Great games awoke the echoes through Dunlap’s stately old dwelling; in winter the lawn was converted into a slide, the fish-pond into a skating-rink; in summer New Hampshire’s hills reverberated with the merry shouts of Jack and “Princess” Lucy or flying over the blue waters of the bay in the yacht that his godfather had given him. Jack, aided by Lucy’s fresh young voice, sang rollicking songs of the sea.
The old gentlemen dubbed Jack, “Lucy’s Knight,” and were always perfectly satisfied when the little girl was with her cousin.
“He is more careful of her than we are ourselves,” they would reply when speaking of Jack and his guardianship.
All the fuming of Miss Lucy’s maids and the complaints of Miss Lucy’s governess availed nothing, for even good old Mrs. Church joined in the conspiracy of the grandfather and uncle, saying:
“She is perfectly safe in Jack’s care, and I wish to see rosy cheeks rather than hear Emersonian philosophy from our pet.”
Notwithstanding the “lots of fun,” as Jack used to call their frolics, Lucy and Jack did good hard work with their books, music and “all the rest of it,” as the young people called drawing and dancing.
When Jack became twenty years of age, and was prepared to enter Harvard college, where Mr. John Dunlap proposed to send him, he made his appearance one day in the city and asked to see his kind kinsman.
“I thank you, sir, for your great kindness in offering to place me in Harvard College, as I do for all the countless things you have done for me, but I can’t accept your generous proposition. You will not be angry, I am sure, for you know, I hope, how grateful I am for all you have done. But, sir, I have a widowed mother and I wish to go to work that I may earn money for her and obtain a start in life for myself,” said Jack with boyish enthusiasm when admitted to the presence of Mr. John Dunlap.
Though the old gentleman urged every argument to alter Jack’s determination, the boy stood firmly by what he had said.
“You are my namesake, the only male representative of our family; neither you nor your mother shall ever want. I have more money than I need.” Many other inducements were offered still the young man insisted upon the course that he laid out for himself.