants of the house. This, of course, amuses the spectators.

“It ’minds me of Jack and Marlowe,” said Julius to his next neighbor, “when they was robbin’ the house on Madison Avenue.”

“You did!” repeated the other, with something like awe at finding his neighbor to have been intimate with so illustrious a criminal. “How did you like him?”

“Jack wa’n’t a bad sort,” said Julius, “except when he was sprung. I like him better than Marlowe.”

His own agency in the affair he didn’t care to mention, chiefly because in the class to which he belonged it was considered a point of honor to make common cause against the cops, that is, against the conviction of those who transgress the laws, and our hero felt that the revelation of his agency in entrapping his associates would not increase his popularity. Nor would he have taken the part he did but for the gratitude he felt to Paul, and the fear that he would suffer harm.

Later in the evening the beneficiary, the great Miles{18} O’Reilly, appeared in a jig, which was very creditably danced. His appearance was the signal for a noisy ovation; due partly to his general popularity, and partly to his position as the beneficiary of the evening.

“Good for yer, Miles!” expressed the general appreciation of his efforts. Space will not permit us to enlarge on the other features in the programme of the evening. Evidently “The Mulligan Guards” was most popular, being received with tremendous applause. To gratify the curiosity of such of my readers as are not familiar with this celebrated local song, the first verse is here introduced:

The effect of the song is heightened by the marching of the Guards, the roll of the drum, and presenting arms, which the young actors went through very creditably.{19}

At the close, Miles was summoned before the curtain, and a speech was called for. As the recipient of the benefit the eminent actor could not very well decline. He presented himself with a low bow, and said:

“Boys, I’m glad to welcome yez here this evening. I don’t care so much for the stamps.” (“Oh, no! course yer don’t!” came in ironical accents from some one in the audience.) “That’s so, Jim Blin, and you know it. I’m glad yez like my dancin’! I won’t say no more, ’cause I ain’t used to makin’ speeches, but, with the kind permission of the manager, I’ll give yez anuther jig, and wish you good-night!”

Here the speaker bowed, the music struck up, and, to the satisfaction of all, the beneficiary repeated his performance. Then there was a rush for the door and in five minutes the “Grand Duke’s Oprea House” was silent and deserted.{20}

CHAPTER III.

ON THE RAILWAY.

As the time approached for his leaving New York, Julius could not help feeling a little regret. The great city had been a harsh stepmother to him. He had suffered often from cold and hunger, during the years that he had been drifting about her streets, an unconsidered waif in the great sea of life. He had received kindness from few, harshness from many. From the age of five he had been forced to earn his own living, with no one to look out for him except a professional thief. He had seen more of the dark than the bright side of life, but he had not been without his enjoyments. Youth is hopeful and can find enjoyment under the most unpropitious circumstances.

So Julius, as he took his last walk through the streets with which he had for years been familiar, felt sorry that he was to leave them the next day, perhaps, for many years. It is true he hoped to do better at the West, but all his present associations were with Broadway, Chatham Street, and the Bowery, and City Hall Park, and his new life would seem strange at first.

But when all preparations had been made and he found himself seated in the cars, dressed in a new suit, with{21} thirty other boys, under the general charge of Mr. O’Connor, the superintendent of the Newsboys’ Lodging House, he forgot the city, and was exhilarated by the rapid motion of the cars, and the varied panorama through which he was swiftly passing.

“Ain’t it bully, Teddy?” said he to one of his city acquaintances who occupied the adjoining seat.

“Well, I went to Newark, and one summer I went to Long Branch—that’s a big watering place, you know. Both places are in New Jersey. I stayed a week at Long Branch.”

“Pretty good, only the tide came up so high that it poured into the bathing house, and gave me a wetting.”{22}

“I made a few stamps by blackin’ boots, but the black-boots in the hotel said he’d bounce me for interferin’ with his business. So I thought I’d come back to the city. I didn’t mind much, for there wasn’t much goin’ on in the daytime.”

“Mr. O’Connor told me it would take us two days and nights, and perhaps more. He says it’s more’n a thousand miles.”

“Where’d you get such a pile?” asked Teddy, who regarded forty dollars as quite a fortune.

“Speculatin’ in real estate,” answered Julius, who did not care to mention exactly how he came by the money.

“I don’t believe you’ve got so much,” said Teddy, who was under the impression that he was being sold.

He drew out a pocketbook, and displayed five one-dollar bills, and a small amount of fractional currency.

“Mr. O’Connor’s got the rest. He’s goin’ to give it to the man that I’m to live with to take care of for me.{23} I’d rather he’d keep it. I might lose it, or spend it foolish.”

“He went West about two years ago. He’s doin’ well. Got fifty dollars in the savings bank, and a good home besides.”

“Jim can’t write, nor read either. When he was sellin’ papers in Nassau Street, he used to ask what was the news. Sometimes I told him wrong. Once I told him the President was dead, and he didn’t know no better than to believe it. He sold his papers fast, but the last chap got mad and booted him.”

“He can do more’n I can. I can read easy readin’, but I can’t write no more’n a lamp-post.”

“Nor I,” said Julius, “but I mean to learn. I can’t read much, either.”

“I say, Julius; won’t it seem odd if we made money, and come to New York and put up at a big hotel, and get our boots blacked, just like the customers we used to have?”{24}

“That’s what I mean to do, Teddy. I’ve got tired of knockin’ round the streets, as I have ever since I was knee high to a toad.”

“I always did have to work. I’ll be willin’ to work when I’ve got a good home, and feel that I’m gettin’ along.”

The time had come to both of these homeless boys when they had become tired of their vagrant life and Arab-like condition. They had a vague idea of what is meant by respectability, and they began to appreciate its value. They could see that the street life they had been leading must soon terminate, and that it was time to form plans for the future. In a few years they would be men, and lay aside the street employments by which they had gained a scanty and miserable living. When that time came, would they take a respectable place in the ranks of workingmen, or become social outlaws like Jack Morgan and his confederate, Marlowe? Such thoughts had come frequently to Julius of late, and his present state of mind was one of the most encouraging signs of his future good conduct. He was dissatisfied with his past life, and anxious to enter upon a better.

The thirty boys were not all in one car. Mr. O’Connor and the greater part of them were in the car behind.{25} Julius and the others could find no room there, and had come into this car.

After his conversation with Teddy, Julius began to look out of the window. Inexperienced as a traveler, and knowing very little of the country, he saw much that excited his interest, as they sped onward at the rate of thirty miles an hour. He also, with his usual habit of observation, regarded his fellow-passengers with interest. Directly in front of him sat a stout man, plainly dressed, who had become sleepy, and occasionally indulged in a nod, his newspaper having fallen from his hands upon the floor. He was probably more used to traveling than our hero and cared less for the scenery. Julius gave him a casual look, but without much interest, till at a way station a flashily dressed young man entered, and, looking carefully about him, selected the seat beside the stout man though he had his choice of several. Julius started when he saw him, and looked puzzled. He was sure he had seen him before, at Jack Morgan’s room, but there was something unfamiliar in his appearance. Jack’s friend had black hair. This man’s hair was red. A closer look, however, explained this discrepancy. Underneath the edge of the red he caught sight of a few black hairs, which were not entirely concealed. It was clear that he wore a red wig.

“It is Ned Sanders,” said Julius to himself, “and he’s got a red wig on. What’s he up to, I wonder? I’ll watch him.”{26}

CHAPTER IV.

JULIUS DETECTS A PICKPOCKET.

Ned Sanders settled himself into his seat, and looked about him. He did not, however, recognize Julius, for, though he had seen him in calling upon Jack Morgan, he had never taken particular notice of his features, probably regarding him as of little importance. Finally Mr. Sanders devoted special attention to the man at his side. As the latter was sleeping, he was not conscious of the close watch of his companion.

Julius noticed it, however, and, being familiar with the character of Sanders, said to himself: “I know what he’s up to. He wants to pick his pocket.”

From the watch pocket of the stout stranger depended a gold watch chain solid and valuable in appearance, and to it was attached a gold watch.

Sanders took out a newspaper, and held it before him. He appeared to be very much occupied with its contents, but Julius detected a stealthy glance at his companion’s waistcoat.

Julius was right. Ned Sanders felt that now was the favorable opportunity to carry out his unlawful purpose,{27} while his neighbor was asleep, as when his nap was over he would more readily detect his intentions.

With his paper still before his face, his hand crept softly to the watch chain, which he gently appropriated, dropping it into his coat pocket. But he was not yet satisfied. He was preparing to relieve the other of his pocketbook also, when Julius thought it was about time to interfere. Rising in his seat, he struck the stout man forcibly on the back. The latter started, and opening his eyes said, “What! Eh, what do you want? Is it morning?”

The pickpocket started also, and looked uneasy, but retained his seat, not suspecting that he had been detected. His uneasiness arose from the fear that his neighbor, on awakening, would immediately miss his watch, which would be awkward and perhaps dangerous for him. He was vexed with Julius, whom he did not yet recognize, for this interference with his plans.

“Can’t you let the gentleman alone?” he said angrily. “Why do you disturb him?”

“What’s the matter?” said his victim, in his turn, a little irritated. “What do you mean by thumping my back, boy?”

“Well, that’s cool,” grumbled the stout man. “You{28} wake me up out of a nap to ask me what time of day it is.”

Sanders turned pale when Julius asked this question, for he saw that discovery was imminent. He half arose from his seat, but it occurred to him that that would only fasten suspicion upon him. Moreover the train was going at the rate of twenty-five miles an hour, and, though he might go into another car, he could not escape from the train. He closed his lips tightly, and tried to look calm and indifferent. He had determined to brazen it out.

Notwithstanding his grumbling rejoinder, the stout man felt for his watch. Now it was his turn to start and look dismayed.

“I think you had better put that question to the man you’re sittin’ with.”

“What do you mean by that, you young rascal?” demanded Ned Sanders, pale with passion and dismay. “I think, sir, the boy behind you has taken your watch.”

“I don’t see how he could do that,” said the other, regarding him suspiciously. “Can you tell me where my watch is sir?”{29}

“What should I know of your watch? Do you mean to insult me, sir?” blustered the pickpocket.

His manner increased the suspicions of his victim, who recognized, by his appearance and flashy attire, the class to which he belonged. He turned to Julius, and asked, “What made you refer to this gentleman?”

“Because,” said Julius bluntly, “I saw him take it. He held up the paper before him, while he loosened your chain. He’s got it in his pocket now.”

“That is sufficient. Now, sir,” he said sternly, “I command you instantly to return my watch and chain.”

By this time, most of the passengers in the car had gathered around the two. Just at this moment, too, the conductor entered.

“Are you willing to show us what you have in your pockets?” said the conductor.

“No, I’m not. I am a New York merchant, and I won’t submit to an impertinence.”

“I won’t answer any more questions,” said the pickpocket, desperately. “You have insulted me enough, all of you. Just make way, will you? I am going to get out.”

“Let go, or I’ll strike you,” said Sanders, losing his prudence in his anger.

“You can’t get out till you have been searched,” said the conductor. “Who is the boy that saw him take the watch?”

Meantime his neighbor, pressing his hand against the pocket on the outside, exclaimed triumphantly:

The thief uttered a profane ejaculation, and made a desperate effort to arise, but three men threw themselves upon him, two holding him down, while the other drew out the watch and chain, and handed them to their owner.

“Now will you let me go?” demanded Sanders, doggedly. He felt that it would do no good to indulge in further protestations of innocence.

“No,” said the conductor. “Gentlemen, will you guard him till we reach the next station? Then I will place him in the hands of an officer.”

“Boy,” said Sanders, turning around, and glaring fiercely at Julius, “I shan’t forget you. Some time I’ll make you repent what you’ve done to-day.”

“Don’t mind him, my lad,” said the stout man, elated by the recovery of his property. “You’ve done exactly right. But how came you to suspect this man?”

“It’s not a lie, Mr. Ned Sanders,” said Julius. “I’ve seen you more than once.”{32}

“I’ll hunt you up, and pay off old debts. I shouldn’t be in this scrape but for you,” said Sanders, vindictively.

He relapsed into a moody silence, and said nothing more while in the car. At the next station, which was an important place, two officers were summoned, who took him into custody. But he managed to elude their vigilance some hours later and escaped to New York.{33}

CHAPTER V.

JULIUS IS REWARDED.

After the pickpocket had been removed from the car, his intended victim turned in his seat, and addressed Julius.

“You must know that this watch and chain, which but for you I should have lost, were bought for me, in Switzerland, by a son who has since died. They are valuable in themselves, but they are five times as valuable to me because they were a last gift from him.”

The common expression is “like a book”; but that would hardly have implied any close knowledge on the part of Julius, for he knew next to nothing of books.{34} Probably the phrase he did use was suggested by the other.

“Do you mean to say that you lived with a burglar?” asked the stout gentleman, in surprise.

“No, I didn’t,” said Julius. “I didn’t like the business. Besides, I didn’t want to be sent over to the island. I blacked boots, and such things.”

“That is a much better way of getting a living,” said his companion, approvingly.{35}

“I think you are mistaken. An honest life is the easiest in the end. Where is Jack now?”

“Oh, he’s in the Tombs. He was took up for burglary of a house in Madison Avenue. I guess he’ll be sent up for five or ten years.”

“I hope, my lad, you are in no danger of following the example of your evil associates.”

“Mr. O’Connor—he’s the superintendent of the Newsboys’ Lodging House—was goin’ to take some boys out, and get ’em places; and he offered to take me.”

“I should say it was,” said the other, with a laugh. “It’s a very large place.”{36}

“Were you ever there?” asked Julius, desiring to hear something about his place of destination.

“I don’t know much about any places, except New York and Jersey,” he added.

“I live in the city of Milwaukee, in Wisconsin. It is quite a flourishing city.”

“Oh, no; we can’t show any cities in the West as big as New York. I doubt if we ever shall, though we’ve some large cities, that are growing fast. Do you think you are likely to come to Milwaukee?”

“Not yet. I’ve got something more to say to you. I am under an obligation to you.”

“I shan’t steal,” said Julius; “I don’t know about lyin’, most boys lie sometimes.”

“Angels are scare, as far as my observation goes,” said his companion, smiling, “and you appear to have too much human nature about you to be altogether angelic. But there’s one thing you can do. You can try to do right.”{38}

“If you want to, you probably will. You’ll have a better chance at the West than you would in New York.”

“If I stayed there, I’d be a bootblack all my life,” said Julius. “There ain’t no chance for a boy like me to rise. I wouldn’t want to be a bootblack,” he added reflectively, “when I got to be old and gray-headed.”

“No, it wouldn’t be an agreeable business for an old man to follow. But I’ve got off the track.”

“Oh, I didn’t mean that. The cars are all right. But I meant to say, that I had got away from what I meant to say. I think I owe you something for your saving me from losing my watch.”

“To me it is a great deal, and I want to show my sense of the favor. Is there anything in particular you would like?”

“I don’t know,” said Julius, thoughtfully. “I might like a jack-knife.”

“That isn’t enough. As I said, I have particular reason to value my watch and chain. Did you ever have a watch yourself?”

“I never got so far along. I couldn’t save enough on shines for that.”{39}

“Well, it so happens that, in New York, I took a small silver watch and chain in the way of business from a traveler who owed me money. Here it is.”

He drew from his pocket a neat, but inexpensive silver watch, with a chain of the same metal.

“It’ll make me feel like a swell,” said Julius, elated. “Ain’t it a beauty, Teddy?” he continued, turning in his seat, and displaying it to his comrade.

“It ain’t yours, is it?” asked Teddy, not without a slight feeling of envy.

And Julius proudly put the watch in his vest pocket, and attached the chain to one of the button-holes. The donor looked on with a benevolent smile, glad that he had been able to make so acceptable a gift to the boy who had done him such a service.

“Now,” he said, smiling, “it will be your turn to look out for pickpockets. They may try to carry off your watch, as they did mine.”{40}

“I d like to see ’em do it,” said Julius, confidently. “It’ll take a smart pickpocket to hook my watch.”

“Well, my young friend,” said the other, “as the time may come when I can do you a service, I will give you my card.”

“I can’t read writin’,” admitted Julius, reluctantly, as he took the card, which was printed in script.

“My name is John Taylor, of Milwaukee. Keep the card, and you will soon be able to read it.”

Here the paper boy passed through the car, and Mr. Taylor, purchasing a copy of Harper’s Weekly, was soon immersed in its contents. Finding that the interview was ended, Julius returned to his former seat, and Teddy and he spent some time in admiring it.{41}

CHAPTER VI.

A NEWSBOY’S LETTER.

“Marlowe might. He’s a tough customer, Marlowe is. I mind how he looked when he got hold of me at Staten Island. Jack ain’t so bad, but Marlowe’d go a thousand miles to get hold of me.”

“I shan’t lose no sleep. If he don’t break out of jail, I’ll be a man before he can get at me.”

“Look out of the window, Julius. See them cows harnessed together. What are they doin’?”

“They’re ploughin’, I expect,” said Julius, who, like his companion, took a yoke of oxen for cows.

Here Mr. O’Connor came into the car and passed down the aisle, looking to see that none of the boys were missing.{42}

“What have you got there, Julius?” asked the superintendent, noticing the watch chain.

“Where did you get it?” asked Mr. O’Connor, a little suspiciously. “You haven’t spent any of your money, have you?”

“Is this the gentleman who has charge of your party?” he asked, turning to Julius.

“Mr. O’Connor, the boy’s story is correct. He detected a pickpocket in the act of appropriating my gold watch and chain. As it was of great value, I asked his acceptance of the watch and chain you see.”

“It was entirely my own thought,” said Mr. Taylor. “I presume the boy never thought of any compensation.”

“I am glad you have behaved so well, Julius,” said{43} superintendent, approvingly. “I am sure you will value your present.”

“I have an invitation from the citizens of Brookville, in Wisconsin, to make my headquarters there. I am told that boys and girls are in demand in that town and vicinity, and that I shall probably be able to find homes for all my party in that neighborhood.”

“I think you can. I know Brookville very well. I have a nephew living there. He is a prosperous farmer. By the way, I shouldn’t be surprised if he would like a boy. Suppose I give you a note to my young friend here to deliver to him.”

“Very generally. We seldom receive complaints from the children we have placed. They are treated kindly almost without exception.”

“How about the other parties? Do they often prefer complaints of the children?”

“Sometimes, but not often. Considering the training our children have had in the city streets, they conduct{44} themselves remarkably well in their new homes. Removed from the temptations and privations of the city, their better natures assert themselves, and they behave as well as ordinary children. In fact, I may say that most of the complaints that come to us are of a trivial nature. People forget that our boys are no more perfect than their own, and if now and then they pelt the cows, or leave the turkeys out in the rain, that hardly indicates a depraved heart.”

“I have heard of such things, myself,” he said. “I suspect boys are about the same now that they were fifty years ago.”

“And will be fifty years hence. Of course, they will always need restraint, and, if they do mischief, they must pay the penalty. Still, if a boy is simply mischievous, I don’t think he can be considered a hopeless case.”

“I should say not. I used to do some things myself that were not quite exemplary. Of course I was punished and in time I steadied down.”

“As you seem to take an interest in our mission,” said Mr. O’Connor, “you may feel interested to read a letter [A] which I received not long since from one of our boys in Indiana. It is characteristic, and will give a{45} good idea of the improvement which emigration makes in their condition and circumstances.”

“M——, Ind., Nov. 24, 1859.

“To My Friend and Benefactor: So I take my pen in hand to let you know how I am, and how I am getting along. As far as I can see, I am well satisfied with my place; but I took a general look around, and, as far as I can see, all the boys left in M—— are doing well, especially myself, and I think there is as much fun as in New York, for nuts and apples are all free. I am much obliged to you, Mr. O’Connor, for the paper you sent me. I received it last night, read it last night—something about the Newsboys’ Lodging House.

“All the newsboys in New York have a bad name; but we should show ourselves, and show them, that we are no fools; that we can become as respectable as any of their countrymen; for some of you poor boys can do something for your country; for Franklin, Webster, Clay, were poor boys once, and even Commodore V. C. Perry or Math. C. Perry. But even George Law, and Vanderbilt, and Astor—some of the richest men of New York—and Math. and V. C. Perry, were nothing but printers, and in the navy on Lake Erie. And look at Winfield Scott. So now, boys, stand up, and let them see that you have got the real stuff in you. Come out here, and make respectable and honorable men, so they can say, there, that boy was once a newsboy.

“Now, boys, you all know I have tried everything. I have been a newsboy, and when that got slack, you know I have smashed baggage. I have sold nuts, I have peddled. I have worked on the rolling billows up the canal; I was a bootblack; and you know, when I sold{46} papers I was at the top of the profession. I had a good stand of my own, but I found all would not do. I could not get along, but I am now going ahead. I have a first-rate home, ten dollars a month, and my board; and, I tell you, fellows, that is a great deal more than I could scrape up my best times in New York. We are all on an equality, my boys, out here, so long as we keep ourselves respectable.

“Mr. O’Connor, tell ‘Fatty,’ or F. John Pettibone, to send me a Christmas number of Frank Leslie’s, and Harper’s Weekly, a Weekly News or some other pictorials to read, especially the Newsboys’ Pictorial, if it comes out. No old papers, or else none. If they would get some other boys to get me some books. I want something to read.

“I hope this letter will find you in good health, as it leaves me, Mr. O’Connor. I expect an answer before two weeks—a letter and a paper. Write to me all about the lodging house. With this I close my letter. With much respect to all.

“I remain your truly obedient friend,

“J. K.”

“The writer of this letter is evidently a smart boy,” said Mr. Taylor, as he finished reading it. “I warrant he will make his way in the world.”

“I expected he would do well, when we sent him out,” said the superintendent. “In New York he was a leader in his set, and very successful in his street trades. But, as you see, he admits that he is doing much better out West.”

“His Western life will make a man of him. Do you often hear from those you have sent out?”{47}

“We are in constant correspondence with them. We feel ourselves under an obligation to look after them still, and to show them that we keep up an interest in them.”

“We find that it does. They are ashamed to misconduct themselves, knowing that it will come to our ears.”

“Thousands of our children are located in different parts of the great West. With few exceptions, they are doing well, and bid fair to become—some have already become—respected and useful members of society.”

“Many would be vagrants, many, doubtless, tenants of prison cells; very few would have turned out well.”

“It is a great work,” said Mr. Taylor warmly. “I hope you will be encouraged to persevere. I feel like helping you. Accept this contribution to the funds of your society,” and he drew two fifty-dollar bills from his pocketbook and handed to the superintendent.

“Thank you, sir,” said Mr. O’Connor, “I am sure you will not regret your gift. Every addition to our means enables us to extend our operations. This gift, for instance, will enable us to bring out six children to the West and place them in good homes.”{48}

“Will it, indeed!” said Mr. Taylor, gratified. “That assurance alone abundantly repays me. But I must write the note of introduction which I promised to my young friend.”{49}

CHAPTER VII.

BROOKVILLE.

Though there was plenty of excitement and novelty attending the journey, Julius and his companions looked forward with eager interest to the hour when they would reach their destination. Where were they to live, and what sort of homes would they obtain? These were questions which naturally arose in the minds of all.

Hour after hour the train sped onward with its living freight. The boys looked out upon the broad fields, smiling in the sunlight, and bright-looking villages scattered along the route, and wondered if their future homes would look anything like them.

“Boys, the next town is Brookville,” said Mr. O’Connor, passing through the cars.

Soon a large village came in sight. It was quite thickly settled, and the streets were broad and regular. The boys could see various public buildings, besides a large number of dwelling houses. The place looked quite attractive, and the boys’ faces lighted up with pleasure.{50}

“I guess it’s a pretty good place,” said Teddy. “I hope we’ll live near each other.”

“No; I heard Mr. O’Connor say we’d be scattered around among the towns, but I’m goin’ to live here.”

“‘Cause I’ve got a letter to Mr. Taylor’s nephew. He lives in Brookville.”

“It’s a band—don’t you see it?—on the platform. What a crowd of people!”

“Boys,” said Mr. O’Connor, “that music is for you. The citizens have come out to welcome you. Now I will tell you what you must do. You will follow me out of the cars as soon as the train stops, form two by two on{51} the platform, and then you may swing your hats, and shout, ‘Three cheers for Brookville!’ Will you do it?”

They were already within a few rods of the station. Speed was already slackened, and in a moment the cars had stopped.

“Now, boys, form in line after the other passengers have left the car,” said the superintendent. “Then follow me.”

His directions were carefully followed, and in five minutes the little company were drawn up on the platform. Many curious eyes were fixed upon them by those who had come to meet them, and some were already selecting those whom they desired to adopt.

“Now, boys,” said the superintendent, when order was obtained, “what have you to say to the ladies and gentlemen who have been kind enough to come here to meet you?”

“Three cheers for Brookville!” shouted Tim Shanter, who, it had been agreed, should act as leader.

The cheers were given with a will, and with such emphasis that it was clear none of the boys as yet was troubled with weak lungs.

Then the band struck up again, and after they had concluded, one of the citizens came forward and addressed Mr. O’Connor.

“Yes; we received your telegram, and have made arrangements to receive you. First, however, let me introduce myself. My name is Taylor.”

“You wonder that I know your name,” said Mr. O’Connor. “I met an uncle of yours while traveling in the State of New York, and he gave one of our boys a letter to you.”

“It was a boy,” exclaimed the superintendent, “who had an opportunity of being of service to him.”

“He detected a pickpocket in the act of taking your uncle’s gold watch, and warned him of it. Julius, come here!”

“My Dear Nephew: This will be handed to you by a boy who has done me a service, the nature of which{53} the superintendent will explain to you. I do not know how you are situated, or whether you require the services of a boy. If you do, I think you can’t do better than to take this one. He is bright, sharp, and, as I have reason to believe, honest. I shall be glad if he can secure a good home.

Your uncle,
“John Taylor.”

Julius had already examined critically the personal appearance of Mr. Taylor, whom he regarded as his future employer and guardian. His past life had made him a good and quick observer of character. Street boys, obliged to fight their way, and struggle for a livelihood, are by their circumstances made preternaturally sharp. They acquire a judgment and self-reliance beyond their years, however defective they may be in the knowledge to be gained from books. Engaged in reading his uncle’s letter, Mr. Taylor did not notice the keen glance with which Julius regarded him. But the result was favorable.

“I guess I’ll like him,” said our hero to himself. “He looks like he might be kind. I hope he’ll take me.”

“What do you say, Mr. O’Connor?” said Mr. Taylor. “Will you intrust this young man to me?”

“I shall be glad to do so,” said the superintendent. “I will ask you to leave him with us till to-morrow, however,{54} as applications will not generally be accepted till then.”

“I have no objection to that. Now let me tell you what arrangements we have made for your reception. How many children have you in your company?”

“It is as I supposed. There are more than can be lodged at our hotel, which is small. They could receive but twenty there, and the remainder can be accommodated in a hall we have in the village.”

“I should prefer that they would not be separated. I would rather have them all under my own eye for to-night,” said the superintendent.

“Very well; then perhaps it will be best for all to be accommodated in the hall. There are two halls, in fact; and bedding can be placed on the floor. It won’t be quite so comfortable as it would be at the hotel.”

“Our boys are used to roughing it,” said Mr. O’Connor. “Many a night in the city they have slept out in old wagons or alleyways. It won’t hurt them to sleep on the floor.”

“The hall is about half a mile distant. I will lead the way, and you may get settled at once.”

“Tim Shanter, see that the boys walk in line,” said the superintendent. “I appoint you captain, Mr. Taylor, and I will go on ahead, and you will follow us.”{55}

So the procession moved through the village, attracting curious glances from the inhabitants as it passed along. The boys on their side used their eyes to advantage. They were delighted with the fields of grass, the trees now in full leaf, the flower-plots in front of some of the houses, and the singing of the birds. There was not one of them who did not hope that he would find a home in Brookville.{56}

CHAPTER VIII.

JULIUS HAS AN ADVENTURE.

About midway in the principal street of Brookville is the town hall. It is a neat building, of considerable size, and two stories in height.

The boys found themselves in a large hall, with a platform and desk at one end, the body of the hall being filled with settees.

“Boys,” said Mr. O’Connor, “would you like to see something of the village?”

“Then for the next two hours you may go where you please, but you must be back before six.”

“Come back,” shouted the superintendent. “You haven’t heard all I have to say.”

“You must be careful to do no mischief, and commit no trespass upon any person’s property. I want you to show our friends here that, if you have been brought up in the streets of New York, you know how to behave yourselves.”

“We will!” “We will!” shouted the boys, and in less than a minute the hall was emptied.

They separated into groups, and walked off in different directions. Julius, Teddy and Tom formed one of the parties.

“Come down here,” said Julius, pointing down a side street. “There’s some nice fields off there.”

“Ain’t it jolly?” said Teddy. “It’s a big sight better than New York.”

“Ain’t that a nice field for baseball?” said Julius, pointing to a large pasture some distance ahead.

The boys jumped over the fence, and walked in the direction of the pond. It was a small circular sheet of water, covering about two acres. On it was a small, unpainted boat, which the boys no sooner saw than they jumped into. There was but one paddle inside, which{58} the boys used by turns. They had never before been in a boat, and were not scientific navigators; still they managed to paddle around the little pond, greatly to their satisfaction.

“I wouldn’t advise a small fish to swaller me,” said Teddy. “I’d dance a double shuffle in his stomach, and he’d soon want ter let me go.”

“We ought ter be goin’ back; Mr. O’Connor told us we must be back in time.”

They turned the boat toward shore, when all at once Tom, who was looking toward the shore, exclaimed, “What’s that, boys?”

Following the direction in which he pointed, the boys were startled by seeing a large, clumsy animal walking deliberately down toward the place where they were about to land.

They paused in their progress, and Julius, after a{59} careful examination of the stranger, announced, “I’ll tell you what it is, boys; it’s a bear!”

“Yes; I’ve seed a picture of one in Frank Leslie’s. It’s a bear, sure.”

“I guess they will,” said Julius. “They’d kill you just as easy as winkin’.”

“I didn’t know there was any wild animals around here,” said Teddy, nervously.

“Yes,” said Tom; “there’s bears, and wolves, and panthers. I’ve read about ’em in a dime novel called ‘Pathfinder Pete; or, The Wild Hunter of the West.’ You know we are in the West now.”

“How will we get back?” asked Teddy, rather anxiously. “He’s squattin’ down, waitin’ for us.”

The bear had come to a pause, and, squatting on its hind quarters, was steadily and seriously regarding the boys with an expression which, to their excited imaginations, seemed particularly savage and bloodthirsty.

“I wish’t I had a rifle like the one ‘Pathfinder Pete’ had,” ejaculated Tom.

“Yes, I would. I’d fire a bullet into his right eye and{60} then I’d fire another right into his left eye, and then he couldn’t see to chase us.”

“That would be good enough if we had a rifle,” said Julius; “but we haven’t. S’pose we land on the other side of the pond, and run for the fence.”

“Don’t yer do it!” exclaimed Teddy, in terror. “He’d catch us before we got halfway there.”

“Do bears run fast, Tom?” asked Julius, deferring to the superior knowledge of his comrade, who had had the great privilege of reading the instructive story of “Pathfinder Pete.”

“They don’t look like it,” said Julius, surveying the clumsy form of the bear. “I’ll bet that bear can’t keep up with me.”

“Maybe he don’t look it, but he can run like lightnin’. ‘Pathfinder Pete’ was chased by a bear, when his rifle wasn’t loaded, an’ the only way he got off was to hide behind a tree till he’d loaded his gun, an’ then he blazed away, and keeled him over on his back.”

“Then I wish ‘Pathfinder Pete’ would happen around this afternoon. Teddy, jist sing a bit. Maybe that’ll frighten him.”

“I don’t feel like singin’,” said Teddy. “Oh, boys, how will we get home?”

“I move,” said Julius, who was least disturbed of the{61} three, “that we pitch out Teddy. While the bear’s eatin’ him, we’ll run away.”

“He’s goin’ to swim out to us,” screamed Teddy, in fright, as the bear arose to his feet, and put one foot in the water. But he quickly withdrew it, apparently not liking the feeling.

The bear arose to his feet, and walked slowly around the pond, looking from time to time at the boat and the three young navigators.

“He can’t blame us for not comin’. I say, boys, I’m gettin’ hungry,” said Tom.

So the boys watched and waited in vain for their{62} unwelcome visitor to depart, keeping the little boat as near the middle of the pond as possible.

Just at that moment the attention of the three boys was drawn to a boy of about their own age, who was walking across the field toward the pond.

CHAPTER IX.

THE BEAR AND HIS MASTER.

“Hadn’t we better holler to him to look out for the bear?” suggested Teddy.

The three boys looked on in eager excitement, to see what would come of the meeting. Teddy fully expected that the bear would appropriate the newcomer for his supper, and was very much surprised at seeing him rubbing his head against the boy’s legs, as if they were fast friends.

“Yes, he is,” said Tom, confidently. “Don’t you think I know a bear when I see him?”

“How did you know my name?” he asked, in surprise, for it so happened that his name was really John.

“We thought we’d give it a little exercise, seein’ it had nothin’ to do.”

“I know who you are. You came with the agent of the Children’s Aid Society.”

“That’s so; I’m the president of the society, and these gentlemen are directors.”

“Then we’ll land,” said Julius. “We’ve been stayin’ out here an hour, ’cause Teddy here was afraid of him.”

“That’s a lie. Me and Tom ain’t afraid of anything; but we wouldn’t leave you here alone.”

“You see,” said Julius, “that my life is valuable to my country, and I couldn’t bear to lose it. Step out, Teddy. Now tie the boat. We’d better make tracks, or Mr. O’Connor’ll scold us.”

They joined the other boy and the bear, though Teddy took care to keep as far away from the latter as he could.

“No; this was taken when a cub by an uncle of mine, and when it was half-grown he gave it to me.”

The bear, with the desire probably of getting acquainted with different members of the party, here walked around to the further side, where Teddy was walking.{66}

“Shut up, you fool!” said Julius; “do you think he’d touch such skinny meat as you, when he could have Tom or me? He ain’t fond of pigs.”

Teddy did so in fear and trembling, and was at last convinced that there was nothing to fear.

“Yes; I brought him a letter from his uncle. His uncle gave me this watch and chain;” and Julius displayed, not without pride, his valued treasure.

“About ten million, I guess,” said Julius, pausing to think, and then guessing.

“There can’t be so many as that. Why, London has only a little over three millions.”

“Mr. O’Connor is goin’ to get places for us to-morrow,” said Julius. “I’ll tell you what, Johnny, you’d better take Teddy yourself. You could let him sleep with the bear. Only, if the bear got hungry in his sleep, maybe he’d make hash out of him.”

“That would be hash treatment,” said John, laughing. “What is your name? I’ve told you mine.”

“I’ll tell you,” said Julius. “That is the Hon. Teddy Bates, professor of boot blackin’, and this other bummer is Tom Burke, Esq., one of the most distinguished baggage-smashers in all New York.”

“I don’t often get into such good company,” said John, laughing. “Are all the rest of your company as celebrated?”{69}

“Hello, fellers!” interrupted Tom; “there’s Pat Maloney comin’ up the road; I guess he’s comin’ for us.”

“Where’ve you fellers been?” said Pat, on meeting them. “Mr. O’Connor sent me to find you.”

“No; he thought you’d lost your way. What’s that?” he exclaimed, suddenly, for the first time espying the bear.

“It’s a bear,” said John Sandford. “But don’t be frightened. He is tame. He won’t hurt you.”

This was enough. The three boys were very hungry, and, quickening their pace, soon rejoined their companions, whom they found partaking of a substantial supper, which had been liberally supplied by the citizens of Brookville, with characteristic Western hospitality.{70}

CHAPTER X.

A BOOTBLACK’S SPEECH.

Julius and his companions were readily excused by the superintendent, on explaining the cause of their delay.

After supper was over, Mr. O’Connor said: “Boys, this is the last time you will be all together. To-morrow probably many of you will set out for new homes. Now, how shall we pass the time?”

“Corny, have you anything to say to the boys?” asked the superintendent, smiling.

Corny was a short, wiry little fellow, apparently twelve, but in reality two years older. He was noted among the boys for his drollery, and frequently amused them with his oratory. He came forward with a twinkle of merriment in his eye.

“The Honorable Corny Donovan will speak to the meetin’,” said Julius, acting as temporary chairman.

Corny took his place on the platform, and with perfect gravity took out a small, red handkerchief, and blew his nose explosively, in imitation of a gentleman who{71} once addressed the boys at the Lodging House. The boys greeted this commencement with vociferous applause.

“Go in, Corny!” “Spit it out!” were heard from different parts of the hall.

“Boys,” said Corny, extending his right arm horizontally, “I’ve come here from my manshun in Fifth Avenoo to give you some good advice. You’re poor miserable bummers, ivery mother’s son of you. You don’t know much anyhow. Once’t I was as poor as you.” (“Hi; hi!” shouted his auditors.) “You wouldn’t think to look at my good clo’es that I was once a poor bummer like the rest of yez.” (“Yes we would. Where’s your gold watch?”) “Where’s my gold watch? I left it at home on the planner. Maybe you’d like to grow up gentlemen like me. But you can’t do it. It ain’t in you.” (“Oh, dry up!”) “Boys, where’s your manners? Don’t you know no more’n to interrupt me in my speech? Me and Mr. O’Connor have brought you out here to make men of you. We want you to grow up ‘spectable. Blackin’ boots won’t make men of you.” (“You’re only a bootblack yourself!”) “I only blacked boots for amoosement, boys. I’d have you know I used to leave my Fifth Avenoo manshun in disguise, and pass the day round Printin’ House Square, blackin’ boots, ’cause my doctor told me I must have exercise, or I’d die eatin’ too much rich food.” (“Rich hash, you mean!”) “No,{72} I don’t. I never allow my cook to put hash on the table, ’cause you can’t tell what it’s made of, no more’n sassidges. There’s lots of dogs and cats disappear in New York, and it’s pop’larly supposed that they commits suicide; but the eatin’-house keepers know what ’comes of ’em.” (“You bet! That’s so, Corny!”)

“Now I want you boys to leave off bummin’, and try to be ’spectable members of s’ciety. I don’t want yer to spend yer money for cigars, an’ chew cheap tobaccer, just as ef you was men. Once’t I saw a four-year-old bummer sittin’ on a doorstep, smokin’ a cigar that was half as big as he was. All at once’t his rags took fire, and he went up in a balloon.” (“Hi! hi!”)

“I tell you, boys, the West is the place for you. Who knows but what you’ll git to be Congressmen, or even President?” (“Hear the boy talk!”) “I didn’t mean you, Jim Malone, so you needn’t say nothin’. They don’t make Congressmen out’n sich crooked sticks as you be. Maybe you’ll keep a corner grocery some time, or a whiskey shop, an’ lay on the floor drunk half the time.” (“Pitch into him, Corny!”) “But that ain’t what I was a goin’ to say. You’ll be great men, ef you don’t miss of it; and if you’re good and honest and industrious like I am,” (“Dry up! Simmer down!”), “you’ll come to live in fine houses, and have lots of servants to wait on you, and black yer boots, instead of blackin’ ’em yourself.” (“I’ll take you for my bootblack, Corny,”{73} interrupted Julius.) “No, you won’t. I expect to be governor before that time, and maybe you’ll be swallered by the bear that scared you so this afternoon.” (Laughter from the boys.) “But I’ve most got through.” (“Oh, drive ahead, Corny!”) “If you want to be great men all you’ve got to do is to imertate me. Me and Mr. O’Connor are goin’ to watch you, to see that you behave the way you ought to. When you’re rich you can come back to New York, and go to the Lodgin’ House and make a speech to the boys, and tell ’em you was once a poor bummer like they be, and advise ’em to go West, if they want to be somebody.

“Now, boys, I won’t say no more. I’m afeared you won’t remember what I’ve said already. I won’t charge you nothin’ for my advice.”

Corny descended from the platform amid the laughter and applause of his comrades.

Mr. O’Connor said: “Boys, Corny’s advice is very good, and I advise you to follow it, especially as to avoiding cigars and tobacco, which can only do boys harm. I am not sure that any of you stand a chance of becoming a Congressman or President, as he suggests, but there is one thing pretty certain—you can, if you are honest, industrious, and improve your opportunities at the schools which you will have a chance to attend, obtain a respectable position in society. Some of the boys who in former years have gone to the West have become prosperous,{74} having farms or shops of their own. I don’t see why you can’t be just as successful as they. I hope you will be, and if, some years hence, you come to New York, I hope you will visit the Lodging House. If I am still there, I shall be glad to see you, and have you speak to the boys, and encourage them, by the sight of your prosperity, to work as you have done. Now I would suggest that you sing one or two of the songs we used to sing on Sunday evenings at the Lodging House. After that you may go out for an hour, but you must keep near this hall, as the evening is coming on.”{75}

CHAPTER XI.

NEW HOMES FOR THE HOMELESS.

The next day was to witness the dispersion of the little company which had come out to try their fortunes in the great West. Notices had been circulated in the neighboring villages that a company of boys had arrived, and farmers and mechanics who needed a boy on the farm or in the shop came to Brookville; and at eleven in the forenoon the hall presented a busy and animated sight. While the newcomers scanned attentively the faces of the boys, or opened conversations with them, to guide them in the selections, the boys again were naturally anxious to obtain desirable guardians and homes. Julius, being already provided for, had no anxiety, but wandered about, surveying the scene with comparative indifference. As he had a bright and intelligent look, he was more than once addressed by visitors.

“I’m engaged,” said Julius, with an air of importance; for as young ladies are often emulous of getting married before their companions, so the boy who first succeeds in obtaining a place plumes himself accordingly.

“Indeed!” said the farmer, somewhat disappointed. “Where are you going to live?”

“He’s small,” said the farmer, after a critical survey. “How old is he?”

“He’s strong, Corny is, and he’s smart. He used to earn twice as much money as some of the boys.”

“Yes,” said Corny, promptly, “if I was treated well, and could go to school. I want to learn somethin’, so’s I can grow up to be somebody.”

“You won’t find any bears where I live,” said the farmer, smiling. “How would you like to go home with me?”

Mr. O’Connor was the center of a group of farmers and others, who were making inquiries about particular boys.

“Mr. O’Connor,” said the farmer just introduced, “I want to ask you about a boy who calls himself Corny Donovan.”

“I think so; but we cannot guarantee it. You know what has been the past life of our boys; how they have been brought up in neglect and privation in the city streets, subject to little restraint, and without careful instruction. You can’t expect them to be models of all the virtues.”

“But I can tell you this—that among the thousands whom we place in Western homes, there are few who do us discredit by being guilty of criminal offenses. They may at times be mischievous, as most boys in all conditions are, and with whatever advantages. There are few who show themselves really bad.”

“That is all I want to know, Mr. O’Connor. I will take this boy, Corny, and try him, with your consent.”

“Then, sir, you have only to give us good references, and the matter shall be arranged. We always insist upon them, as we feel under obligations to place our boys in good families, where they will be likely to receive good treatment.”

The matter was soon arranged, and Corny Donovan’s suspense was at an end. He had found a home. His{79} new guardian was Mr. Darius Fogg, who owned and cultivated a large farm in the adjoining township of Claremont.

“Oh, yes; he will have occasion to come often. We send our farm produce here, to go East by rail, and we do our shopping here. Mrs. Fogg will want Cornelius to drive her over of an afternoon.”

“Shall I drive the horses?” asked Corny, his eyes lighting up with eager anticipation.

“That’ll be stavin’. I say, Julius, won’t I put her over the road two-forty?”

This remark Mr. Fogg did not hear, or he might have been alarmed at the prospect of either of his staid farm horses being put over the road at racing speed. It is doubtful, however, whether Corny, or any other driver, could have got any very surprising speed out of them.

Teddy Bates was attached to Julius, and, though he was but a year younger than our hero, looked up to him as a weak nature looks up to a stronger. He was very anxious to find a home near our hero. Fortune favored him at last, as a Mr. Johnson, a shoemaker, living only{80} half a mile distant from Mr. Taylor, agreed to take him into his shop, and teach him the shoemaker’s trade.

“So you’re goin’ to learn to make shoes, Teddy,” said Julius. “Do you think you’ll like it?”

“I don’t know,” said Teddy, “but I’m glad I’m goin’ to be near you.”

“We’ll have bully times, but I’d rather be on a farm. I want to drive horses.”

“I won’t let him. You ain’t afraid of a horse as well as a bear, are you, Teddy?”

Teddy did not reply; but congratulated himself that he should have no horse to take care of. In this, however, he was mistaken, as his new guardian kept a horse also, though he did not have as much use for him as if he had been a farmer.

Teddy, I may here remark, was an exception to his class. Street boys are rarely deficient in courage or enterprise, and most would be delighted at the opportunity to control or drive a horse. But Teddy inherited a timid temperament, and differed widely from such boys as Julius or Corny Donovan.

“Well, my boy, are you ready? I’ve got to be getting{81} home,” said Mr. Johnson, walking up to the place where Teddy stood talking with Julius.

“Good-by, my boy,” said the superintendent. “I hope you will behave well in your new home, and satisfy the gentleman who has agreed to take you. Write home sometimes, and let me know how you are getting along.”

“Good-by, Julius,” said Mr. O’Connor. “Now you’ve got a chance to make a man of yourself, I hope you’ll do it.”

“I will,” said Julius, confidently. “If Jack Morgan or Marlowe come round to ask where I am, don’t tell them.”

“I don’t think they’ll trouble me with any inquiries. They are probably in Sing Sing by this time.”{82}

CHAPTER XII.

JULIUS IN LUCK.

Our hero did not need a second command. He was quickly in his seat, and looked wistfully at his companion, who held the reins.

“Yes, sir; but it wasn’t a very good kind of business. Jack used to break into houses, and take anything he could find. He tried pickin’ pockets one while, but he was too clumsy, and got caught too often. Marlowe could do that better.”

“Were those the two men you spoke of to Mr. O’Connor, as you were coming away?”{83}

“That’s more than I knows of. When I was a little chap, four or five years old, I lived with Jack; but he never told me where he got me from.”

“No; I know I’m not. When Jack got drunk he used to tell me I wa’n’t no child of his, and he’d send me out to shift for myself if I didn’t do jest as he told me.”

“He used to drink when he got a chance, but he’d only get reg’lar drunk about once a week.”

“No,” answered Julius, laughing; “he wanted it all himself. But I wouldn’t have took it.”

“I didn’t like it. Besides, I didn’t want to lay round drunk like Jack. I didn’t see that there was any fun in it.”

“You are right there. There is very little fun, as you call it, in getting drunk. It appears to me you were brought up under bad influences.”

“Many would be afraid to take into their houses a boy who had been reared by a thief.”

“Yes,” said Julius; “but what’s the good of stealin’ when you got a good home?”

“Quite right; but that isn’t the highest view to take of stealing. It is wrong in the sight of God.”

“And if ever you are tempted to take anything that doesn’t belong to you, think first that it will be displeasing to God. After that, you may consider that it is bad policy also.”

“It was bad for Jack and Marlowe. They was in prison half the time. They’re in Sing Sing now, hammerin’ stone, I expect.”

“You may be thankful that you are out of their reach. But you said you wanted to drive.”

“Take the reins, and I’ll show you how to do it. You will have to learn to harness and unharness the horse also.”

Mr. Taylor gave Julius some practical directions about driving, and had an illustration of the boy’s quickness in his immediate comprehension and acting upon them. They soon came in sight of a gate, on the other side of which was a lane.

“Jump out and open the gate,” said Mr. Taylor. “That lane leads to my house.”

They soon came in sight of a substantial farm-house of good appearance. A man in overalls, and without a coat, came up to meet the carriage.

“Abner,” said Mr. Taylor, “you may take out the horse, and put him in the barn.”

“Not now. I will take you into the house, and introduce you to Mrs. Taylor, who will show you where you are to sleep.”

“Come in here,” said Mr. Taylor, throwing open the door of a comfortable sitting-room. It was furnished in ordinary, yet tasteful, style; and to Julius, bred in the street and never having known anything better than a bare and cheerless apartment in a shabby tenement house, it seemed like a palace. In front of a fire sat a pleasant and comely woman of thirty-five, sewing. She looked up as Mr. Taylor entered, and her eyes rested with interest on the boy who followed him.{86}

“I am glad to see you,” said Mrs. Taylor, with a cordial smile, extending her hand, which Julius took bashfully. He was not diffident in the presence of men, but he was not accustomed to ladies, and felt awkward in their presence. “You have come a long journey,” said Mrs. Taylor.

“I hope you will like Brookville. It isn’t much like the great city you have left.”

“This is really singular, Ephraim,” said his wife. “How can he get along with but one name?”

“Then you can call yourself Julius Taylor. I suppose that will be all the formality required. Emma, where are you going to put him?”

“I suspect,” said her husband, “Julius carries his clothes on his back.”

“You will have to buy him some, Ephraim,” said his wife. “He will need a supply of underclothes.”

“I leave that matter in your hands, my dear. You will know more about his needs than I.”

Julius followed Mrs. Taylor upstairs to a small back chamber on the second floor, which was neatly furnished, with a bedstead, table, bureau, washstand, two chairs, and adorned, moreover, by three prints cheaply framed, and hung upon the walls.

To the boy, with the recollections of his street life fresh{88} in his memory, it seemed hardly credible that this sumptuous chamber, as it seemed to him, could really be his.

“Don’t I?” he answered, drawing a long breath. “Is this goin’ to be my room?”

“Yes, you are to sleep here regularly. That bureau is for your clothes. You can put your bundle inside now, and in a few days you shall have some more to put in.”

“I am not familiar with that word,” Mrs. Taylor said, “but I suppose it means that the room suits you. You will find some water in the pitcher, if you want to wash. When you have got through, you may come downstairs. We shall have dinner directly.”

Left to himself, Julius sat down on the bed, and tried to realize the situation.

“What would Jack say if he should see me now?” he said to himself. “I didn’t expect I was goin’ to set up as a gentleman so quick. Ain’t this a jolly bed? I’ll sleep like a top on it. It’s a blamed sight better than lyin’ on the floor in Jack’s room, or sleepin’ in old wagons, or on the piers. I feel as if one of them magician chaps had shaken his stick at me and changed me from a bootblack into a prince, like he did in that play at the Old Bowery. So I’m Julius Taylor now.”{89}

Julius arose from the bed, and proceeded to wash his face and hands, though, under ordinary circumstances, he would scarcely have thought it necessary. But he reflected that he had ascended in the social scale, and it was only proper to adapt himself to his new position. When he had completed his ablutions, to use an expression which he would not yet have understood, he heard a bell ring below.

“That’s for grub!” he said to himself. “I guess I can do my share.”{90}

CHAPTER XIII.

THE NEW DOLL.

Julius had been unusually fortunate in obtaining a home in Mr. Taylor’s family. His new guardian was a man of wealth; indeed, he was the wealthiest man in Brookville. He owned shares in banks and mining companies, and could have lived handsomely had his farm yielded no income. He had a taste for agriculture, however, though he personally carried on but a small part of his extensive farm. His wife had been born and brought up in an Eastern city, was well educated, and, though she superintended the affairs of her household, did comparatively little work herself, having the aid of two stout, capable girls in the kitchen, who relieved her of all the drudgery, and, being competent for their positions, required very little looking after. It will be seen, therefore, that Mr. Taylor’s household is not presented as that of an average Western farmer. Though, as a class, our Western farmers are intelligent, they lack the refinement and cultivation which Mr. and Mrs. Taylor derived from their early advantages.

I must now explain how they came to take Julius into their family. Though they had been married twelve years, they had but one child, a little girl of five, a{91} pretty and attractive child. Having no son, it occurred to them to receive into their household a boy, who would be company for little Carrie, and whom, if found worthy, they might hereafter adopt and provide for. A boy of the age of Julius can always make himself useful on a Western farm, but it was only partially with a view to this consideration that he was received.

Mr. Taylor resolved to give him a good education, and increase his advantages, if he showed himself to possess capability and willingness to learn.

Comparatively few of the boys who are sent to the West can hope to obtain such homes; but though their privileges and opportunities may be less, they will in most cases obtain a decent education, good treatment, and a chance to rise.

“Quite right; it will be for us to remedy that. He has been brought up in the streets of New York, but I don’t think he has any bad faults.”

“He described his room as ‘stavin’,” said Mrs. Taylor, smiling. “I never heard the word before.”

“It is an emphatic word of approval among boys. I have heard it among those who are not street boys. They{92} use it where girls would say a thing was ‘perfectly lovely’.”

“I never had much to do with boys, Ephraim. You know I had no brothers, so I am ignorant of their dialect.”

“I hardly think I shall adopt it. Suppose I should tell Mrs. Green that her dress was ‘stavin’?”

“Probably she would stare. Seriously, I hope our young waif may do credit to our training. He will have a great deal to learn, and much to unlearn; but he looks bright, and I have good hopes of success.”

“What do you think I have brought home for you, Carrie?” asked her father, taking her in his arms and kissing her.

“It must be a funny doll,” said the child, reflectively? “What does it look like?”

“I expect it will cost me a great deal before I get through with it; for I forgot to tell you one thing, Carrie—this doll I am speaking to you about, eats.”

“I think it will prefer to feed itself, Carrie,” said her father, compelled to laugh by the serious, wondering face of the little girl.

“But you said it was a doll. Are you a doll?” she asked, sliding from her father’s knee, and running up to Julius.

“Isn’t he better than a doll? A doll couldn’t play with you; Julius can.”

“Then he must be of our family,” said her father. “Do you want him to stay, and live with us? He can play with you, and tell you stories, and you can have plenty of good times together.”

“Yes, if you want me to,” answered our hero; and{95} he felt strongly attracted to the sweet little girl, who had mistaken him for a doll.

“Then you may lead him out to dinner, Carrie,” said Mr. Taylor, as Jane, one of the servants, opened the door and announced that dinner was ready. “Perhaps you will have to feed him, as he is a doll, you know.”

“Now you are funning again, papa,” said Carrie, shaking her curls. “Will you sit by me, Julius?”

“I should like to, Carrie,” said our hero; and hand in hand with the little girl he walked into the next room, where a table was neatly spread for dinner.

It was a new experience to Julius. He had never had a sister. Those girls with whom he had been brought in contact had been brought up as he had been, and, even where their manners were not rough, possessed little of the grace and beauty of this little child of fortune. She seemed to the eyes of our young plebeian a being of a higher type and superior clay, and, untutored as he was, he could appreciate in a degree, her childish beauty and grace.

Mr. and Mrs. Taylor were pleased to find that the little girl’s happiness was likely to be increased by this accession to their household.

“I think, Carrie,” said her mother, “you like Julius better than if he were a doll.”

“If you don’t,” said Julius, “I’ll turn myself into a big doll with pink eyes.”

“The difference is,” said her father, “that magicians are men, but fairies are women.”

“I don’t want you to,” said Carrie, “for then you couldn’t talk to me, and play with me. Please stay a boy.”

Our hero did not feel wholly at his ease, for he was not used to dining in company. In the cheap eating houses which he had been accustomed to patronize, when he was in luck, very little ceremony prevailed. The etiquette in vogue was of the loosest character. If a patron chose to sit with his hat on, or lean his elbows on the table, there was nothing to prevent. But Julius was observing, and carefully observed how Mr. and Mrs. Taylor ate, being resolved to imitate them, and so make no mistakes. He found it difficult, however, to eat with his fork, instead of his knife, as he had always done hitherto, and privately thought it a very singular and foolish custom. His attempts were awkward, and attracted the attention of his new guardians; but they were encouraged{97} by it to believe that he would lay aside other habits springing from his street life, and, after a while, shape his manners wholly to his new position.

When dinner was over, Mr. Taylor said: “Julius, would you like to go out with me and see the farm?”

“I thought you were going to play with me,” said little Carrie, disappointed.

“Julius can’t play with you all the time, my dear,” said her mother. “After supper perhaps he will.”

“Shall I change him into a doll?” asked her father. “Then he’ll have to stay in.”

CHAPTER XIV.

FIRST LESSONS.

“I suppose you don’t know much about farming, Julius?” said Mr. Taylor, after supper.

“Some horses know considerable about farming, or at least have a chance to,” said his new guardian, with a smile.

“I shall put you in charge of Abner, who will give you some instruction. You will begin to-morrow morning with helping him to milk.”

“He gets up at five o’clock. He will knock at your door, as he comes downstairs. He sleeps on the floor above. Now I want to ask a few questions about other matters. I suppose your education has been neglected.”

“I carried a bundle of books from a bookseller in Nassau{99} Street to one of the purfessors of Columbia College.”

“If that is the extent of your educational advantages, you probably still have something to learn. Have you been to school?”

“I can read a little, but I have to skip the hard words. I ain’t much on writin’.”

“That is just what I want to find out,” said Mr. Taylor. “Don’t be bashful. If you can’t read well, you shall have a chance to improve.”

He began to read, but it soon became evident that he had not exaggerated his ignorance. He hesitated and stumbled, miscalled easy words, and made very slow progress, so that Carrie, who had been listening attentively, without getting much idea of the story, said, discontentedly, “Why, how funny you read, Julius! I like better to hear papa read.”{100}

“I knew I couldn’t do it,” said Julius, disconcerted, as he laid down the book.

“You will soon be able to,” said Mr. Taylor, encouragingly. “Now I will tell you what I propose to do. In the forenoon, up to dinner time, you shall work on the farm, and in the afternoon I will assign you lessons to be recited in the evening. Would you like that?”

“Yes,” said Julius. “I don’t want to be a know-nothin’ when I get to be a man.”

It is hardly necessary to explain that in using the term “know-nothing” Julius had no thought of its political meaning.

“Perhaps not just at first, but you will soon get used to studying. I will be your teacher; and when I am too busy to hear your lessons, Mrs. Taylor will supply my place. Are you willing, Emma?”

“Certainly, Ephraim; it will remind me of the years that I was teaching school.”

“Next winter I will send you to the public school,” said Mr. Taylor. “By that time you will, I hope, have learned so much that you will be able to get into a class of boys somewhere near your own age.”

“I shouldn’t like to be in a class with four-year-old babies,” said Julius. “They’d take me for a big baby myself.”{101}

“Your pride is natural and proper. Your grade in school will depend on how well you work between now and winter.”

“Very well. The sooner you begin the better. You may take the same story you have been trying to read, and read it over three times carefully by yourself. When you come to any words you don’t know, you can ask Mrs. Taylor or myself. To-morrow evening you may read it aloud to Carrie, and we can see how much benefit you have derived from your study.”

Julius at once set to work in earnest. He had considerable perseverance, and really desired to learn. He was heartily ashamed of his ignorance, and this feeling stimulated him to make greater exertions.

“Blest if I didn’t forget where I was,” he said to himself. “I thought I was at the Lodgin’ House, and Mr. O’Connor was callin’ me. I’m comin’,” he said, aloud.

Julius hurried on his clothes, and proceeded to the barn, where he soon found Abner in the act of milking.

He got off his stool, and Julius took his place. He began to pull, but not a drop of milk rewarded his efforts.

Here followed a practical lesson, which cannot very well be transferred to paper, even if the writer felt competent to give instructions in an art of which he has little knowledge.

Julius, though he had everything to learn, was quick in acquiring knowledge, whether practical or that drawn from books, and soon got the knack of milking, though it was some days before he could emulate Abner with his years of experience.

The next day Julius undertook to milk a cow alone. So well had he profited by Abner’s instructions, that he succeeded very well. But he was not yet experienced in the perverse ways of cows. When the pail was nearly{103} full, and he was congratulating himself on his success, the cow suddenly lifted her foot, and in an instant the pail was overturned, and all the milk was spilled, a portion of it on the milker.

“What’s the matter?” asked Abner, rather amused at the expression on the face of Julius, notwithstanding the loss of the milk.

“Matter! The darned brute has knocked over the pail, and spilled all the milk.”

“Cows is curis critters,” said Abner, philosophically. “They like to make mischief sometimes.”

“No,” said Abner, “we’ll tie her legs if she does it again. It doesn’t do much good beating an animal. Besides,” he added, smiling, “I s’pose she thought she had a right to spill the milk, considerin’ it was hers.”

“I don’t know about that,” said Julius. “That’s the way she pays her board.”

“I s’pose she didn’t see it in that light. Better luck next time, Julius. It wa’n’t your fault anyway.”

The cow stood placidly during this conversation, evidently well pleased with her exploit. Julius would like to have given her a beating; but Abner, who was a kind-hearted man, would not allow it.{104}

“It would be a bully idea to make her go without her breakfast,” said Julius, whose anger was kept fresh by the sight of the spilled milk.

“Wal,” said Abner, “you see there’s this objection. If she don’t have no breakfast, she won’t give as much milk next time.”

“She can’t make milk out of nothin’. Don’t you have no cows in New York?”

“Oh, yes,” said Julius, laughing; “the mayor has a whole drove of ’em, that he pastures in Central Park.”

“I shouldn’t think they’d allow it,” said Abner, whose knowledge of finance and the operators who make Wall{105} Street the theatre of their operations was very rudimentary.

“The bulls and bears I am talkin’ of are men. They’re the brokers that do business in Wall Street.”

“I don’t know,” said Julius. “I never heard. Didn’t you ever go to New York?”

“No; but I should like to go. It costs a pile of money to go there, I expect. I wish you’d tell me something about it.”

Then and at other times Julius gave Abner a variety of information, not always wholly reliable, about New York and his former life there, to which Abner listened with greedy attention.{106}

CHAPTER XV.

TEMPTATION.

Though Mr. Taylor owned several hundred acres, he retained but forty under his personal charge. The remainder was rented to various parties, who paid him either in money or grain, according to the agreement made. Being fond of agriculture, he would have kept the whole in his own hands, but that it would have increased so largely the cares of his wife. A large number of farm laborers would have been required, whom he would probably have been compelled to receive under his own roof, and his wife would have become in effect the mistress of a large boarding house. This he was too considerate to require, or allow.

Even of the forty acres he reserved, but a small portion was cultivated, the remainder being used for pasturage or mowing. During the greater part of the year, therefore, he found Abner’s services sufficient. Only during haying and harvest he found it necessary to engage extra assistance. Mr. Taylor was, however, an exception to the general rule. Ordinarily, Western farmers, owning a large number of acres, carry on the whole themselves; though it is doubtful whether their profits{107} are any greater than if they should let out the greater part.

It will be seen, therefore, that Julius was fortunate in his position. He had to work but half the day, while the remaining half he was at liberty to devote to making up the many deficiencies in his early education. He was sensible enough to appreciate this advantage, and showed it by the rapid improvement he made. After he had begun to improve in his reading, he had lessons assigned him in writing and arithmetic. For the latter he showed a decided taste; and even mastered with ease the difficulties of fractions, which, perhaps more than any other part of the arithmetic, are liable to perplex the learner.

“You are really making excellent progress, Julius,” said Mr. Taylor to him one evening. “I find you are a very satisfactory pupil.”

“You appear not only to take pains, but to have very good natural abilities.”

“You certainly won’t if you keep on in this way. But there is one other thing in which you can improve?”

“In your pronunciation. Just now you said ‘goin’’ and ‘know-nothin’.’ You should pronounce the final letter, saying ‘going’ and ‘nothing.’ Don’t you notice that I do it?”{108}

“You can correct it, notwithstanding. By way of helping you I will remind you whenever you go wrong in this particular way; indeed, whenever you make any mistake in pronunciation.”

“I wish you would,” said Julius, earnestly. “Do you think they’ll put me in a very low class at school?”

“I’d like to know as much as other boys of my age. I don’t want to be in a class with four-year-olds.”

“You have got safely by that, at least,” said Mr. Taylor, smiling. “I like your ambition, and shall be glad myself, when you enter school, to have you do credit to my teaching.”

There was nothing connected with the farm work that Julius liked better than driving a horse, particularly when he had sole charge of it; and he felt proud indeed the first time he was sent with a load of hay to a neighboring town. He acquitted himself well; and from that time he was often sent in this way. Sometimes, when Mr. Taylor was too busy to accompany her, Mrs. Taylor employed him to drive her to the village stores, or to a neighbor’s, to make a call; and as Julius showed himself fearless, and appeared to have perfect control even of Mr. Taylor’s most spirited horse, she felt as safe with him as with her husband.

Julius had been in his new place about six weeks, when{109} his integrity was subjected to a sudden and severe test. He was sent to a neighbor’s, living about a mile and a half away, and, on account of the distance, was told to harness up the horse and ride. This he did with alacrity. He took his seat in the buggy, gathered the reins into his hands, and set out. He had got a quarter of a mile on his way when he suddenly espied on the floor of the carriage, in the corner, a pocketbook. He took it up, and, opening it, discovered two facts: first, that it belonged to Mr. Taylor, as it contained his card; next, that its contents were valuable, judging from the thick roll of bills.

Counting the bills hurriedly, he ascertained that they amounted to two hundred and sixty-seven dollars.

“Whew! what a pile!” he said to himself. “Ain’t I in luck? I could go to California for this, and make a fortune. Why shouldn’t I keep it? Mr. Taylor will never know. Besides, he’s so rich he won’t need it.”

To one who had been brought up, or rather who had brought himself up, as a bootblack in the streets of New York, the temptation was a strong one. Notwithstanding the comfort which he now enjoyed there were moments when a longing for his old, independent, vagrant life swept over him. He thought of Broadway, and City Hall Park, of Tony Pastor’s, and the old Bowery, of the busy hum and excitement of the streets of the great{110} city; and a feeling something like homesickness was aroused within him. Brookville seemed dull, and he pined to be in the midst of crowds. This longing he was now able to gratify. He was not apprenticed to Mr. Taylor. It is not the custom of the Children’s Aid Society to bind out the children they send West for any definite term. There was nothing to hinder his leaving Brookville, and either going back to New York, or going to California, as he had often thought he would like to do. Before the contents of the pocketbook were exhausted, which, according to his reckoning, would be a very long time, he would get something to do. There was something exhilarating in the prospect of starting on a long journey alone, with plenty of money in his pocket. Besides, the money wouldn’t be stolen. He had found it, and why shouldn’t he keep it?

These thoughts passed through the mind of Julius in considerably less time than I have taken in writing them down. But other and better thoughts succeeded. After all, it would be no better than stealing to retain money when he knew the owner. Besides, it would be a very poor return to Mr. Taylor for the kindness with which he had treated him ever since he became a member of his household. Again, it would cut short his studies, and he would grow up a know-nothing—to use his own word—- after all. It would be pleasant traveling, to be sure; it would be pleasant to see California, or to find himself{111} again in the streets of New York; but that pleasure would be dearly bought.

“I won’t keep it,” said Julius, resolutely. “It would be mean, and I should feel like a thief.”

He put the pocketbook carefully in the side pocket of his coat, and buttoned it up. As he whipped up the horse, who had taken advantage of his preoccupation of mind to walk at a snail’s pace, it occurred to him that if he should leave Brookville he would no longer be able to drive a horse; and this thought contributed to strengthen his resolution.

“What a fool I was to think of keeping it!” he thought. “I’ll give it to Mr. Taylor just as soon as I get back.”

“Haven’t you lost your pocketbook, Mr. Taylor?” he asked, when, having unharnessed the horse, he entered the room where his guardian was sitting.

“Yes,” said he, anxiously. “It contained a considerable sum of money. Have you found it?”

“Yes, sir; here it is.” And our hero drew it from his pocket, and restored it to the owner.

“Didn’t it occur to you,” asked Mr. Taylor, looking at him in some curiosity, knowing what he did of his past life and associations, “didn’t it occur to you that you could have kept it without my suspecting it?”

“Yes; I thought how I could go back to New York and cut a swell, or go to California and maybe make a fortune at the mines.”

“No; it would be mean. It wouldn’t be treating you right, after all you’ve done for me; so I just pushed it into my pocket, and there it is.”

“You have resisted temptation nobly, my boy,” said Mr. Taylor, warmly; “and I thank you for it. I won’t offer to reward you, for I know you didn’t do it for that; but I shall hereafter give you my full confidence, and trust you as I would myself.”

Nothing could have made a better or deeper impression on the mind of Julius than these words. Nothing could have made him more ashamed of his momentary yielding to the temptation of dishonesty. He was proud of having won the confidence of Mr. Taylor. It elevated him in his own eyes.

“Thank you, sir,” he said, taking his guardian’s proffered{113} hand. “I’ll try to deserve what you say. I’d rather hear them words than have you pay me money.”

Mr. Taylor was a wise man, and knew the way to a boy’s heart. Julius never forgot the lesson of that day. In moments of after temptation it came back to him, and strengthened him to do right.{114}

CHAPTER XVI.

THE NEW TEACHER.

On the first Monday after Thanksgiving the winter school commenced. Julius looked forward to the day with eager interest. He had studied at home faithfully in the afternoon, according to Mr. Taylor’s proposal, and had really made remarkable progress. His ambition was aroused, and he had labored to reach an equality with other boys of his age. He was encouraged to believe he had done so, and therefore was not afraid of being mortified by his standing in the assignment of scholars to classes.

“Who is to be the teacher this winter?” asked Mrs. Taylor, at the breakfast table, turning to her husband.

“No; I only know that the Deacon actively interested himself to get him the appointment. Most of the parents would have preferred Dexter Fairbanks. He has experience, and is known to be an excellent teacher.”

“By asking his nephew’s appointment as a special favor. I only hope he will prove a good teacher.”{115}

Julius listened to this conversation with attention. He felt that he was personally interested in the matter. He hoped the new teacher would be a good one, for he really wished to learn. If I should say, however, that this was all that our hero had in view, I should convey a false idea. He expected to have a good time, and meant to get what enjoyment he could as well as profit. By this time he was pretty well acquainted with the boys who, like himself, were to attend the school, and no longer felt like a stranger.

One thing I must add. When we first made acquaintance with Julius, in the streets of New York, he was meager and rather undersized. Want and privation had checked his growth, as was natural. But since he had found a home in the West, he had lived generously, enjoyed pure air, and a sufficiency of out-of-door exercise, and these combined had wrought a surprising change in his appearance. He had grown three inches in height; his form had expanded; the pale, unhealthy hue of his cheek had given place to a healthy bloom, and his strength had considerably increased. This change was very gratifying to Julius. Like most boys of his age he wanted to be tall and strong; in the city he had been rather ashamed of his puny appearance; but this had disappeared, and he now felt able to cope with most boys of his age.{116}

“I hope he isn’t like his uncle, then,” said Henry Frye. “The deacon always looks as stiff as a fence rail.”

“I wish we were going to have Mr. Fairbanks here again this winter. He’s a regular, tiptop teacher.”

“Mr. Taylor says it’s the deacon’s doing, getting his nephew appointed.”

“Of course it was. Mr. Fairbanks was willing to teach. I wish we could have had him. He used to go out at recess, and play ball with us sometimes.”

“He must have been pretty strong in the arms,” said Julius, measuring the distance with his eye.

“No; he didn’t need to. We all liked him, and didn’t give him any cause.”

“It must be,” said John Sandford. “He bends backward just like the deacon. Tall, too; looks like a May pole.”

Forty pairs of eyes scanned with interest the advancing figure of the schoolmaster. He was very tall, very thin, with a pimply face, and bright red hair, and a cast in his right eye. He would hardly have been selected, either by a sculptor or an artist, as a model of manly beauty; and this was the impression made upon the youthful observers.

“Beats the deacon all hollow,” said John Sandford; “and that’s saying a good deal.”

“He’s got the family backbone,” said Julius, who had been long enough in the town to become well acquainted with the appearance of most of the inhabitants.

By this time the teacher had come within a few feet of his future scholars.{118}

“You will at once enter the schoolhouse,” said the new teacher, with dignity.

He entered the schoolhouse, and a minute later reappeared at the door ringing the bell violently.

Probably few persons are the objects of more critical attention than a new teacher, for the pupils who are to be under his charge. It is to many an embarrassment to be subjected to such close scrutiny, but Mr. Theophilus Slocum rather liked it. He had an exceedingly high opinion of himself, and fancied that others admired him as much as he admired himself. Of his superior qualifications as a teacher he entertained not the slightest doubt, and expected to “come, see and conquer.” He had taught small schools twice before, and, although his success was far from remarkable, he managed to keep the schools through to the end of the term.

Such was the teacher who had undertaken to keep the winter term of the principal school in Brookville.

Mr. Slocum took his place at the teacher’s desk, solemnly drew out a large red handkerchief, and blew a sonorous blast upon his nose, and then began to speak.{119}

“Boys and girls,” he commenced, in a nasal voice, “I have agreed to teach this school through the winter. They wanted me in two or three other places, but I preferred to come here, in order to be near my venerable relative, Deacon Slocum. I expect you to make great improvement, considering how great will be your advantages. When I was a boy I used to take right holt of my studies, and that’s the way I have rose to be a teacher.” (Significant looks were exchanged between different scholars, who were quick to detect the weakness of the speaker.) “I was not raised in this State. I come from Maine, where I graduated from one of the best academies in the State. I come out here, hoping to advance the cause of education in the West. I don’t think all the best teachers ought to stay in the East. They ought to come to the great West, like I have, to teach the young idea how to shoot. Now, boys and girls, that’s all I’ve got to say, except that I mean to be master. You needn’t try to cut up any of your pranks here, for I won’t allow it. I will form the classes, and we will begin.”

For an hour and a half the new teacher was engaged in classifying the scholars. Then came recess, and on the play ground, as may well be supposed, not a few remarks were made upon the new teacher, and his speech.

“He’s a conceited jackass,” said John Sandford. “You’d think, to hear him talk, that we had no good teachers in the West till he came.”{120}

“He’d better have stayed where he came from,” said Henry Frye. “I don’t believe they wanted him in two or three other places.”

“I wish he had gone to one of them, for my part. I wouldn’t cry much. How much better Mr. Fairbanks was!”

“I should say he was,” said Tom Allen. “You wouldn’t catch him making a jackass of himself by making such a speech.”

“I don’t believe he does,” said John. “When a man talks so much about what he knows, I think he’s a humbug. Did you hear what he said about taking right ‘holt’? It seems to me a teacher from one of the best academies in Maine ought to know better.”

“He puts on airs enough,” said Tom Allen. “If he expects he’s going to tread us under foot, he’ll find himself mistaken.”

Tom Allen was the largest boy in school—large-framed and muscular, through working on a farm. He was tractable if treated justly, but apt to resist if he felt that any attempt was being made to impose upon him. He was a little dull, but tried to improve. He was a scholar whom it was the interest of the teacher to secure as a friend, for he could render very efficient assistance in case of trouble. He was not particularly pleased with{121} the tone of the new teacher’s opening speech, regarding it as unnecessarily aggressive, as well as betraying not a little self-conceit. He had been a trusted supporter of Mr. Fairbanks, who had patiently endeavored to clear up difficulties in his lessons, and, not being naturally quick, he encountered them often. It would have been well if Mr. Slocum had understood the wisdom of conciliating him; but the new teacher was very deficient in good judgment and practical wisdom, and was by no means as well versed as he pretended to be in the studies which he had undertaken to teach. It was a proof of his want of tact that he had begun his career by threatening the school, and parading his authority very unnecessarily.{122}

CHAPTER XVII.

A FIRST-CLASS HUMBUG.

Julius found, to his great satisfaction, that he was placed in a class of boys of his own age and size, and that the lessons assigned were not beyond his ability to learn. Teddy Bates, on the other hand, who had had no opportunity of increasing his knowledge since his departure from New York, was placed in the lowest class. He was astonished to find his old companion so far above him.

“I have been studying at home ever since I came here. Mr. Taylor helped me.”

“That’s because I wanted to make up for all the time I’d lost. I was a reg’lar know-nothing when I began.”

“You haven’t had the same chance I have,” said Julius, wishing to save the feelings of his friend.

“Never mind, Teddy. You’ve got a chance now. Do the best you can, and if you get stuck, I’ll help you.”

“What a lot you must know, Julius! You’re in the highest class. Do you think you can get along?” asked Teddy, with newborn respect for his friend on account of his superior knowledge.

“I ain’t afraid,” said Julius, confidently. “You can work your way up, too, if you try.”

“Oh, yes, you are,” said our hero, though he secretly doubted it, and with good reason. There was no doubt that Julius surpassed his friend, not only in energy, but in natural talent.

The boys soon discovered that their new teacher was by no means equal in scholarship to the favorite whom he had superseded. Notwithstanding he had graduated, as he asserted, at one of the most celebrated academies in Maine, he proved to be slow at figures, and very confused in his explanations of mathematical principles. It may be well to let the reader into a little secret. Mr. Slocum had passed a few months at an academy in Maine, without profiting much by his advantages; and, having had very indifferent success in teaching schools of a low grade at home, had come out West by invitation of his uncle, under the mistaken impression that his acquirements, though not appreciated in the East, would give him a commanding position at the West. He was destined to{124} find that the West is as exacting as the East in the matter of scholarship.

Mr. Slocum betrayed his weakness first on the second day. Frank Bent, a member of the first class, went up to him at recess with a sum in complex fractions.

“I don’t quite understand this sum, Mr. Slocum,” he said. “Will you explain it to me?”

“Certainly,” said the teacher, pompously. “I dare say it seems hard to you, but to one who has studied the higher branches of mathematics like I have, it is, I may say, as easy as the multiplication table.”

“You must be very learned, Mr. Slocum,” said Frank, with a grave face, but a humorous twinkle in his eye.

“That isn’t for me to say,” said Mr. Slocum, complacently. “You know the truth shouldn’t be spoken at all times. Ahem! what sum is it that troubles you?”

Mr. Slocum took up the arithmetic, and looked fixedly at the sum with an air of profound wisdom, then turned back to the rule, looked carefully through the specimen example done in the book, and after five minutes remarked: “It is quite easy, that is, for me. Give me your slate.”

He worked on the sum for the remainder of the recess, referring frequently to the book, but apparently arrived at no satisfactory result.{125}

“Certainly not,” said the teacher; “but I think I see why it is that you didn’t get it.”

“Because the answer in the book is wrong,” replied Mr. Slocum. “Ahem! I have discovered other errors before. I believe I will write to the publishers about it, Really, it ought to be corrected in the next edition.”

“Thank you, sir,” said Frank, amused; for he didn’t credit the statement about the error.

“What do you think Slocum says?” he said in a whisper to Julius, who sat at the same desk with him.

“He says the answer to the fifth sum is wrong in the book, and he is going to write to the publishers about it.”

“The fifth sum! Why, I’ve done it, and got the same answer as is in the book.”

“I see,” said Frank. “The teacher worked on it for ten minutes, and then couldn’t get it. I guess he don’t know much.”

“I don’t see anything hard about it,” said Julius. “All you’ve got to do is to follow the rule.”

“Our lesson to-day treats of complex fractions,” said Mr. Slocum, pompously. “Does any boy know what complex means?”

“Not exactly. It means complicated. That is, they are puzzling to ordinary intellects, but very simple to those who have studied the higher branches of mathematics, such as algebra, geometry, triggernometry”—this was the way the teacher pronounced it—“and so forth. I have studied them all,” he added, impressively, “because I have a taste for mathematics. Many of you wouldn’t be able to understand such recondite studies. I will now ask each of you to give the rule. Julius, you may give it first.”

“That is very well,” said Mr. Slocum, blandly. “I will now explain the way in which the sums are done.”

Mr. Slocum went to the blackboard, and, keeping the book open, did the sum already done in the book, giving the explanation from the page before him.

“You see that there seems to be no difficulty,” he said, with an air of superior knowledge. “I have, however, detected an error in the fifth sum, about which one of the class consulted me during recess. The book is evidently{127} wrong, and I propose to write to the publishers, and acquaint them with the fact.”

“Julius, do I understand you to say that you got the same answer as the book?” demanded Mr. Slocum, rather discomposed. “I am afraid,” he added, severely, “you copied the answer out of the book.”

“You may go to the board, and perform the problem, and explain it after you get through,” said the teacher.

Julius went to the board, and did what was required; writing down at the close the same answer given in the book.

“Now elucidate it,” said Mr. Slocum, who, like many superficial persons, thought that the use of long and uncommon words would impress others with an idea of his learning.

Julius had never heard the word before, but he supposed it must mean “explain,” and accordingly explained it—so well, that even Mr. Slocum understood the operation, and perceived that it was correct. It was rather an awkward situation, to admit that a pupil had succeeded where he had failed; but Mr. Slocum was equal to the emergency.{128}

“Ahem!” he admitted, “you are correct. I did the sum by a recondite process which is in use in the higher branches of mathematics, and I probably made a mistake in one of the figures, which led to a different result. The method in the book is a much more simple one, as I explained to you a short time ago. Frank Bent, you may take the next sum and do it on the board.”

It so happened that Frank, who was not very strong in arithmetic, made a mistake, and got a wrong answer.

Mr. Slocum looked at the operation; but, though his face wore an expression of profound wisdom, it was too complex for him. He was, however, thoroughly up in the science of sham.

“Julius, you may come up to the board, and point out the right method of performing the sum.”

Our hero did so; thereby affording information to the teacher, as well as to his classmates.

“Very well,” said Mr. Slocum, patronizingly. “Julius, you do me credit. Bent, do you understand the sum now?”

“You must pay more attention next time. You can’t{129} do anything without attention and talent. When I was a student at one of the most celebrated educational institutions in Maine, I was noted for my attention. When the principal handed me the first prize at the end of the term, he said to me: ‘Theophilus, you have gained this testimonial by your attention and natural talent.’ I am sorry that I left the prize at my home in Maine. It would give me pleasure to show it to you, as it might encourage you to go and do likewise. We will now go through the remaining sums. John Sandford, you may try the sixth sum.”

So the recitation proceeded. In spite of his pompous words, the scholars began to suspect that the new teacher was a first-class humbug. There is reason to believe that they were not very far from the truth.{130}

CHAPTER XVIII.

MR. SLOCUM’S STRATEGY.

“I don’t believe Mr. Slocum knew how to do that sum,” said Frank Bent, at noon. “He got off by saying that he did it in another way; but I saw him looking at the rule about forty times when he was trying to do it. If you hadn’t done it on the board, he would have been caught.”

“Listen, boys,” said John Sandford, “I’ll put you up to a good joke. We shall have the rest of those sums to-morrow. We’ll all pretend we can’t do them, and ask him to explain them to us. Do you agree?”

“As he will be most likely to call on you, Julius, you must be the individual to ask him for an explanation.”

“All right,” said Julius, who enjoyed the prospect of cornering the teacher.

Accordingly at recess Julius went up to the teacher gravely, and said, “Mr. Slocum, will you tell me how to do this sum?”

“If seven is the denominator of the following fraction,{131} nine and one-quarter over twelve and seven-eighths, what is its value when reduced to a simple fraction?”

Now this ought not to present any difficulty to a teacher; but Mr. Slocum had tried it at home, and knew he could not do it. He relied upon some one of the scholars to do it on the board, and as he decided in his own mind, from his experience of the day before, that Julius was most to be relied upon, he was dismayed by receiving such an application from our hero.

“It is rather a difficult example,” he said, slowly. “Have you tried it?”

Julius had tried it, and obtained the correct answer; but this he did not think it necessary to mention.

“I have not time,” said Mr. Slocum. “Besides, I think it much better that you should find out for yourself.”

“It isn’t easy to get ahead of him,” thought Julius; “but when the class comes up, we’ll see how he’ll get off.”

To tell the truth, though he had got off for the time being, Mr. Slocum was rather disturbed in mind. He could not do the sum, and it was possible he would be called upon to explain it to the class. How should he conceal his ignorance? That was an important question.{132} He did not suspect that a trap had been laid for him, but supposed the question had been asked in good faith.

“Julius Taylor,” said the teacher, “you may go to the board and do the eleventh example.”

He went up to the board and covered it with a confused mass of figures; finally bringing out the answer one hundred and eleven over eight hundred and forty-six.

Mr. Slocum scanned with a look of impressive wisdom the confused figures on the board, and said: “You are right in principle, but there is an error somewhere.”

“Is there any one in the class who has obtained the correct answer to this sum?” asked the teacher, hoping to see a hand raised.

“You may all bring up your slates and do it at the{133} same time, while Julius does it again on the board,” he said.

Five minutes passed, and by agreement every one announced a wrong answer. The boys thought Mr. Slocum would now be forced to explain. But the pedagogue was too wise to attempt what he knew was impossible.

“I see,” said the teacher, “that these sums are too difficult for the class. I shall put you back at the beginning of fractions.”

This announcement was heard by most of the boys with dismay. Many of them could only attend school in the winter, and wanted to make as much progress as they could in the three months to which they were limited. Among the most disappointed was Julius. He saw that his practical joke on the teacher was likely to cost him dear, and he resolved to sacrifice it.

“I think I can do it now, sir,” he said. “I have just thought of the way.”

Our hero at once performed the sum correctly, obtaining the same answer as the book.

“That is the result of perseverance,” said Mr. Slocum, “I was always persevering. When I was connected with{134} a celebrated institution of learning in the State of Maine, the principal one day said to me: ‘Theophilus, I never knew a more persevering boy than you are. You never allow any difficulties to stand in your way. You persevere till you have conquered them.’ Once, at the end of the arithmetic—a more difficult one than this—there was a very hard example, which none of the other boys could do; but I sat up till one o’clock at night and did it. Such are the results of perseverance.”

“May we go on where we are?” asked Julius, “and not go back to the beginning of fractions?”

“Yes,” said Mr. Slocum, “since you have shown that you can persevere. I could easily have explained the sum to you at once; but what good would it have done you? You could not have done the next. Now that you have got it out yourself, I think I am justified in letting you advance.”

So Mr. Slocum triumphed; but not one of the class credited his statement. It was clear to all that he had been “stuck,” and did not dare attempt the sum for fear of failing.

“The master was pretty well cornered, I wondered how he would get out.”{135}

“I wish we had Mr. Fairbanks back again. He had the whole arithmetic by heart. There wasn’t a sum he couldn’t do; though he didn’t brag about it, like Mr. Slocum. He knew how to explain so a feller couldn’t help understand him.”

In the afternoon Mr. Slocum had another chance to boast. This time it was about his travels, which, by the way, were limited to his journey from Maine, by way of New York. But the city of New York, in which he spent two days, had impressed him very much, and he was proud of having visited it.

“What is the largest city in the United States, Julius?” asked the teacher; though this question was not included in the lesson.

“Quite correct. New York is indeed a vast city. I am quite familiar with it, having spent some time there not long since. I expect you have not any of you had the privilege of visiting this great city.” Here Julius and Teddy Bates exchanged glances of amusement.

“New York contains a great variety of beautiful edifices,” continued Mr. Slocum, complacently. “I used often to walk up Broadway, and survey the beautiful stores. I made some purchases at the store of the celebrated{136} A. T. Stewart, whom you have heard of frequently.”

Mr. Slocum’s extensive purchases to which he alluded consisted of a handkerchief, for which he paid fifty cents.

“It is very beneficial to travel,” continued Mr. Slocum. “It enlarges the mind, and stores it with useful information. We cannot all travel, for travel is expensive; but I think teachers ought to travel, as it enables them to illustrate lessons in geography by their own observations in distant cities and remote lands.”

Mr. Slocum was flattered; and with a preliminary flourish proceeded: “I am glad you desire to acquire information; it is a very laudable ambition. I stopped at one of the finest hotels in New York, located on Chatham Avenue, a broad and fashionable thoroughfare, lined with stately stores.”

Here Julius and Teddy found it difficult to repress their laughter, but by an effort succeeded.

“Did you go to the Grand Duke’s Oprea House?” Julius asked, raising his hand.

“To be sure,” said Mr. Slocum, supposing it to be a fashionable place of amusement. “It is an elegant structure, worthy of the great city in which it is erected. I never visited Europe, but I am told that none of the{137} capital cities of the Old World can surpass it in grandeur.”

This was intensely amusing to Julius, who remembered the humble basement in Baxter Street, described in our early chapters, as the “Grand Duke’s Oprea House.” He concluded that Mr. Slocum’s knowledge of New York was about on a par with his knowledge of complex fractions.{138}

CHAPTER XIX.

MR. SLOCUM AS AN ORATOR.

“Next Wednesday afternoon the boys will all speak pieces,” Mr. Slocum announced. “You may select any pieces you please. At the celebrated institution in Maine, from which I graduated, we used to speak pieces every week. You may be interested to know that your teacher gained a great reputation by his speaking. ‘Theophilus,’ said the principal to me one day, I never had a student under my instruction who could equal you in speaking. There is no one who can do such justice to Daniel Webster, and other great orators of antiquity. You are a natural orator, and eloquence comes natural to you.’ This was a high compliment, as you will agree; but it was deserved. The principal put it to vote whether a prize should be offered for speaking, but the students voted against it; ‘for,’ they said, ‘Slocum will be sure to get it, and it will do us no good.’ I hope, boys, you will do your best, so that I may be able to compliment you.”

The scholars were not a little amused at this illustration of their teacher’s self-conceit, which was quite in keeping with previous exhibitions of the same weakness.{139}

“I wish Mr. Slocum would favor us with a specimen of his declamation,” said John Sandford, at recess.

“He must be a regular steam engine,” said Walter Pratt; “that is, according to his own account.”

“The principal of the celebrated institution in Maine thought a good deal of Theophilus,” said Julius.

“What a phenomenon he must have been!” said Tom Allen. “He appears to have stood first in everything.”

“But he seems to forget easy,” said Frank Bent. “Complex fractions are too much for him.”

“Well, how about asking him to speak?” resumed John Sandford. “Who goes in for it?”

“All right, boys. I’ll do it, if you say so. But I am afraid I can’t keep a straight face.”

So John went back into school just before the bell rang, and approached the teacher’s desk.

“The boys want to know, Mr. Slocum, if you will be willing to speak a piece for us on Wednesday. You see, sir, we never heard any good speaking, and we think it would improve us if we could hear a good speaker now and then.”{140}

As may be inferred from his habit of boasting, Mr. Slocum was very accessible to flattery, and listened graciously to this request. John was perfectly sober, though he was laughing inside, as he afterward said; and the teacher never dreamed of a plot to expose and ridicule him.

“You are quite right, Sandford,” said he, graciously; “it would undoubtedly be very beneficial to you, and I will look over one of my old pieces, and see if I can remember it. I am glad to see that the boys are anxious to improve in the important branch of declamation.”

John carried to the boys the news of his success, which was received with a great deal of interest. Though most of the boys thought it irksome to commit a piece to memory, and had no ambition to become orators, all went to work willingly, feeling that they should be repaid by hearing the “master” speak.

“Speaking” was new business to Julius. During his very brief school attendance in New York he had not been sufficiently advanced to declaim, and he felt a little apprehensive about his success. He chose an extract from one of Webster’s speeches, and carefully committed it, reciting it at home to Mr. Taylor, from whom he received several suggestions, which he found of value. The result was that he acquitted himself quite creditably.

“I wonder whether the master’ll speak first,” said John Sandford, and there were others who wondered{141} also; but Mr. Slocum had not announced his intentions on this point. But when the scholars were assembled on Wednesday afternoon, he said: “I have promised you that I will give you this afternoon a specimen of my speaking, and I have selected one of the pieces that I was distinguished for, when I was connected with one of the most celebrated institutions in the State of Maine. I will wait, however, until you are all through, as I do not like to discourage you in your inexperienced efforts. I will wind up the speaking by ascending the rostrum after your declamation is finished.”

One after another the boys spoke. One boy, of thirteen, rather inappropriately had selected the well-known little poem, commencing

“That piece is rather too young for you,” said Mr. Slocum, when he had taken his seat. “I remember speaking that piece when I was two years old. I was considered a very forward baby, and my parents were very proud of me; so they invited some company, and in the course of the evening they stood me up on a table, and I spoke the piece you have just listened to. Even now I can remember, though it is so long ago, how the company applauded, and how the minister came up to me, and, putting his hand on my head, said: ‘Theophilus,{142} the day will come when your father will be proud of you. You will live to be a credit to the whole Slocum family.’ Then he turned to my father, and said: ‘Mr. Slocum, I congratulate you on the brilliant success of your promising son. He is indeed a juvenile “progedy”’”—this was Mr. Slocum’s word—“‘and the world will yet hear of him.’ Such was my first introduction to the world as an orator, and I have always enjoyed speaking from that time. I hope that some of my pupils will also become distinguished in the same way.”

“I wish he’d speak that piece now,” whispered Julius to his next neighbor.

“Julius said he wished you would speak that piece you spoke when you were two years old.”

“It wouldn’t be appropriate,” said the teacher, seriously. “I like best now to declaim the sonorous sentences of Daniel Webster and Patrick Henry. If I should ever enter public life, as my friends have tried at times to persuade me, I think I should adopt their style. Frank Bent, it is your turn to speak.”{143}

At last the scholars had all spoken, and in expectant silence Mr. Slocum’s “piece” was awaited by the boys.

“Boys,” he said, arising with dignity, and advancing to the platform, “I should like to speak a piece from Webster; but I have forgotten those I once knew, and I will favor you with one of a lighter character, called ‘The Seminole’s Reply.’”

Mr. Slocum took his place on the rostrum, as he liked to call it, made a low bow to the boys, struck an attitude, and began to declaim at the top of his voice. The first two stanzas are quoted here, in order to show more clearly the character of Mr. Slocum’s declamation:

No fault could be found with Mr. Slocum on the score of animation. He exerted his voice to the utmost,{144} stamped with his foot, and when he came to “the arm which now is free,” he shook his first at the boys in a most savage way. But his most effective gesture occurred in the second line of the second verse, where, in illustrating the act of scalping, he gathered with one hand his luxuriant red hair, and with the other made a pass at it with an imaginary tomahawk.

The boys cheered vociferously, which encouraged Mr. Slocum to further exertions. Nothing could exceed the impressive dignity with which he delivered the concluding half of the fourth stanza:

The gravity of the boys, however, was endangered by a too appropriate gesture. When Mr. Slocum wished to designate the scalp of vengeance as still red, he pointed to his own hair, which, as has been said, was of a decided red tint.

The two concluding lines of the poem, as many of my readers, to whom it is familiar, will doubtless remember, are these:

This Mr. Slocum illustrated by going through the motions{145} of swimming with his hands, much to the delight of the boys.

When the orator had concluded his effort, and with a low bow resumed his seat, the boys applauded uproariously. Mr. Slocum’s vanity was flattered, and he arose to acknowledge the compliment.

“Boys,” he said, “I am glad to find that you appreciate my efforts to instruct you. Don’t be discouraged because you cannot yet speak as well as I do. Keep on in your efforts. Let your motto ever be Excelsior! and the time will perhaps come when you will receive the applause of listening multitudes. The school is now dismissed.”

“Wasn’t it rich, Julius?” asked John Sandford, when they were walking home. “I never wanted to laugh so much in all my life. But the best of it was about the red scalp.”

“You’re envious, John. That’s the reason you ridicule Mr. Slocum’s speaking. I’m afraid you’ll never be as great an orator as he is.”

CHAPTER XX.

MR. SLOCUM’S PANIC.

Had Mr. Slocum become in after years a distinguished man, and in due time a biography had been called for, some one of the scholars who had the great privilege of receiving his instructions would have been admirably qualified, so far as information went, to perform the task of writing it; for, as we have seen, the teacher took frequent occasion to illustrate points that came up in the day’s lessons by narratives drawn from his own personal experience. One day, for instance, when in the class in geography a certain locality was spoken of as abounding in bears, Mr. Slocum indulged in a reminiscence.

Laying down the book on his desk, he said: “I myself once had an adventure with a bear, which I will narrate for your entertainment.”

Mr. Slocum’s stories were always listened to with close attention, in the confident expectation that they would be found to redound greatly to his credit. So the boys looked up, and exhibited a gratifying interest on the part of the class.

“You must know,” said the teacher, “that we have extensive forests in Maine, in some of which wild animals{147} are to be found. One day, when a mere boy, I wandered into the woods with some of my school companions. We were hunting for squirrels. All at once an immense bear walked around from behind a tree, and faced us, not more than fifty feet away. Most of the boys were frightened, for we had no guns with us. We knew that if we climbed the trees the bear could climb after us. So, as they looked upon me as a leader, they turned to me, and said, ‘Theophilus, what shall we do? The bear will kill us,’ and one of the smallest boys began to cry. But I was not frightened,” continued Mr. Slocum, impressively. “I was always noted for my presence of mind even as a boy.

“I had heard that nearly all beasts are afraid of the human eye. So I advanced slowly toward the savage beast, fixing my eye sternly upon him all the while.”

Here Mr. Slocum glared upon the boys, by way of illustrating the manner in which he regarded the bear.

“The result was what I expected. The bear tried to sustain my steady gaze, but in vain. Slowly he turned, and sought the solitudes of the forest, leaving us in safety. When my companions found that they were saved, they crowded around me, and said, with tears in their eyes, ‘Theophilus, you have saved our lives!’ When we returned home,” Mr. Slocum added, complacently, “the fame of my bravery got about, and the{148} parents of the boys clubbed together, and bought a gold medal, which they presented to me out of gratitude for what I had done.”

“I am sorry to say that I have not,” answered the teacher. “I was afraid I might lose it, and so I left it on deposit in a bank, before I left Maine for the West.”

“Do you believe that bear story, John?” asked Julius, of John Sandford, when they were walking home from school together.

“The fact is, Mr. Slocum is the biggest blower I ever met with. I don’t believe half the stories that he tells about himself. If they were true, he would be, I think, one of the most remarkable men that ever lived. I don’t believe he’s as brave as he pretends.”

“Can’t we manage to have him fall in with the bear some evening, John?” asked Julius. “It would be fun to see him try to stare the old fellow out of countenance.”{149}

“That’s a splendid idea, Julius. I’m in for it, but I don’t see exactly how we can manage it.”

“I’ll tell you. He goes by your house sometimes in the evening, doesn’t he?”

“Well, I propose that he shall commune with the bear once, by way of variety.”

“Have the bear close by, and just after he has passed let him out—the bear, I mean. Then run by Mr. Slocum, appearing to be in a great fright, and tell him there’s a bear after him.”

“It will be easier for one reason,” said John. “I have taught the bear to run after me, and as soon as he sees me ahead he will begin to run too.”

“Not till afterward. If they come around, and there is a crowd, we may not be able to carry out our plan.”

“Let him be mad. We’ll look him in the eye, and he’ll turn tail and flee.”

The next evening two boys might have been seen crouching behind the wall bordering a large field belonging to Mr. Sandford. The bear was peacefully reclining beside them. From time to time the boys took observations, with a view to discover whether the enemy was in sight.

“I am afraid he isn’t coming,” said Julius. “That would be a joke on us.”

“He can’t be so mean, when we have made such preparations to receive him.”

In the distance the stately figure of the teacher was seen, walking with dignified composure. Mr. Theophilus Slocum always walked as if he felt that the eyes of the world were upon him. He realized that he was a personage of no little importance, and that it behooved him to shape his walk and conversation accordingly.

The hearts of the boys beat high with anticipation. At length they heard the teacher go by.

Through an opening they emerged into the road, followed by the bear. Mr. Slocum was now about fifty feet in advance.

The boys uttered a shriek, and began to run at the top of their speed. The bear, as he had been trained, tried to keep up with them. Mr. Slocum turned around, and saw the fleeing boys, and behind them the huge, unwieldy bear getting rapidly over the ground. He knew it was a bear, for he had once seen one at a menagerie.

Now the teacher had never heard of Mr. Sandford’s bear. He was not aware that one was kept in the village. He supposed that this one had strayed from the forest, and was dangerous. Alas! that I should record it—instead of bravely turning, and facing the animal, Theophilus turned pale with terror, and exerting his long limbs to the utmost, fled incontinently, shooting ahead of the boys, whom he didn’t pause to rescue, coattails flying, and, having lost his hat in his flight, with his red hair waving in the wind.

When John and Julius saw the tall figure speeding before them, and saw the panic into which their eminent{152} instructor had been thrown through their mischievous means, a sense of the ridiculous so overcame them that they sank down in the path, convulsed with laughter. But Mr. Slocum didn’t see this, for he never stopped till he had run half a mile, when he bolted into the village store, panting and out of breath, and answered the eager inquiries of the men who were congregated there, by giving an alarming account of a ferocious bear which had closely pursued him for two miles.

“Yes; he has a large one. But it is quite tame. It wouldn’t hurt a child.”

“Why,” said the teacher, bewildered, “Mr. Sandford’s son, John, was running away from him. Julius Taylor was with him. They told me that a bear was after them, and asked me to save them.”

Mr. Slocum was hardly prepared for the laugh which followed. The joke was understood at once.

“I think, Mr. Slocum,” said the storekeeper, “that the boys were playing a trick upon you. They probably let out the bear just after you passed by. You didn’t stop to save them, did you?”

“No,” stammered Theophilus, beginning to look foolish, for he, too, understood the joke now, and saw that it would be hard to reconcile his conduct this evening with his bravery as a boy.{153}

For almost the first time in his life he had absolutely nothing to say. He left the store, and retraced his steps in the hope of finding his hat. In this he was successful, but neither John, Julius, nor the bear was visible. The boys were in Mr. Sandford’s barn, laughing over the joke, and beginning to wonder whether Mr. Slocum would say anything about it in school the next day.{154}

CHAPTER XXI.

A REVOLUTION IN SCHOOL.

Mr. Slocum was terribly annoyed by what had happened. It seemed impossible to explain his flight in any way that would reflect credit upon himself. He could not pretend that it was all a joke, for he had shown himself too much in earnest in the village store, where he had taken refuge, for this to be believed. Though not remarkable for sense, Mr. Slocum knew that if he should undertake to punish Julius and John for their agency in the affair, he would only give it greater publicity. He felt a strong desire to do this, however, and would have derived great comfort from flogging them both. Finally he decided not to refer to the matter in school, and in this decision he was unusually discreet.

Of course Julius and John did not keep the matter secret. When Mr. Slocum came up the school-house hill, the next morning, there was not a scholar in the school who had not heard of his adventure, and the teacher, in his hurried glance at his pupils, detected a look of sly meaning, which revealed to him the fact that all was known. Julius and John were among the rest, looking very demure and innocent. Mr. Slocum saw them, too, out of the corner of his eye, and he determined{155} to seize the first chance that presented itself of flogging each.

The school opened. Julius was doubtful whether any reference would be made to the bear. He rather expected a speech, but Mr. Slocum disappointed him. He heard the classes as usual, but refrained from making any remarks of a biographical character. His self-complacency had been severely disturbed, and he looked severe and gloomy.

He watched Julius and John, hoping to detect something in their conduct which would justify him in punishing them; but they, too, were unusually quiet, as rogues are apt to be just after a successful trick.

Tom Allen, who has been described as the oldest and largest boy in school, sat directly behind Julius. He was not a brilliant scholar, but he had a keen sense of the ludicrous, and had been very much amused by the account of the teacher’s narrow escape from Mr. Sandford’s bear. He had a little taste for drawing, of which he occasionally made use. After finishing his sums, having a few idle moments, he occupied himself with drawing on his slate a caricature of Mr. Slocum pursued by the bear. There was enough resemblance in the portraits, both of the man and the animal, to make the subject{156} of the picture unmistakable. It was, as was natural, slightly caricatured, so that the effect was ludicrous.

Desiring his effort to be appreciated, he passed the slate to Julius, who sat in front of him. Our hero was easy to make laugh, and he no sooner cast his eyes over the picture than he burst into audible laughter. This was the occasion that Mr. Slocum had been waiting for. Laughter was against the rules of the school—it was disorderly—and would give him an excuse for the punishment he was so strongly desirous of inflicting. He strode to the desk of Julius while the latter was still looking at the slate. Mr. Slocum, too, saw it, and his fury was increased, for he recognized the subject only too well.

Seizing Julius by the collar, he jerked him out upon the floor, saying, in a voice of concentrated passion: “So, sir, you are drawing pictures instead of studying. I’ll give you a lesson.”

Julius was about to repeat his disclaimer, but it was made unnecessary. Tom Allen arose quietly in his seat, and said: “Julius is perfectly right, Mr. Slocum; he didn’t draw the picture.”

“Who did, then?” asked the teacher, pausing in his contemplated punishment.{157}

“I did,” said Tom, coolly. “If you want to punish anybody for doing it, you’ll have to punish me.”

This was very disagreeable intelligence for Mr. Slocum. Tom Allen was a stout, broad-shouldered, immensely powerful young fellow, standing five feet ten inches in his stockings. There are few teachers who would not have fought shy of punishing, or attempting to punish, such a formidable scholar. Mr. Slocum was disconcerted at the interruption, and did not care about undertaking such a doubtful job. Neither did he want to release Julius from his clutches. He knew that he could punish him, and he meant to do it. A lucky thought came to him.

“I do not punish him for drawing the picture,” he said, “but for disturbing the order of the school by laughing at it.”

“Nor could any of the other scholars,” said Tom Allen; and taking the slate from the desk before him, he held it up, and exhibited it to the other scholars. It was recognized at once, and there was a general shout of laughter.

Mr. Slocum looked about him with an angry scowl, and his temper was fairly aroused, so that he became, to a certain extent, regardless of consequences.

“I won’t let you off,” he said to Julius, tightening his grasp on the boy’s collar.{158}

“The rest of the scholars have done the same. Are you going to punish them, too?”

“I shall punish some of them,” said the teacher, with a smile of complacent malice. “John Sandford laughed loudest. His turn will come next.”

By this time it was very clear to all present what the two boys were to be punished for. The laughing was only a pretext. They were to be flogged for their participation in the practical joke of the day before.

“Mr. Slocum,” said Tom Allen, “I am the greatest offender. The boys only laughed, but I drew the picture.”

“Still, if anybody is to be punished, I am the one. Here is my hand. You may ferule me, if you like.”

Tom Allen’s hand was hardened by labor, and he would not have minded the feruling in the least. But Mr. Slocum had no desire to ferule Tom. His animosity was not excited against him, but against Julius and John. He wanted to punish them, and so wipe out the grudge he had against them.

“I don’t choose to punish you,” said Theophilus, “though you have been guilty of inciting disorder.”{159}

“Why not?” asked Tom. “I shall not resist; that is, if you only ferule me.”

“There is no need of giving my reasons,” said Mr. Slocum, stubbornly. “I have on more than one occasion noticed the insubordinate spirit of Julius Taylor and John Sandford; and it is due to myself that I should punish them, and I intend to do it now.”

He was preparing to punish Julius, and evidently would not have spared the rod to spoil the child, when Tom Allen interfered again.

“Mr. Slocum,” said he, stepping out from behind the desk, “I’ve got a word to say in this matter. You shall not punish Julius!”

“What!” roared Theophilus, almost foaming at the mouth. “Do you know whom you are talking to?”

“I know that I am talking to a man in a passion, who wants to do an injustice,” said Tom. “I am willing to do what’s right, and I have offered to let you ferule me; but I won’t stand by and see an innocent boy suffer for what he couldn’t help.”

“I won’t go,” said Tom, “as long as there are boys here who need my protection. I have got Julius into a scrape, and I won’t let him be punished for my fault. That’s all I’ve got to say.”

“And this is what I’ve got to say,” retorted the furious{160} teacher, bringing down the rod on the shoulders of Julius, who was struggling in his grasp.

Then Tom Allen thought it was time to act. He tore the rod from Mr. Slocum’s grasp, and flung it to the other side of the room. The astonished teacher loosened his grasp, and Tom, forcibly drawing him away, told him to take his seat. Then Mr. Slocum lost all prudence. His face fiery with rage, he pitched into Tom Allen, and there was a rough-and-tumble fight, in which Tom had the best of it. At this most unlucky time one of the trustees, the Rev. Mr. Brandon, entered the schoolroom on a visit of inspection, and stood appalled at the spectacle before him.

Mr. Slocum started as if he had been shot, and turned his perturbed countenance toward the trustee.

An immediate inquiry was instituted, and Mr. Brandon was at last made acquainted with the circumstances.

“I think, Mr. Slocum,” he said, “you had better dismiss the school, and I will call a meeting of the trustees for this evening at my house. I will ask you to be present; also four of your scholars, including Thomas Allen, Julius Taylor, and any two others whom you may select.”

It needs only to be said that, it being made clear to{161} the trustees that Mr. Slocum was incompetent to teach the school, taking into consideration his literary qualifications alone, he was recommended to resign; and next week, to the joy of the scholars, Dexter Fairbanks, the former popular teacher, was installed in his place.

Mr. Slocum did not remain long in Brookville. Whether he went farther West, or returned to Maine, was not ascertained, and few of his pupils cared to inquire.{162}

CHAPTER XXII.

AN INDIAN’S REVENGE.

After Mr. Fairbanks assumed charge of the school there was no further trouble. He was a teacher of large experience, good judgment, and a happy faculty of imparting what he knew. He was not a man of extensive acquirements, but he was thoroughly versed in all the branches he was required to teach. Though he never boasted of his remarkable achievements, like his predecessor, his pupils had far greater confidence in his knowledge.

Julius learned rapidly under his care. After the winter term was over Mr. Fairbanks was induced to open a private school by those who thought the more of him from comparing him with his predecessor; and to this school Julius also was sent. But, though his progress was steady, no events of interest call for mention here. He became popular with his schoolfellows, distinguishing himself in the playground as well as the classroom. Nearly all the street phrases which he carried to the West with him dropped away, and only now and then did he betray the manner of his former life.

Having written so much to let my readers know how Julius was advancing, I pass to describe a character{163} who has something to do with my story. Though no tribe of Indians was settled near Brookville, single representatives of the race, from time to time, visited the village—occasionally with baskets of beadwork to sell, occasionally in the less honorable character of mendicant. Most were subject to the curse which civilization brought with it to these children of the forest, namely, the love of strong drink; and a large portion of whatever money they received was spent for what the Indian appropriately calls fire water.

It was on a day in the following summer that a tall Indian, wrapped in a dirty blanket, presented himself at the back door of Mr. Taylor’s house. His features were bloated, and clearly indicated his habits. His expression otherwise was far from prepossessing, and the servant, who answered his call, looked at him rather uneasily, knowing that her mistress, herself and little Carrie were alone in the house. Mr. Taylor had gone to a neighboring town and taken Julius with him, while Abner was in the fields.

Mrs. Taylor, on being informed of the matter, went{164} herself to the door. Little Carrie’s curiosity had been aroused, and she asked if she might go too. As there seemed to be no objection, Mrs. Taylor took the little girl by the hand, and presented herself at the door.

“I am not in the habit of giving money at the door. My husband does not approve of it,” she answered.

“He is not at home,” she answered, incautiously; “but I am sure he would not be willing to have me give you any money.”

As soon as she had admitted the absence of her husband she realized her imprudence. There was a scarcely perceptible gleam of exultation in the eye of the Indian as he heard what was so favorable to his purpose. A man would be in his way, but a woman he could frighten.

“It may for the time, but it will hurt you afterward.{165} I will give you some meat and some coffee. That is better than rum.”

“You’d better give it to him, ma’am, and let him go,” said Jane, in a low voice.

“No,” said Mrs. Taylor; “Mr. Taylor is very much opposed to it. The last time I gave money he blamed me very much. If he is not satisfied with coffee and meat I shall give him nothing.”

“I’m afraid of him, mamma. He’s so ugly,” said Carrie, timidly, clinging to her mother’s hand.

But the Indian had caught the little girl’s words, and probably understood them. He scowled at her, and this terrified the child still more.

The Indian emitted a guttural sound, probably indicating dissatisfaction, and turned slowly away.{166}

“He’s the worst lookin’ Indian I ever see,” said Jane. “I don’t want to set my eyes upon him again. He ought to be ashamed, goin’ round askin’ for money, a great, strong man like him. Why don’t he work?”

So the subject was dismissed. They supposed that the Indian was gone, and that they would not hear from him again. But they had forgotten that the red man is quick to take offense, and is revengeful by nature. They did not suspect that he was even then planning a revenge which would strike anguish into the heart of all in the household.

The Indian had not gone away, as they supposed. He was still hovering about the house, though he carefully avoided observation. He had been greatly incensed at the persistent refusal of Mrs. Taylor to supply him with rum, or the means of purchasing it. Years before he had become a slave to the accursed fire water, and it{167} had become a passion with him to gratify his thirst. But it could not be obtained without money, and money was not to be had except by working for it, or by begging. Of these two methods the Indian preferred the last.

“Work is for squaws!” he said, in a spiteful and contemptuous manner. “It is not for warriors.”

But John, as he was sometimes called, did not look like the noble warriors whom Cooper describes. He was a shaggy vagabond, content to live on the alms he could obtain from the whites in the towns which he visited. As for lodgings, he was forced to lie down in his blanket wherever he could find the shelter of a tree or a forest.

The sight of the child had suggested to John a notable revenge. He could steal the little child, who had called him an ugly man—an expression which he understood. Thus he could wring the mother’s heart, and obtain revenge. There would be little danger of interference, for he knew that Mr. Taylor was away.

Mrs. Taylor and Carrie went back to the sitting-room where the mother resumed her sewing, and Carrie began to play with her blocks on the floor. Neither of them suspected that, just outside, the Indian was crouching, and that from time to time he glanced into the room to watch his chances of carrying out his plan.

By and by Carrie grew sleepy, as children are apt{168} to do in the hot summer afternoons, and when they are tired.

She lay down, and her mother tenderly placed a cushion under the little, weary head.

Soon Carrie was wrapped in the deep, unconscious sleep of childhood. The Indian, with a look of satisfaction, beheld her repose, as he stole a glance through the window.

Soon Mrs. Taylor thought of a direction she wished to give Jane. Glancing at little Carrie, she left the room, knowing that the child would not miss her.

No sooner had she left the room than the Indian, who had been waiting for this, sprang in through the open window, clasped the unconscious child in his arms, whose slumber was too profound to be disturbed even by this action, and in a moment was out on the lawn, speeding rapidly away with the little girl in his arms.

Suspecting no harm, Mrs. Taylor remained absent for fifteen minutes, then returning, her first glance was at the sofa, where she had left Carrie. Her heart gave a sudden bound when she discovered her absence. But even then she did not suspect the truth. She thought the child might have waked up, and gone upstairs.{169}

She summoned Jane, and together they hunted high and low for the little girl, but in vain.

“The Indian has carried her off!” she exclaimed in anguish, and sank fainting to the floor.{170}

CHAPTER XXIII.

KIDNAPPED.

The Indian was fleet-footed, like most of his race. After obtaining possession of the child, he struck across the fields, for on the public road he would have been liable to be seen and stopped. Little Carrie was in the deep sleep of childhood, and did not awake for some time. This of course was favorable to his design, for he had over a mile to go before he reached the woods, in which the instinct of his race led him to take refuge. It was not till a stray twig touched her cheek that the little girl awoke.

Opening her eyes, her glance rested on the dark face of the Indian, and, as might have been expected, she uttered a shriek of terror. At the same time she tried to get away.

“No take home,” said the Indian; but he put her down, tired perhaps with carrying her.

Carrie looked about her bewildered. All about her were thick woods, and she could not see her way out. She did not know in what direction lay the home to which she was so anxious to return, but she thought it might be in the direction from which they had come. She started to run, but in an instant the Indian was at her side. He seized her hand in his firm grasp, and frowned upon her.

“Are you going to keep me here? Will you never take me home?” asked Carrie, overwhelmed with alarm.

“I don’t want to be a pickaninny,” said Carrie. “Poor{172} mamma will be so frightened. Did she see you take me away?”

“No. She go out. Leave child asleep. Indian jump through window. Take little girl.”

When Carrie understood how it was that she had been kidnapped, she felt very much frightened; but even in her terror she felt some curiosity about the Indian, and his mode of life.

“Then you must take me home, I can’t sleep under a tree. I would catch my death of cold. So mamma says.”

“I don’t want to sleep on leaves. I want to sleep in my little bed at home.”{173}

Carrie stopped, in greater fear than ever. The stern face of her companion made it not improbable that he might carry out the fearful threat he had uttered. So she checked her audible manifestations of grief, but the tears still coursed silently down her cheeks.

“What will mamma say, and papa—and Julius?” This was the thought that continually occupied her mind. Would she never see these dear ones again? Must she spend all her life with the wicked Indian? At any rate, when she got to be a woman—a great, strong woman, and knew her way about, she would run away, and go home. But there would be a good many years first. She wondered whether her skin would turn red, and she would look like the Indians. Then her father and mother would not know her, and would send her back again to live with the Indians. Altogether, however groundless some of her fears might be, little Carrie was very miserable and unhappy.

Meanwhile the Indian strode along. The little girl was forced at times to run, in order to keep up with{174} her companion. She began to feel tired, but did not dare to complain.

At length they stopped. It was at a place where the Indian had spent the previous night. A few leaves had been piled up, and the pile was arched over by some branches which he had broken off from the surrounding trees. It was a rude shelter, but was a little better than lying on the bare ground.

“There,” he said, pointing to the pile of leaves. “Suppose pickaninny tired; lie down.”

Carrie sat down on the leaves, for she did feel tired, and it was a relief to sit. Had Julius been with her, or her father, she would have enjoyed the novel sensation of being in the heart of the woods, knowing that she would be carried home again. But with the Indian it was different. Her situation seemed to her very dreadful, and she would have cried, but that she had already cried till she could cry no more.

The Indian gathered some more leaves, and threw himself down by her side. He looked grave and impassive, and did not speak. Carrie stole glances at him from time to time, but also kept silence. She felt too miserable even to repeat her entreaties that he would take her home.{175}

But a child cannot always keep silence. After an hour she mustered courage to accost her fearful companion.

“Because, then you would let me go to my papa. If you had a little girl, you would not like to have any one carry her off, would you?” and the little girl fixed her eyes on his face.

But the Indian was not strong in the way of sentiment. His feelings were not easily touched. Besides, he felt sleepy. So he answered thus: “Little girl no talk. Indian tired. He go sleep.”

So saying, he stretched himself out at length on the leaves. But first he thought it necessary to give the child a caution.

“No go way. Suppose go, then Indian kill her,” he concluded, with a fierce expression.

“You wouldn’t be so wicked as to kill me, would you?” said Carrie, turning pale.

Carrie implicitly believed him; and, as she did not know her way about, she would not have dared to disobey his commands. Then all at once there came another fear. The evening before Julius had read her a story of a traveler meeting a lion in the forest, and narrowly escaping with his life. It is true the forest was in Africa, but Carrie did not remember that. She did not know but that lions were in the habit of prowling about in the very forest where she was. Suppose one should come along while the Indian was asleep. She shuddered at the thought, and the fear made her speak.

The Indian was quick-witted enough to avail himself of this fear to prevent the child’s leaving him.

“I won’t go away,” said Carrie, quickly. “Are you sure you could kill one, if he came?”

“Yes; me kill many,” answered the Indian, with a disregard of truth more often to be found among civilized than barbarous nations.

Poor Carrie!—her sensations were by no means to be envied, as she sat by the side of the sleeping Indian, agitated by fears which, to her, were very real. On the one side was the Indian, on the other the lion who might spring upon her at any minute. From time to time she cast a terrified glance about her in search of the possible lion. She did not see him; but what was her delight when, as a result of one of these glances, she caught sight of a boy’s face—the face of Julius—peeping from behind a tree!

She would have uttered a cry of joy, but he put his hand to his lips, and shook his head earnestly. She understood the sign, and instantly checked herself.{178}

CHAPTER XXIV.

FOUND.

Mr. Taylor and Julius had reached home about twenty minutes after Mrs. Taylor’s discovery of the disappearance of her little girl. The former was not a little startled, when his wife, pale and with disheveled hair, ran out to meet them.

“Gone! What do you mean?” he asked, utterly at a loss to understand his wife’s meaning.

“An Indian has carried her off. I shall never see her again;” and Mrs. Taylor burst into a fresh flood of tears.

“Tell me how it all happened, as quickly as possible,” said the father. “I don’t understand.”

After a time he succeeded in obtaining from his wife an account of the Indian’s application, and the revenge which followed her refusal to supply him with money.

“Oh, I wish I had given him what he asked! I would{179} rather give all I had, than lose my little darling. But I knew you did not want me to give money to strangers,” sobbed Mrs. Taylor.

“You did right, Emma. Whatever the consequences, you did right. But that is not the question now. We must immediately go in search of our lost child. Julius, call Abner.”

Abner was at the barn, having just returned from the fields. He came back with Julius.

“Abner,” said Mr. Taylor, after briefly explaining the case, “we will divide. You go in one direction, and I in another. Have you got a gun?”

“I am afraid even with one you would be no match for an Indian. I cannot give you a gun, but I have a pistol in the house. You shall have that.”

“I’ll take it,” said Julius. “Perhaps I shall be the one to find Carrie.”

“Take it, and God bless you!” said the father, as he brought out a small pistol, and placed it in the hands of Julius. “Be prudent, and run no unnecessary risk.”

The three started in different directions, but it chanced that Julius had selected the right path, and,{180} though he knew it not, was on the track of the Indian and the lost child, while Abner and Mr. Taylor started wrong.

There had been some delay in getting ready, and altogether the Indian had a start of nearly an hour. On the other hand, he was incumbered with the weight of the child, which had a tendency to diminish his speed. Again, Julius ran a part of the way. He knew little of the Indians from personal observation, but he had read stories of Indian adventure, and he concluded that the captor of little Carrie would take to the woods. He therefore struck across the fields for the very woods in which the little girl was concealed.

He wandered about at random till chance brought him to the very tree from behind which he caught sight of the object of his search, under the guardianship of the sleeping Indian. His heart gave a bound of exultation, for he saw that circumstances were favorable to her rescue. His great fear was that when she saw him she would utter a cry of joy, which would arouse the sleeping savage. Just at this moment, as described in the last chapter, Carrie espied him. Fortunately she caught his signal, and checked the rising cry of joy. She looked eagerly toward Julius, to learn what she must do. He beckoned her to come to him. She arose from her leafy seat cautiously, and moved, with a caution which danger taught her, toward our hero. He had{181} the satisfaction of taking her hand in his, and of observing that her movements had not been heard by her savage companion, who was so tired that he still slept.

“Come with me, Carrie,” he whispered, “and make as little noise as possible.”

“Yes, Julius,” said the little girl, whispering in reply. “Where is papa?”

So they walked hand in hand. Julius hurried his little companion, for he feared that the Indian would awake and pursue them. If he did so, he was by no means sure that he could defend her. His pistol was loaded, but it had but one barrel, and when it was discharged, he would be completely defenseless.

Then he felt more easy in mind. If hard pressed, he would at least be able to fire one shot.

But there was another difficulty. He had not come directly to the place where he had found Carrie, but had wandered about in different directions. The result was that he didn’t know his way out of the woods.{182}

“Let us go home quick, Julius,” said Carrie, clasping his hand tighter in her fear.

“Yes, Carrie; we will keep on as fast as we can. We will go straight. If we keep on far enough, I am sure we must get out of the woods. But I am afraid you will get tired.”

So they kept on, Julius looking anxiously about him and behind him, fearing that the Indian might have waked up, and even now be in pursuit of his little captive.{183}

He had reason for his fear. The slumbers of the savage were light, and, though they had not been interrupted by the flight of Carrie, he roused himself about ten minutes later. He turned slowly around, expecting to see her sitting on the pile of leaves. Discovering that she was gone, he sprang to his feet with a cry of rage and disappointment. He was surprised, for he had supposed that she would be afraid to leave him.

He instantly formed the determination to get her back. Without her his revenge would be incomplete. Besides, it would be mortifying to his pride as a warrior that a little child should escape from him, thus getting the better of him.

He was broad awake now, and his senses were on the alert. With Indian quickness he tracked the footsteps of the little girl to the tree. Thus far it seemed that she had run away without assistance. But at this point he found another trail. He stooped over, and carefully scrutinized the track made by our young hero, and it helped him to a conclusion.

“Boy,” he muttered. “Small foot. Come when Indian sleep. No matter. Me catch him.”

A white man would have obtained no clew to guide him in the pursuit of the fugitives; but the Indian’s practiced skill served him. With his eyes upon the ground, marking here a print, and there a slight pressure on the scattered leaves, he kept on his way, sure of success.{184}

CHAPTER XXV.

JULIUS BECOMES A CAPTIVE.

Julius was still wandering about in uncertainty, holding Carrie by the hand, when the Indian came in sight of him. Stealthily creeping up, he seized our hero by the shoulder before he realized that the enemy was upon him. He had no time to draw his pistol, nor did he deem it prudent to do so now, as the Indian could easily wrest it from him, and turn it against him.

Little Carrie uttered a dismal cry when she looked up and saw that her dreaded captor was near.

“Don’t be frightened, Carrie,” said Julius, soothingly, though, to tell the truth, he felt rather uncomfortable himself.

“What good will it do you to keep her?” asked{185} Julius, though he suspected argument would be of no avail.

“We must go, Carrie,” said our hero, in a low voice. “Perhaps he will let us go after a while.”

“She isn’t bad,” said Carrie, forgetting her fear in her indignation. “She’s good. You are bad.”

“Hush, Carrie!” said Julius, who foresaw that it would not be prudent to provoke the savage.

“You come, too,” said the Indian to Julius. “What for you steal little girl?”

Julius felt that he might with great propriety have put this question to his companion, but he forebore. He was trying to think of some way of escape.

The Indian plunged into the thick wood, holding Carrie by the hand. Julius followed close after him.

“So it seems,” he said to himself, “instead of recovering Carrie I am caught myself. I wish Mr. Taylor and Abner would come along. We should be too much for the Indian, then.”{186}

This gave him an idea. He took a piece of paper quietly from his pocket, and wrote on it:

“I am with Carrie and the Indian. He is leading us into the middle of the wood. I will drop pieces of paper here and there on the way.

Julius.”

“There,” he said to himself; “if either of them comes this way, it may be the means of saving us.”

But though John did not observe this, he did notice the pieces of paper which Julius dropped, and he was sharp enough to detect his motive for doing this.

Julius knew that it would be of no use to equivocate, and he answered, manfully. “To let Mr. Taylor know where we are.”

Julius was forced to pick up all the bits of paper he had scattered, but the original one containing the message he left where it lay.

The Indian made Julius go in front, and the three went on till they reached the pile of leaves where Carrie and the Indian had rested before.

The Indian resumed his reclining position, and made Julius and Carrie sit down also. Our hero, who still{187} had the pistol, was in doubt whether to use it, but a moment’s reflection satisfied him that it would be of no use. If he wounded the Indian, the latter in his rage might kill them both. Another idea came to him. He had heard from Mrs. Taylor that the Indian had demanded money, and had probably taken offense because it was not given him. He had two dollars in his pocket. If he should give this to their captor, he would probably be eager to invest it in “fire water,” and this would make it necessary to go to the village. While he was absent Carrie and he could start again on their way home.

By and by the anticipated effect was produced. The Indian was eager to exchange the money for drink, but he did not want his captives to escape.

The Indian drew from some hiding place in his raiment a stout cord, and proceeded dexterously to tie Julius to the tree.

“Don’t hurt him!” exclaimed Carrie, terrified, thinking that something dreadful was going to be done to Julius.

The Indian did not deign to reply, but proceeded to perform his task so thoroughly that Julius felt uncomfortably cramped.

Julius felt that he was likely to obey the command, as there was not much chance of his breaking his bonds. But there was one hope yet that somewhat encouraged him.

“How unlucky!” said Julius. “I usually have it with me, but I remember leaving it in my other pants. If I only had it, you could cut the string, and we could escape.”{189}

“Do you think he will keep us always, Julius?” asked Carrie, disconsolately.

“No, Carrie; I will find a way to get you home, before long,” said Julius in a tone that expressed more cheerfulness than he felt.

“It’s provoking,” he thought, “to be tied up here, when there is such a good chance to escape. I’ll never go without a knife again. I didn’t think how much good it might do me.”{190}

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE RESCUE.

Meanwhile Mr. Taylor and Abner had pursued the search in vain. From opposite directions they met at the entrance to the wood.

“I, too, have been unsuccessful; but I am impressed with the belief that my dear child is somewhere in this wood.”

“Very likely, sir. It would be nat’ral for an Indian to make for the woods; that is, if he’s got her.”

“I am afraid there is no doubt of that,” sighed Mr. Taylor. “Do you think he would hurt her, Abner?” he asked, anxiously.

“It won’t be necessary to go as high as that, Mr. Taylor. Most likely he’s got her in here somewhere.{191} If we go together, we’ll be too much for the red rascal.”

So they entered the wood, and plunged deeper and deeper into its gloom. By and by Abner’s attention was drawn to a white fragment of paper, half concealed in the grass. Elsewhere it would not have been noticed, but in the woods it must evidently have been dropped by some one.

“I am with Carrie and the Indian. He is leading us into the middle of the wood. I will drop pieces of paper here and there on the way.”

“He is a good boy—quick-witted, too, or he wouldn’t have thought of the paper.”

“I don’t see the scraps of paper he told about,” said Abner, who had been very anxiously peering about him.

“It may be that he was afraid to drop them, lest it should attract the Indian’s attention,” said Mr. Taylor, coming very near the truth.

“Noticing where the grass and sticks are trodden over. That’s the Indian way. We’ll fight the red man in his own way.”

“Well thought of, Abner. Your eyes are better than mine. Lead the way, and I will follow.”

Abner was sharp-sighted, nor was he wholly ignorant of the Indians and their ways; and thus it was that he led the anxious father almost directly to the place where Carrie and Julius were waiting in fear and anxiety for the Indian’s return.

Unable to control his impatience, Mr. Taylor, with a cry of joy, rushed to the spot, and in a moment his beloved little daughter, Carrie, was in his arms.{193}

“My dear little girl,” he said, kissing her again and again, “I thought I had lost you altogether. Were you very much frightened?”

“I was so frightened, papa, till Julius came. I didn’t mind it so much then.”

“Yes; he liked my company so much he didn’t want to let me go,” said Julius.

“I offered him money to let Carrie and me go, but he took it, and then tied me up here. That’s what I call mean.”

“So do I,” said Abner; “but he’ll find the bird flown when he gets back, I reckon.”

“Julius,” said Mr. Taylor, grasping the hand of our hero, now released from his uncomfortable situation, “you have earned my heartfelt gratitude. But for you my darling would still be in the power of that miserable Indian.”

“I didn’t do much,” said Julius, modestly. “I only managed to get taken, too.”{194}

“Did you find it?” asked Julius, eagerly. “Then it did some good after all. I was afraid it wouldn’t. The Indian saw me dropping bits of paper, and he was sharp enough to know what it meant. He made me pick them up, but I left the paper with writing on it. He didn’t see that.”

“That’s the way I thought it was,” said Mr. Taylor. “I told Abner you were prevented from giving us the clew, as you promised.”

“Well, it’s all right now,” said Julius. “Our copper-colored friend will have to dispense with our company to-night.”

“We must be getting home,” said Mr. Taylor. “Your mother is terribly anxious about you, Carrie. Are you tired?”

“I will take you in my arms, my poor child. He shan’t get hold of you again.”

But the glad father did not seem to feel the weight of his recovered treasure. Quickly they retraced their steps, and when they came near the house Mrs. Taylor ran out to meet them, clasping Carrie to her bosom with grateful joy. It was a day of thanksgiving, for the lost had been found.{195}

CHAPTER XXVII.

JULIUS BUYS A HOUSE.

An hour later the Indian was found drunk by the roadside. After procuring a supply of liquor with the money which he had taken from Julius, he set out on his return to the woods, but stopped from time to time to drink. His potations were so deep that he was finally incapable of proceeding farther.

His agency in kidnapping little Carrie having become known, he was arrested, and brought before a justice. The magistrate sentenced him to a month’s imprisonment, assuring him that when it was over it would not be expedient for him to visit the neighborhood again. The savage endured his imprisonment with the stoicism characteristic of his race, and on the day of his release departed, and was not seen again in Brookville.

On the day succeeding Carrie’s adventure, Mr. Taylor said to Julius, “I shall to-day place to your credit in the savings bank two hundred and fifty dollars, in acknowledgment of your service in rescuing my little girl, though it involved risk to yourself.”

“Thank you, sir,” said Julius, gratefully; “but I don’t think I deserve so much.”

“Abner will not go unrewarded. I shall deposit a similar sum in the bank for him.”

“Then, sir, I can only thank you for your kindness. I hope I shall deserve it.”

“I hope and believe you will,” said his patron, warmly. “Only keep on as you have begun, and you will win the respect and good-will of all.”

Though Julius said little, this commendation gave him great satisfaction. Little more than a year before he had been a poor and ignorant street boy, the companion of two burglars, with no prospects in life except to grow up in ignorance, and perhaps vice. To-day he was a member of a family of social position, as well educated as most boys of his age, with every encouragement to keep on in the right path, worth three hundred dollars in money, and with a prosperous future before him.

“How fortunate I am,” he thought. “It was a lucky thing for me when I made up my mind to come out West.”

But his good fortune was not exhausted. One morning, a few months later, Mr. Taylor called him back as he was leaving the breakfast table.

“This is what I have in view: You know Mr. Cathcart’s place, about a mile from here?”

“There is a small house and barn on the place, and about ten acres of land are connected with it. He is anxious to sell, as he has had a very good offer of employment in Minnesota. Now, I advise you to buy the place. It is sure to rise in value on account of its location. I should not be surprised if it doubled in value in five years.”

“But,” said Julius, rather bewildered, “he won’t sell for three hundred dollars, will he?”

“Suppose he should be willing to take three hundred{198} dollars down, and the remainder at the end of a few years, you paying the interest in the meantime.”

“The twelve hundred dollars would be secured by a mortgage, which you would eventually pay off.”

Here Mr. Taylor explained to Julius, whose knowledge of real estate transactions was limited, the nature of a mortgage, and the laws relating to it.

“Then I will arrange matters, as your guardian. By the time you are twenty-one, you will, I venture to say, be worth quite a little property.”

“But what shall I do with the place?” asked Julius. “I can’t go to live there.”

“You may as well defer that till you are married,” said Mr. Taylor; a suggestion which made Julius smile. “The proper course is to find a tenant for it. The rent will enable you to pay taxes and the interest on the mortgage, and probably yield you a profit beside. Even if not, you will be richly repaid in time by the increased value of the property.”

No time was lost in effecting this transaction, as Mr. Cathcart was anxious to leave Brookville as soon as possible. The money was drawn from the savings bank, and almost before he knew it Julius found himself the owner of a house and outbuildings, and ten acres of{199} land. He went out to see it, and it gave him a peculiar feeling to think that he, late a ragged New York street boy, was now the proprietor of a landed estate.

“I wonder what Jack and Marlowe would say if they knew it,” he thought. “It would make Marlowe mad, I know. He never at any time liked me very much, and now he hates me bad enough, I am afraid.”

A week after the property passed into our hero’s hands, a respectable-looking man called at Mr. Taylor’s door. He was a young mechanic, a carpenter, who had recently established himself in Brookville.

“I came on a little business,” said the young man. “I would like to hire the Cathcart place. I hear you are the purchaser.”

“You are perfectly right, Mr. Brown,” said Mr. Taylor. “I purchased it, but it was in behalf of my ward Julius, here. You will have to speak to him about hiring it.”

“Indeed!” said the young man. “I hope,” turning to Julius, “you won’t object to me as a tenant.”

“I have so little experience as a landlord,” said Julius, laughing, “that I don’t quite know what to say. What rent are you willing to give?”

“Then I shall be glad to accept your offer,” said Julius. “You can move in as soon as you please.”

“I think we shall agree pretty well,” said the young man. “After we get settled, we shall be glad to receive a visit from our landlord.”

“It seems like a joke,” he said afterward to Mr. Taylor, “my being a landlord. I don’t know how to act.”

“I hope it will prove a profitable joke, Julius,” said Mr. Taylor. “I have reason to think it will.”

“I think I will write to Mr. O’Connor and tell him how I am getting along,” said Julius.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

A BUSINESS JOURNEY.

We must now carry forward the story two years. It has been a profitable time for Julius. His excellent natural abilities, stimulated by ambition, have advanced him very considerably in the education which comes from books, while the hours spent in labor on the farm have strengthened his muscles, and developed his figure, so that he presents a strong contrast to the undersized and slender boy who came from the city streets in Mr. O’Connor’s company. The effort of generous diet also may be seen in his improved looks. He would now be regarded as quite a good-looking boy, though he privately considers himself entitled to the more dignified appellation of a young man.

I am glad to be able to record that in other ways also he has improved. As a street boy, he was not wholly free from the errors common to his class. Now he has a regard for truth, and Mr. Taylor has come to have implicit confidence in his word. He has even come to feel a paternal interest in the once neglected waif, and treats him in all respects like a son. Little Carrie, too, calls him Brother Julius, and probably feels as much affection for him as if he were her own brother.{202}

Thus happily situated, Julius is not troubled as to his real parentage. There is a mystery attending his origin, which he will probably never be able to solve. But he is content to regard Mr. and Mrs. Taylor as his parents, since they have allowed him to do so, and will always be known by the name of Julius Taylor.

Of course he has not forgotten his old associates, Jack Morgan and Marlowe. About two years after his arrival in Brookville a paragraph was copied into the county paper from the New York Herald, recording the daring attempts of these two criminals to escape from the prison at Sing Sing. Jack Morgan was caught and brought back, but Marlowe managed to make good his escape.

“I suppose,” thought Julius, “Jack was too fat. He couldn’t get over the ground as fast as Marlowe.”

In this he was correct. Jack Morgan’s size and clumsiness had interfered with his escape, while Marlowe, who was not so incumbered, got away.

“Marlowe would be glad to know where I am,” said our hero to himself. “He’d like to punish me for getting him caught. But he isn’t likely to find me out here. And even if he did, I think I can take care of myself better than I could when he knew me.”

Julius surveyed his figure in the glass complacently as he said this. He was five feet eight inches in height, and weighed one hundred and fifty pounds. His arm was powerful; and though he could not contend on{203} equal terms with the tall burglar, he felt that the time would soon come when he could do so.

In the month of October Mr. Taylor proposed to Julius to set out on a collecting tour, among the towns in the neighborhood.

“I have claims against a dozen persons,” he said, “which ought to be presented and paid. At present, however, it is not convenient for me to leave home. If you will take my place, it will be quite a relief.”

“There is nothing I should like better,” said Julius, elated at the prospect of a journey.

“You have given me reason to confide in you,” said Mr. Taylor, quietly. “You will judge of the extent of my confidence when I say that the bills which I shall give you to collect amount to a thousand dollars, or, perhaps, a little more.”

“Every cent you succeed in collecting. I have no doubt of it. The only caution I have to give you is, to guard against being robbed. If it is supposed that{204} you have a considerable sum of money, you might be in danger of having it stolen.”

“It’ll take a smart thief to get it away from me,” said Julius, confidently. “I didn’t live fifteen years in the streets of New York for nothing. When do you want me to start?”

“To-morrow morning. I shall give you the horse and buggy, and we will plan the order of your journey to-night. You will stop at hotels, and expend whatever is needful. I will ask you only to keep an account of your expenses, to be submitted to me on your return.”

“That will depend on how much success you meet with. I should think a week might be sufficient. If you find it necessary to stay longer, do so; but let me know from time to time what progress you make in your mission.”

There are few boys of seventeen who would not have experienced pleasure in such an expedition. To have the command of a horse and buggy, to drive from town to town, putting up at hotels by night, would to most be a pleasant prospect. But Julius thoroughly understood that, however pleasant it might be, the motive of his journey was business; and he resolved to exert himself to the utmost in the interests of his guardian and benefactor.{205}

CHAPTER XXIX.

MARLOWE.

Four days later Julius arrived about dusk in the village of Lawrenceburg. There was a citizen of this place against whom Mr. Taylor had given him a note to collect. He put up at the hotel, and after entering his name inquired where Mr. Philip Thompson resided.

“Two miles distant, on the Northcote road,” said the landlord. “Have you business with him?”

“If you want to go over there after supper, I will send my boy to show you the way.”

“I think I will wait till morning,” said Julius, who felt tired. “My business will wait till then.”

There was a man sitting on the piazza of the tavern when Julius drove up. He was a tall man, rather shabbily built, with a slouching gait, who kept his eyes bent downward, while his face was partly shaded by a soft felt hat. Julius did not notice him, or rather did not do so particularly; but the stranger fixed his eyes eagerly on the boy’s face, and started perceptibly, while a look partly of recognition, partly of hatred, swept over his countenance.

I do not intend to make this man’s personality a mystery.{206} It was Dan Marlowe, the burglar, whom, three years before, Julius had been instrumental in trapping, and who, until within two or three months, had been confined in Sing Sing prison. His escape has already been referred to.

He had now two ends to accomplish. One was to elude capture, the other to revenge himself on Julius.

While in prison he had heard from a fellow-prisoner that Julius was somewhere in the West. He could not ascertain where. Till to-day he had no clew whereby he might discover him; when all at once chance brought him face to face with his young enemy. In spite of his growth he recognized the boy, for he seldom forgot a face; but, to make certainty more certain, he lounged into the office after Julius had recorded his name, and examined the signature.

“Julius Taylor,” he repeated to himself. “The young cub has picked up another name since he left us. But it’s he—it’s the same Julius. I thought I couldn’t be mistaken. His face is the same, though he’s almost twice as large as he was. He little dreams that Dan Marlowe is on his track. I’d like to wring the boy’s neck!” he muttered to himself. “He’s cost me over two years in Sing Sing; and poor Jack’s there yet.”

Pretty soon Julius came out, and gave a casual look{207} at Marlowe. But the latter had his hat pulled down over his eyes, and not enough of his features could be seen for our hero to distinguish him. Besides, Julius was not thinking of Marlowe. He had no reason to suspect that his old companion was in the neighborhood. If not caught, he supposed that he was somewhere in hiding in the city of New York, or nearby.

Marlowe did not, however, care to run even a small risk of discovery. He had not changed as much as Julius, and the latter might probably recognize him. So, finding that our hero had also seated himself outside, he quietly arose from his chair, and went out to walk.

“An ill-looking fellow,” thought Julius, casually. “He looks like a tramp.”

Marlowe strolled off at random, not caring where he went. His sole object was to keep out of the way of Julius. He went perhaps a mile, and then, turning into a field, sat down on the grass. Here he remained for a long time. He did not set out on his return till he judged that it was near ten o’clock. When he entered the inn, not Julius alone, but all the other guests had retired; for in the country late hours are not popular.

“I went out for a walk,” said, Marlowe, “and didn’t know how time was passing, having no watch with me.”

“I wasn’t walking all the time,” said Marlowe. “I had some business on my mind, and went out to think it over. Who was that young fellow that came about six o’clock.

“Julius Taylor. He’s from Brookville. Do you wish to know him? If so, I will introduce you to him.”

This was what Marlowe wanted to know, and he heard the information with satisfaction. He proposed to make Julius a visit that night. What might be the result he did not stop to consider. He only knew that this was the boy to whom he owed two years of imprisonment, and that he would have him in his power. He did not ask himself what he should do. He did not consider whether he was about to endanger his own safety, and expose himself to the risk of recapture. His spirit was fierce and revengeful, and he had made up his mind to gratify it.

He called for a light, and ascended the staircase to his room, No. 7. He noticed the number over the door which Julius occupied, and outside he saw a pair of shoes, which had been left to be blacked.{209}

“He’s been prospering,” he said to himself, gloomily, “while Jack and me have been shut up. He’s had a good home, and good fare, and grown up to consider himself a gentleman; while me and Jack, that brought him up, have been confined like wild beasts. That’s his pay for selling us to the cops. But the end is not yet. Marlowe’s on his track, and this night there’ll be a reckoning.”

He sat down on the side of the bed and waited. He wanted to make sure that all were asleep in the inn, that he might carry out his dark designs without interruption.{210}

CHAPTER XXX.

CONCLUSION.

Julius was tired, and fell asleep almost as soon as his head touched the pillow. He slept so soundly that he did not hear Marlowe fumbling at the lock with some of the burglar’s tools which he always carried with him. Curiously he was dreaming of his old life, when he was under the guardianship of Jack and Morgan, and Marlowe was a constant visitor. It seemed to him that the latter had been accusing him to Jack, and was threatening him with uplifted arm, when, all at once, he was aroused from sleep by a violent shaking, and, opening his eyes, his first glance rested on the man of whom he had been dreaming.

He stared at him in bewilderment and alarm, but said nothing, such was his surprise.

“Well, boy,” said Marlowe, growing impatient, “why are you staring at me so hard? Don’t you know me?”

“I wish I had known it,” thought Julius. “I should have been on my guard.”

“You are right there; I didn’t care to see you again,” returned Julius, boldly.

“I don’t wonder at that, after your base treachery, you rascally hound!” said Marlowe, furiously. “Do you know how Jack and me spent the last two years?”

“Yes; in prison, and we have you to thank for it. You might as well have turned against your own father as against Jack.”

“No,” said Julius, firmly. “I am sorry for Jack. I wouldn’t have gone against him, if there was any other way of saving Paul. Paul had been kind to me when I needed it. What did Jack ever do for me? We lived together when he was out of prison, but it was I that brought him all my earnings. I paid my own way and more, too, even when I was a boy of eight. I owe Jack nothing. But I am sorry for him all the same. I wish he could get free.”

“And what about me?” asked Marlowe, sneeringly. “Are you glad I am free?”{212}

“No, I’m not,” said Julius, boldly. “I never liked you as well as Jack. He’s bad enough, but you’re worse. Though he didn’t take care of me, he was generally kind to me. Even if I owe him something, I owe you nothing.”

“But I owe you something, my chicken,” said Marlowe, between his teeth. “Do you know why I am here? No? Well, I’ll tell you. I met Ned Sanders soon after I got out, and he told me the tricks you played on him. I found out from him that you had come out West, and that’s why I came here. I hadn’t forgotten who sent me up. I swore, at the time, I’d be revenged, and now I’ve got the chance.”

The man looked so malicious—so possessed by the spirit of evil—that Julius could not help shuddering as he met his baleful gaze.

“What do you mean to do to me?” he asked, feeling helpless, as he realized that in spite of his increased strength he was no match for the stalwart ruffian.

Julius shuddered, as well he might; but he answered: “If you do, your life will be in danger.”

“They must catch me first,” said he, coolly. “But first{213} you must answer me a question. How much money have you?”

It may be mentioned that, apart from his personal apprehension, Julius was anxious about his money. He had in a wallet six hundred dollars belonging to Mr. Taylor, which he had collected in various places. He was ambitious to justify his benefactor’s confidence, and carry it to him in safety; but Marlowe threatened to take both the money and his life. He was only a boy, but emergencies make men out of boys. He had been provided by Mr. Taylor with a revolver, not with any supposition that he would need it, but as a safeguard in case robbery should be attempted on the road. He had forgotten to put it under his pillow, but it was in the pocket of his coat, and that coat was hanging over a chair on the opposite side of the bed from that on which Marlowe was standing. He could only obtain possession of it by stratagem.

“I cannot promise,” said Marlowe; “but I will assuredly kill you at once unless you give me the money.”

He jumped out of bed, Marlowe suspecting nothing, and put his hand in the pocket of his coat. He drew out, not a pocketbook, but the revolver, which he deliberately pointed at Marlowe.

“Dan Marlowe,” he said, quietly, “you are stronger than I, but this pistol is loaded, and I know how to use it. Come toward me, and I fire.”

“Confusion!” exclaimed the burglar, furiously, and his impulse was to spring upon Julius. But there was something in the boy’s resolute tone which made him pause.

A doubt in the mind of Julius was solved. Marlowe had no pistol, or he would have produced it. Disagreeable as it was, the burglar stopped to parley. He could postpone his revenge, and only exact money now.

“Put up your pistol,” he said. “I only wanted to frighten you a bit. You’ve done me a bad turn, and you owe me some return. Give me all the money you have with you, and I’ll say quits.”

“I shall do no such thing,” said Julius, firmly. “It hasn’t been stolen yet, and won’t be, as I believe.”

“We’ll see about that,” said Marlowe, furiously, making a dash toward our hero.

There is a popular impression that men of violence are brave; but it is a mistaken one. Marlowe had not the nerve to carry out his threat, while covered by a pistol in the hands of a resolute antagonist. There was another reason also. The partitions were thin, and the noise had aroused the gentleman sleeping in No. 9. He came out into the entry, and knocked at the door of No. 8.

“Put up your pistol, boy,” said Marlowe, hurriedly, “and I will open the door.”

“How do you expect a man to sleep?” he said, peevishly, “when you are making such an infernal noise?”

“I beg your pardon,” said Marlowe, politely, “but I am just leaving my friend here, and shall retire at once. You won’t hear any more noise.”{216}

“It is time it stopped,” said the visitor, not quite appeased. “Why, it’s after midnight!”

“Is it, really?” said Marlowe. “I did not think it so late. Good-night, Julius.”

The visitor retired, and so did Marlowe. But Julius, distrusting his neighbor, not only locked, but barricaded the door, and put the revolver under his pillow. But he had no further visit from Marlowe. The latter, for prudential reasons, postponed the revenge which he still meant to take.

In the morning Julius looked for his enemy, but he was nowhere to be seen. Inquiring in a guarded way, he ascertained that Marlowe had taken an early breakfast and had gone away. It might be that he feared Julius would cause his arrest. At any rate, he was gone.

Julius never saw him again, but read in a newspaper, not long afterward, the closing incidents in the career of this dangerous ruffian. He made his way to Milwaukee, and resumed his old business. While engaged in entering a house by night, he was shot dead by the master of the house, who had heard him enter. It was a fitting end to a misspent life. From a boy he had warred against society, and now he had fallen at the hands of one of his intended victims.

But little remains to be told—too little for a separate{217} chapter. Julius has redeemed the promise of his youth, and now in his early manhood possesses the respect and attachment, not only of Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, but of all who know him. His real estate speculation has turned out favorably. The property for which he paid fifteen hundred dollars is now worth three times that sum, owing to the rapid growth and increasing population of Brookville; but as it is likely to become still more valuable, he has decided not to sell yet. He has repaid Mr. Taylor the amount of the mortgage out of his earnings, and is now sole proprietor. He has assumed the management of Mr. Taylor’s large farm, and is likely in time to grow rich. It is reported that he is engaged to be married to a niece of Mrs. Taylor, who recently came from the East to visit her aunt; and it is not unlikely that the report is true. Though he can boast no proud lineage, and is even indebted to strangers for a name, the Taylors feel that the good qualities which he possesses will compensate for these deficiencies.

He has once visited New York. Last year he went to the East on business for Mr. Taylor, and sought out some of his old haunts. Among other places, he visited the Newsboys’ Lodging House, and, at the request of Mr. O’Connor, made a short speech to the boys, a portion of which will conclude this story:

“Boys,” he said, “it is but a few years since I was drifting about the streets like you, making my living{218} by selling papers and blacking boots, ragged, and with a dreary prospect before me. I used to swear and lie, I remember very well, as I know many of you do. If I had stayed in the city I might be no better off now. But in a lucky moment I was induced by Mr. O’Connor to go West. There I found kind friends and a good home, and had a chance to secure a good education. Now I carry on a large farm for my benefactor, and second father, as I consider him, and I hope in time to become rich. I tell you, boys, it will pay you to leave the city streets and go out West. You may not be as lucky as I have been in finding rich friends, but it will be your own fault if you don’t get along. There are plenty of homes waiting to receive you, and plenty of work for you to do. If you want to prosper and grow up respectable, I advise you to come out as soon as you get the chance.”

THE PATERNOSTERS.

“And do you really mean that we are to cross by the steamer, Mr. Virtue, while you go over in the Seabird? I do not approve of that at all. Fanny, why do you not rebel and say we won’t be put ashore? I call it horrid, after a fortnight on board this dear little yacht, to have to get on to a crowded steamer, with no accommodation and lots of seasick women, perhaps, and crying children. You surely cannot be in earnest?”

“I do not like it any more than you do, Minnie; but, as Tom says we had better do it, and my husband agrees with him, I am afraid we must submit. Do you really think it is quite necessary, Mr. Virtue? Minnie and I are both good sailors, you know; and we would much rather have a little extra tossing about on board the Seabird than the discomforts of a steamer.”

“I certainly think that it will be best, Mrs. Grantham. You know very well we would rather have you on board, and that we shall suffer from your loss more than you will by going the other way; but there’s no doubt the wind is getting up, and though we don’t feel it much here, it must be blowing pretty{170} hard outside. The Seabird is as good a seaboat as anything of her size that floats; but you don’t know what it is to be out in anything like a heavy sea in a thirty-tonner. It would be impossible for you to stay on deck, and we should have our hands full, and should not be able to give you the benefit of our society. Personally, I should not mind being out in the Seabird in any weather, but I would certainly rather not have ladies on board.”

“You don’t think we should scream, or do anything foolish, Mr. Virtue?” Minnie Graham said indignantly.

“Not at all, Miss Graham. Still, I repeat, the knowledge that there are women on board, delightful at other times, does not tend to comfort in bad weather. Of course, if you prefer it, we can put off our start till this puff of wind has blown itself out. It may have dropped before morning. It may last some little time. I don’t think myself that it will drop, for the glass has fallen, and I am afraid we may have a spell of broken weather.”

“Oh, no; don’t put it off,” Mrs. Grantham said; “we have only another fortnight before James must be back again in London, and it would be a great pity to lose three or four days perhaps; and we have been looking forward to cruising about among the Channel Islands, and to St. Malo, and all those places. Oh, no; I think the other is much the better plan—that is, if you won’t take us with you?”{171}

“It would be bad manners to say that I won’t, Mrs. Grantham; but I must say I would rather not. It will be a very short separation. Grantham will take you on shore at once, and as soon as the boat comes back I shall be off. You will start in the steamer this evening, and get into Jersey at nine or ten o’clock to-morrow morning; and if I am not there before you, I shall not be many hours after you.”

“Well, if it must be it must,” Mrs. Grantham said, with an air of resignation. “Come, Minnie, let us put a few things into a hand-bag for to-night. You see the skipper is not to be moved by our pleadings.”

“That is the worst of you married women, Fanny,” Miss Graham said, with a little pout. “You get into the way of doing as you are ordered. I call it too bad. Here have we been cruising about for the last fortnight, with scarcely a breath of wind, and longing for a good brisk breeze and a little change and excitement, and now it comes at last, we are to be packed off in a steamer. I call it horrid of you, Mr. Virtue. You may laugh, but I do.”

Tom Virtue laughed, but he showed no signs of giving way, and ten minutes later Mr. and Mrs. Grantham and Miss Graham took their places in the gig, and were rowed into Southampton Harbor, off which the Seabird was lying.{172}

The last fortnight had been a very pleasant one, and it had cost the owner of the Seabird as much as his guests to come to the conclusion that it was better to break up the party for a few hours.

Tom Virtue had, up to the age of five-and-twenty, been possessed of a sufficient income for his wants. He had entered at the bar, not that he felt any particular vocation in that direction, but because he thought it incumbent upon him to do something. Then, at the death of an uncle, he had come into a considerable fortune, and was able to indulge his taste for yachting, which was the sole amusement for which he really cared, to the fullest.

He sold the little five-tonner he had formerly possessed, and purchased the Seabird. He could well have afforded a much larger craft, but he knew that there was far more real enjoyment in sailing to be obtained from a small craft than a large one, for in the latter he would be obliged to have a regular skipper, and would be little more than a passenger, whereas on board the Seabird, although his first hand was dignified by the name of skipper, he was himself the absolute master. The boat carried the aforesaid skipper, three hands, and a steward, and with them he had twice been up the Mediterranean, across to Norway, and had several times made the circuit of the British Isles.

He had unlimited confidence in his boat, and cared not what weather he was out in her. This{173} was the first time since his ownership of her that the Seabird had carried lady passengers. His friend Grantham, an old school and college chum, was a hard-working barrister, and Virtue had proposed to him to take a month’s holiday on board the Seabird.

“Put aside your books, old man,” he said. “You look fagged and overworked; a month’s blow will do you all the good in the world.”

“Thank you, Tom; I have made up my mind for a month’s holiday, but I can’t accept your invitation, though I should enjoy it of all things. But it would not be fair to my wife; she doesn’t get very much of my society, and she has been looking forward to our having a run together. So I must decline.”

Virtue hesitated a moment. He was not very fond of ladies’ society, and thought them especially in the way on board a yacht; but he had a great liking for his friend’s wife, and was almost as much at home in his house as in his own chambers.

“Why not bring the wife with you?” he said, as soon as his mind was made up. “It will be a nice change for her too; and I have heard her say that she is a good sailor. The accommodation is not extensive, but the after-cabin is a pretty good size, and I would do all I could to make her comfortable. Perhaps she would like another lady with her; if so by all means bring one. They could have the after-cabin, you could have the little stateroom, and I could sleep in the saloon.”{174}

“It is very good of you, Tom, especially as I know that it will put you out frightfully; but the offer is a very tempting one. I will speak to Fanny, and let you have an answer in the morning.”

“That will be delightful, James,” Mrs. Grantham said, when the invitation was repeated to her. “I should like it of all things; and I am sure the rest and quiet and the sea air will be just the thing for you. It is wonderful, Tom Virtue making the offer; and I take it as a great personal compliment, for he certainly is not what is generally called a lady’s man. It is very nice, too, of him to think of my having another lady on board. Whom shall we ask? Oh, I know,” she said suddenly; “that will be the thing of all others. We will ask my cousin Minnie; she is full of fun and life, and will make a charming wife for Tom!”

“What schemers you all are, Fanny! Now I should call it downright treachery to take anyone on board the Seabird with the idea of capturing its master.”

“Nonsense, treachery!” Mrs. Grantham said indignantly; “Minnie is the nicest girl I know, and it would do Tom a world of good to have a wife to look after him. Why, he is thirty now, and will be settling down into a confirmed old bachelor before long. It’s the greatest kindness we could do him, to take Minnie on board; and I am sure he is the{175} sort of man any girl might fall in love with when she gets to know him. The fact is, he’s shy! He never had any sisters, and spends all his time in winter at that horrid club; so that really he has never had any women’s society, and even with us he will never come unless he knows we are alone. I call it a great pity, for I don’t know a pleasanter fellow than he is. I think it will be doing him a real service in asking Minnie; so that’s settled. I will sit down and write him a note.”

“In for a penny, in for a pound, I suppose,” was Tom Virtue’s comment when he received Mrs. Grantham’s letter, thanking him warmly for the invitation, and saying that she would bring her cousin, Miss Graham, with her, if that young lady was disengaged.

As a matter of self-defense he at once invited Jack Harvey, who was a mutual friend of himself and Grantham, to be of the party.

“Jack can help Grantham to amuse the women,” he said to himself; “that will be more in his line than mine. I will run down to Cowes to-morrow and have a chat with Johnson; we shall want a different sort of stores altogether from those we generally carry, and I suppose we must do her up a bit below.”

Having made up his mind to the infliction of female passengers, Tom Virtue did it handsomely, and when the party came on board at Ryde they were{176} delighted with the aspect of the yacht below. She had been repainted, the saloon and ladies’ cabin were decorated in delicate shades of gray, picked out with gold; and the upholsterer, into whose hands the owner of the Seabird had placed her, had done his work with taste and judgment, and the ladies’ cabin resembled a little boudoir.

“Why, Tom, I should have hardly known her!” Grantham, who had often spent a day on board the Seabird, said.

“I hardly know her myself,” Tom said, rather ruefully; “but I hope she’s all right, Mrs. Grantham, and that you and Miss Graham will find everything you want.”

“It is charming!” Mrs. Grantham said enthusiastically. “It’s awfully good of you, Tom, and we appreciate it; don’t we, Minnie? It is such a surprise, too; for James said that while I should find everything very comfortable, I must not expect that a small yacht would be got up like a palace.”

So a fortnight had passed; they had cruised along the coast as far as Plymouth, anchoring at night at the various ports on the way. Then they had returned to Southampton, and it had been settled that as none of the party, with the exception of Virtue himself, had been to the Channel Islands, the last fortnight of the trip should be spent there. The weather had been delightful, save that there had been some deficiency in wind, and throughout the{177} cruise the Seabird had been under all the sail she could spread. But when the gentlemen came on deck early in the morning a considerable change had taken place; the sky was gray and the clouds flying fast overhead.

“We are going to have dirty weather,” Tom Virtue said at once. “I don’t think it’s going to be a gale, but there will be more sea on than will be pleasant for ladies. I tell you what, Grantham; the best thing will be for you to go on shore with the two ladies, and cross by the boat to-night. If you don’t mind going directly after breakfast I will start at once, and shall be at St. Helier’s as soon as you are.”

And so it had been agreed, but not, as has been seen, without opposition and protest on the part of the ladies.

Mrs. Grantham’s chief reason for objecting had not been given. The little scheme on which she had set her mind seemed to be working satisfactorily. From the first day Tom Virtue had exerted himself to play the part of host satisfactorily, and had ere long shaken off any shyness he may have felt towards the one stranger of the party, and he and Miss Graham had speedily got on friendly terms. So things were going on as well as Mrs. Grantham could have expected.

No sooner had his guests left the side of the yacht than her owner began to make his preparations for a start.{178}

“It’s going to blow hard, sir; that’s my view of it, and if I was you I shouldn’t up anchor to-day. Still, it’s just as you likes; the Seabird won’t mind it if we don’t. She has had a rough time of it before now; still, it will be a case of wet jackets, and no mistake.”

“Yes, I expect we shall have a rough time of it, Watkins, but I want to get across. We don’t often let ourselves be weather-bound, and I am not going to begin it to-day. We had better house the top-mast at once, and get two reefs in the mainsail. We can get the other down when we get clear of the island. Get number three jib up, and the leg-of-mutton mizzen; put two reefs in the foresail.”

Tom and his friend Harvey, who was a good sailor, assisted the crew in reefing down the sails, and a few minutes after the gig had returned and been hoisted in, the yawl was running rapidly down Southampton waters.

“We need hardly have reefed quite so closely,” Jack Harvey said, as he puffed away at his pipe.

“Not yet, Jack; but you will see she has as much as she can carry before long. It’s all the better to make all snug before starting; it saves a lot of trouble afterwards, and the extra canvas would not have made ten minutes’ difference to us at the outside. We shall have pretty nearly a dead beat down{179} the Solent. Fortunately the tide will be running strong with us, but there will be a nasty kick-up there. You will see we shall feel the short choppy seas there more than we shall when we get outside. She is a grand boat in a really heavy sea, but in short waves she puts her nose into it with a will. Now, if you will take my advice, you will do as I am going to do; put on a pair of fisherman’s boots and oilskin and sou’-wester. There are several sets for you to choose from below.”

As her owner had predicted, the Seabird put her bowsprit under pretty frequently in the Solent; the wind was blowing half a gale, and as it met the tide it knocked up a short, angry sea, crested with white heads, and Jack Harvey agreed that she had quite as much sail on her as she wanted. The cabin doors were bolted, and all made snug to prevent the water getting below before they got to the race off Hurst Castle; and it was well that they did so, for she was as much under water as she was above.

“I think if I had given way to the ladies and brought them with us they would have changed their minds by this time, Jack,” Tom Virtue said, with a laugh.

“I should think so,” his friend agreed; “this is not a day for a fair-weather sailor. Look what a sea is breaking on the shingles!”

“Yes, five minutes there would knock her into matchwood. Another ten minutes and we shall be{180} fairly out; and I shan’t be sorry; one feels as if one was playing football, only just at present the Seabird is the ball and the waves the kickers.”

“That is more pleasant, Jack,” as the short, chopping motion was exchanged for a regular rise and fall; “this is what I enjoy—a steady wind and a regular sea. The Seabird goes over it like one of her namesakes; she is not taking a teacupful now over her bows.

“Watkins, you may as well take the helm for a spell, while we go down to lunch. I am not sorry to give it up for a bit, for it has been jerking like the kick of a horse.

“That’s right, Jack, hang up your oilskin there. Johnson, give us a couple of towels; we have been pretty well smothered up there on deck. Now what have you got for us?”

“There is some soup ready, sir, and that cold pie you had for dinner yesterday.”

“She likes a good blow as well as we do,” Virtue said enthusiastically, as the yawl rose lightly over each wave. “What do you think of it, Watkins? Is the wind going to lull a bit as the sun goes down?”{181}

“Then we will prepare for the worst, Watkins; get the try-sail up on deck. When you are ready we will bring her up into the wind and set it. That’s the comfort of a yawl, Jack; one can always lie to without any bother, and one hasn’t got such a tremendous boom to handle.”

The try-sail was soon on deck, and then the Seabird was brought up into the wind, the weather fore-sheet hauled aft, the mizzen sheeted almost fore and aft, and the Seabird lay, head to wind, rising and falling with a gentle motion, in strong contrast to her impetuous rushes when under sail.

“She would ride out anything like that,” her owner said. “Last time we came through the Bay on our way from Gib. we were caught in a gale strong enough to blow the hair off one’s head, and we lay to for nearly three days, and didn’t ship a bucket of water all the time. Now let us lend a hand to get the mainsail stowed.”

Ten minutes’ work and it was securely fastened and its cover on; two reefs were put in the try-sail. Two hands went to each of the halliards, while, as the sail rose, Tom Virtue fastened the toggles round the mast.

“Slack off the weather fore-sheet, then, and haul{182} aft the leeward. Slack out the mizzen-sheet a little, Jack. That’s it; now she’s off again, like a duck.”

The Seabird felt the relief from the pressure of the heavy boom to leeward and rose easily and lightly over the waves.

“She certainly is a splendid seaboat, Tom; I don’t wonder you are ready to go anywhere in her. I thought we were rather fools for starting this morning, although I enjoy a good blow; but now I don’t care how hard it comes on.”

“We will lie to till morning, Watkins. So that we get in by daylight to-morrow evening, that is all we want. See our side-lights are burning well, and you had better get up a couple of blue lights, in case anything comes running up Channel and don’t see our lights. We had better divide into two watches; I will keep one with Matthews and Dawson, Mr. Harvey will go in your watch with Nicholls. We had better get the try-sail down altogether, and lie to under the foresail and mizzen, but don’t put many lashings on the try-sail, one will be enough, and have it ready to cast off in a moment, in case we want to hoist the sail in a hurry. I will go down and have a glass of hot grog first, and then I will take my watch to begin with. Let the two hands with me go down; the steward will serve them out a tot each. Jack, you had better turn in at once.”{183}

“I shan’t go below to-night, sir—not to lie down. There’s nothing much to do here, but I couldn’t sleep, if I did lie down.”

“Very well; you had better go below and get a glass of grog; tell the steward to give you a big pipe with a cover like this, out of the locker; and there’s plenty of chewing tobacco, if the men are short.”

“I will take that instead of a pipe,” Watkins said; “there’s nothing like a quid in weather like this, it aint never in your way, and it lasts. Even with a cover a pipe would soon be out.”

“Please yourself, Watkins; tell the two hands forward to keep a bright lookout for lights.”

The night passed slowly. Occasionally a sea heavier than usual came on board, curling over the bow and falling with a heavy thud on the deck, but for the most part the Seabird breasted the waves easily; the bowsprit had been reefed in to its fullest, thereby adding to the lightness and buoyancy of the boat. Tom Virtue did not go below when his friend came up to relieve him at the change of watch, but sat smoking and doing much talking in the short intervals between the gusts.

The morning broke gray and misty, driving sleet came along on the wind, and the horizon was closed in as by a dull curtain.{184}

“That will be enough. I think we both know the position of every reef to within a hundred yards, so we will shape our course for Guernsey. If we happen to hit it off, we can hold on to St. Helier, but if when we think we ought to be within sight of Guernsey we see nothing of it, we must lie to again, till the storm has blown itself out or the clouds lift. It would never do to go groping our way along with such currents as run among the islands. Put the last reef in the try-sail before you hoist it. I think you had better get the foresail down altogether, and run up the spit-fire jib.”

“Now, Watkins, you take the helm; we will go down and have a cup of hot coffee, and I will see that the steward has a good supply for you and the hands; but first, do you take the helm, Jack, whilst Watkins and I have a look at the chart, and try and work out where we are, and the course we had better lie for Guernsey.”

Five minutes were spent over the chart, then Watkins went above and Jack Harvey came below.

“Yes, sir, coffee and chocolate. I didn’t know which you would like.”{185}

“Chocolate, by all means. Jack, I recommend the chocolate. Bring two full-sized bowls, Johnson, and put that cold pie on the table, and a couple of knives and forks; never mind about a cloth; but first of all bring a couple of basins of hot water, we shall enjoy our food more after a wash.”

The early breakfast was eaten, dry coats and mufflers put on, pipes lighted, and they then went up upon deck. Tom took the helm.

“About twelve. The wind is freer than it was, and we are walking along at a good pace. Matthews, cast the log, and let’s see what we are doing. About seven knots, I should say.”

“Not a bad guess, Tom; it’s always difficult to judge pace in a heavy sea.”

“That’s fortunate,” Tom Virtue said; “I shouldn’t be surprised if we get a glimpse of the sun between the clouds presently. Will you get my sextant and the chronometer up, Jack, and put them handy?”

Jack Harvey did as he was asked, but there was no occasion to use the instruments, for ten minutes later, Watkins, who was standing near the bow gazing fixedly ahead, shouted:{186}

“There’s Guernsey, sir, on her lee bow, about six miles away, I should say.”

“That’s it, sure enough,” Tom agreed, as he gazed in the direction in which Watkins was pointing. “There’s a gleam of sunshine on it, or we shouldn’t have seen it yet. Yes, I think you are about right as to the distance. Now let us take its bearings, we may lose it again directly.”

Having taken the bearings of the island they went below, and marked off their position on the chart, and they shaped their course for Cape Grosnez, the northwestern point of Jersey. The gleam of sunshine was transient—the clouds closed in again overhead, darker and grayer than before. Soon the drops of rain came flying before the wind, the horizon closed in, and they could not see half a mile away, but, though the sea was heavy, the Seabird was making capital weather of it, and the two friends agreed that, after all, the excitement of a sail like this was worth a month of pottering about in calms.

“We must keep a bright lookout presently,” the skipper said; “there are some nasty rocks off the coast of Jersey. We must give them a wide berth. We had best make round to the south of the island, and lay to there till we can pick up a pilot to take us into St. Helier. I don’t think it will be worth while trying to get into St. Aubyn’s Bay by ourselves.”

“I think so, too, Watkins, but we will see what it{187} is like before it gets dark; if we can pick up a pilot all the better; if not, we will lie to till morning, if the weather keeps thick; but if it clears so that we can make out all the lights we ought to be able to get into the bay anyhow.”

An hour later the rain ceased and the sky appeared somewhat clearer. Suddenly Watkins exclaimed, “There is a wreck, sir! There, three miles away to leeward. She is on the Paternosters.”

“Good Heavens! she is a steamer,” Tom exclaimed, as he caught sight of her the next time the Seabird lifted on a wave. “Can she be the Southampton boat, do you think?”

“Like enough, sir, she may have had it thicker than we had, and may not have calculated enough for the current.”

“Up helm, Jack, and bear away towards her. Shall we shake out a reef, Watkins?”

“I wouldn’t, sir; she has got as much as she can carry on her now. We must mind what we are doing, sir; the currents run like a millstream, and if we get that reef under our lee, and the wind and current both setting us on to it, it will be all up with us in no time.”

“Yes, I know that, Watkins. Jack, take the helm a minute while we run down and look at the chart.

“Our only chance, Watkins, is to work up behind the reef, and try and get so that they can either{188} fasten a line to a buoy and let it float down to us, or get into a boat, if they have one left, and drift to us.”

“They are an awful group of rocks,” Watkins said, as they examined the chart; “you see some of them show merely at high tide, and a lot of them are above at low water. It will be an awful business to get among them rocks, sir, just about as near certain death as a thing can be.”

“Well, it’s got to be done, Watkins,” Tom said firmly. “I see the danger as well as you do, but whatever the risk it must be tried. Mr. Grantham and the two ladies went on board by my persuasion, and I should never forgive myself if anything happened to them. But I will speak to the men.”

He went on deck again and called the men to him. “Look here, lads; you see that steamer ashore on the Paternosters. In such a sea as this she may go to pieces in half an hour. I am determined to make an effort to save the lives of those on board. As you can see for yourselves there is no lying to weather of her, with the current and wind driving us on to the reef; we must beat up from behind. Now, lads, the sea there is full of rocks, and the chances are ten to one we strike on to them and go to pieces; but, anyhow, I am going to try; but I won’t take you unless you are willing. The boat is a good one, and the zinc chambers will keep her afloat if she fills; well managed, you ought to be able to make the coast of Jersey in her. Mr. Harvey,{189} Watkins, and I can handle the yacht, so you can take the boat if you like.”

The men replied that they would stick to the yacht wherever Mr. Virtue chose to take her, and muttered something about the ladies, for the pleasant faces of Mrs. Grantham and Miss Graham had, during the fortnight they had been on board, won the men’s hearts.

“Very well, lads, I am glad to find you will stick by me; if we pull safely through it I will give each of you three months’ wages. Now set to work with a will and get the gig out. We will tow her after us, and take to her if we make a smash of it.”

They were now near enough to see the white breakers, in the middle of which the ship was lying. She was fast breaking up. The jagged outline showed that the stern had been beaten in. The masts and funnel were gone, and the waves seemed to make a clean breach over her, almost hiding her from sight in a white cloud of spray.

“Wood and iron can’t stand that much longer,” Jack Harvey said; “another hour and I should say there won’t be two planks left together.”

“It is awful, Jack; I would give all I have in the world if I had not persuaded them to go on board. Keep her off a little more, Watkins.”

The Seabird passed within a cable’s-length of the breakers at the northern end of the reef.{190}

“Now, lads, take your places at the sheets, ready to haul or let go as I give the word.” So saying, Tom Virtue took his place in the bow, holding on by the forestay.

The wind was full on the Seabird’s beam as she entered the broken water. Here and there the dark heads of the rocks showed above the water. These were easy enough to avoid, the danger lay in those hidden beneath its surface, and whose position was indicated only by the occasional break of a sea as it passed over them. Every time the Seabird sank on a wave those on board involuntarily held their breath, but the water here was comparatively smooth, the sea having spent its first force upon the outer reef. With a wave of his hand Tom directed the helmsman as to his course, and the little yacht was admirably handled through the dangers.

“I begin to think we shall do it,” Tom said to Jack Harvey, who was standing close to him. “Another five minutes and we shall be within reach of her.”

It could be seen now that there was a group of people clustered in the bow of the wreck. Two or three light lines were coiled in readiness for throwing.

“Now, Watkins,” Tom said, going aft, “make straight for the wreck. I see no broken water between us and them, and possibly there may be deep water under their bow.”{191}

It was an anxious moment, as, with the sails flattened in, the yawl forged up nearly in the eye of the wind towards the wreck. Her progress was slow, for she was now stemming the current.

Nearer and nearer the yacht approached the wreck, until the bowsprit of the latter seemed to stand almost over her. Then Tom threw the line. It fell over the bowsprit, and a cheer broke from those on board the wreck and from the sailors of the Seabird. A stronger line was at once fastened to that thrown, and to this a strong hawser was attached.

“Down with the helm, Watkins. Now, lads, lower away the try-sail as fast as you can. Now, one of you, clear that hawser as they haul on it. Now out with the anchors.”

These had been got into readiness; it was not thought that they would get any hold on the rocky bottom, still they might catch on a projecting ledge and at any rate their weight and that of the chain cable would relieve the strain upon the hawser.

Two sailors had run out on the bowsprit of the wreck as soon as the line was thrown, and the end of the hawser was now on board the steamer.

“Thank God, there’s Grantham!” Jack Harvey Exclaimed; “do you see him waving his hand?”{192}

“They are there, no doubt,” Jack said confidently; “crouching down, I expect. He would not be there if they weren’t, you may be sure. Yes, there they are; those two muffled-up figures. There, one of them has thrown back her cloak and is waving her arm.”

“Are the anchors holding, Watkins? There’s a tremendous strain on that hawser.”

“Put them round the windlass, and give a turn or two, we must relieve the strain on that hawser.”

Since they had first seen the wreck the waves had made great progress in the work of destruction, and the steamer had broken in two just aft of the engines.

“Get over the spare spars, Watkins, and fasten them to float in front of her bows like a triangle. Matthews, catch hold of that boat-hook and try to fend off any piece of timber that comes along. You get hold of the sweeps, lads, and do the same. They would stave her in like a nutshell if they struck her.”

Those on board the steamer had not been idle. As soon as the yawl was seen approaching slings were prepared, and no sooner was the hawser securely fixed, than the slings were attached to it and a woman placed in them. The hawser was tight{193} and the descent sharp, and without a check the figure ran down to the deck of the Seabird. She was lifted out of the slings by Tom and Jack Harvey, who found she was an old woman and had entirely lost consciousness.

“Two of you carry her down below; tell Johnson to pour a little brandy down her throat. Give her some hot soup as soon as she comes to.”

Another woman was lowered and helped below. The next to descend was Mrs. Grantham.

“Thank God, indeed,” Mrs. Grantham said, “and thank you all! Oh, Tom, we have had a terrible time of it, and had lost all hope till we saw your sail, and even then the captain said that he was afraid nothing could be done. Minnie was the first to make out it was you, and then we began to hope. She has been so brave, dear girl. Ah! here she comes.”

But Minnie’s firmness came to an end now that she felt the need for it was over. She was unable to stand when she was lifted from the slings, and Tom carried her below.

“Then you had better take possession of your own cabin. I ordered Johnson to spread a couple more{194} mattresses and some bedding on the floor, so you will all four be able to turn in. There’s plenty of hot coffee and soup. I should advise soup with two or three spoonfuls of brandy in it. Now, excuse me; I must go upon deck.”

Twelve men descended by the hawser, one of them with both legs broken by the fall of the mizzen. The last to come was the captain.

“That is all,” the captain said. “Six men were swept overboard when she first struck, and two were killed by the fall of the funnel. Fortunately we had only three gentlemen passengers and three ladies on board. The weather looked so wild when we started that no one else cared about making the passage. God bless you, sir, for what you have done! Another half-hour and it would have been all over with us. But it seems like a miracle your getting safe through the rocks to us.”

“It was fortunate indeed that we came along,” Tom said; “three of the passengers are dear friends of mine; and as it was by my persuasion that they came across in the steamer instead of in the yacht, I should never have forgiven myself if they had been lost. Take all your men below, captain; you will find plenty of hot soup there. Now, Watkins, let us be off; that steamer won’t hold together many minutes longer, so there’s no time to lose. We will go back as we came. Give me a hatchet. Now,{195} lads, two of you stand at the chain-cables; knock out the shackles the moment I cut the hawser. Watkins, you take the helm and let her head pay off till the jib fills. Jack, you lend a hand to the other two, and get up the try-sail again as soon as we are free.”

In a moment all were at their stations. The helm was put on the yacht, and she payed off on the opposite tack to that on which she had before been sailing. As soon as the jib filled, Tom gave two vigorous blows with his hatchet on the hawser, and, as he lifted his hand for a third, it parted. Then came the sharp rattle of the chains as they ran round the hawser-holes. The try-sail was hoisted and sheeted home, and the Seabird was under way again. Tom, as before, conned the ship from the bow. Several times she was in close proximity to the rocks, but each time she avoided them. A shout of gladness rose from all on deck as she passed the last patch of white water. Then she tacked and bore away for Jersey.

Tom had now time to go down below and look after his passengers. They consisted of the captain and two sailors—the sole survivors of those who had been on deck when the vessel struck—three male passengers, and six engineers and stokers.

“I have not had time to shake you by the hand before, Tom,” Grantham said, as Tom Virtue entered; “and I thought you would not want me on{196} deck at present. God bless you, old fellow! we all owe you our lives.”

“How did it happen, captain?” Tom asked, as the captain also came up to him.

“It was the currents, I suppose,” the captain said; “it was so thick we could not see a quarter of a mile any way. The weather was so wild I would not put into Guernsey, and passed the island without seeing it. I steered my usual course, but the gale must have altered the currents, for I thought I was three miles away from the reef, when we saw it on our beam, not a hundred yards away. It was too late to avoid it then, and in another minute we ran upon it, and the waves were sweeping over us. Everyone behaved well. I got all, except those who had been swept overboard or crushed by the funnel, up into the bow of the ship, and there we waited. There was nothing to be done. No boat would live for a moment in the sea on that reef, and all I could advise was that when she went to pieces everyone should try to get hold of a floating fragment; but I doubt whether a man would have been alive a quarter of an hour after she went to pieces.”

“Perhaps, captain, you will come on deck with me and give me the benefit of your advice. My skipper and I know the islands pretty well, but no doubt you know them a good deal better, and I don’t want another mishap.”

But the Seabird avoided all further dangers, and{197} as it became dark the lights of St. Helier’s were in sight, and an hour later the yacht brought up in the port and landed her involuntary passengers.

A fortnight afterwards the Seabird returned to England, and two months later Mrs. Grantham had the satisfaction of being present at the ceremony which was the successful consummation of her little scheme in inviting Minnie Graham to be her companion on board the Seabird.

“Well, my dear,” her husband said, when she indulged in a little natural triumph, “I do not say that it has not turned out well, and I am heartily glad for both Tom and Minnie’s sake it has so; but you must allow that it very nearly had a disastrous ending, and I think if I were you I should leave matters to take their natural course in future. I have accepted Tom’s invitation for the same party to take a cruise in the Seabird next summer, but I have bargained that next time a storm is brewing up we shall stop quietly in port.”

“That’s all very well, James,” Mrs. Grantham said saucily; “but you must remember that Tom Virtue will only be first-mate of the Seabird in future.”

“That I shall be able to tell you better, my dear, after our next cruise. All husbands are not as docile and easily led as I am.”{198}

Just the type of books that delight and fascinate the wide awake Girls of the present day who are between the ages of eight and fourteen years. The great author of these books regards them as the best products of her pen. Printed from large clear type on a superior quality of paper; attractive multi-color jacket wrapper around each book. Bound in cloth.

A popular and charming series of Girl’s books dealing in an interesting and fascinating manner with the life and adventures of Girlhood so dear to all Girls from eight to fourteen years of age. Printed from large clear type on superior quality paper, multicolor jacket. Bound in cloth.

HESE stories touch upon nearly every sport in which the active boy is interested. Baseball, rowing, football, hockey, skating, ice-boating, sailing, camping and fishing all serve to lend interest to an unusual series of books. There are the following four titles:

1.	The Aeroplane Boys; or, The Young Pilots First Air Voyage
2.	The Aeroplane Boys on the Wing; or, Aeroplane Chums in the Tropics
3.	The Aeroplane Boys Among the Clouds; or, Young Aviators in a Wreck
4.	The Aeroplane Boys’ Flights; or, A Hydroplane Round-up
5.	The Aeroplane Boys on a Cattle Ranch

1.	The Girl Aviators and the Phantom Airship
2.	The Girl Aviators on Golden Wings
3.	The Girl Aviators’ Sky Cruise
4.	The Girl Aviators’ Motor Butterfly.

1.	Radio Boys in the Secret Service; or, Cast Away on an Iceberg	FRANK HONEYWELL
2.	Radio Boys on the Thousand Islands; or, The Yankee Canadian Wireless Trail	FRANK HONEYWELL
3.	Radio Boys in the Flying Service; or, Held for Ransom by Mexican Bandits	J. W. DUFFIELD
4.	Radio Boys Under the Sea; or, The Hunt for the Sunken Treasure	J. W. DUFFIELD
5.	Radio Boys Cronies; or, Bill Brown’s Radio	WAYNE WHIPPLE
6.	Radio Boys Loyalty; or, Bill Brown Listens In	WAYNE WHIPPLE

1.	Peggy Parson Hampton Freshman
2.	Peggy Parson at Prep School

1.	Jack Winters’ Baseball Team; or, The Mystery of the Diamond.
2.	Jack Winters’ Campmates; or, Vacation Days in the Woods.
3.	Jack Winters’ Gridiron Chums; or, When the Half-back Saved the Day.
4.	Jack Winters’ Iceboat Wonder; or, Leading the Hockey Team to Victory.

JULIUS, THE STREET BOY OR OUT WEST

JULIUS, THE STREET BOY.

CHAPTER I. RETIRED FROM BUSINESS.

CHAPTER II. THE “GRAND DUKE’S OPREA HOUSE.”

CHAPTER III. ON THE RAILWAY.

CHAPTER IV. JULIUS DETECTS A PICKPOCKET.

CHAPTER V. JULIUS IS REWARDED.

CHAPTER VI. A NEWSBOY’S LETTER.

CHAPTER VII. BROOKVILLE.

CHAPTER VIII. JULIUS HAS AN ADVENTURE.

CHAPTER IX. THE BEAR AND HIS MASTER.

CHAPTER X. A BOOTBLACK’S SPEECH.

CHAPTER XI. NEW HOMES FOR THE HOMELESS.

CHAPTER XII. JULIUS IN LUCK.

CHAPTER XIII. THE NEW DOLL.

CHAPTER XIV. FIRST LESSONS.

CHAPTER XV. TEMPTATION.

CHAPTER XVI. THE NEW TEACHER.

CHAPTER XVII. A FIRST-CLASS HUMBUG.

CHAPTER XVIII. MR. SLOCUM’S STRATEGY.

CHAPTER XIX. MR. SLOCUM AS AN ORATOR.

CHAPTER XX. MR. SLOCUM’S PANIC.

CHAPTER XXI. A REVOLUTION IN SCHOOL.

CHAPTER XXII. AN INDIAN’S REVENGE.

CHAPTER XXIII. KIDNAPPED.

CHAPTER XXIV. FOUND.

CHAPTER XXV. JULIUS BECOMES A CAPTIVE.

CHAPTER XXVI. THE RESCUE.

CHAPTER XXVII. JULIUS BUYS A HOUSE.

CHAPTER XXVIII. A BUSINESS JOURNEY.

CHAPTER XXIX. MARLOWE.

CHAPTER XXX. CONCLUSION.