“O, mother, I can’t tell you one half they did for me, because it can’t be told; for it was not only what they did, but the way they did it. It came so right out of the heart. They seemed to love to do it, and it was done with such looks and tones of love.”
“Yes; and when that noble man came up here, and couldn’t do enough—wanted to take us all home with him—insisting upon it, didn’t I feel condemned for trying to hinder your father from helping others, and telling him he got small thanks for it? Here, now, is one of those very persons, becoming a father to his son, putting him right into business at once.”
“Well, mother, I’ve made up my mind to one thing—I’ll try to show myself my father’s son, and practise that which I approve of so much in others. I’ll let Captain Rhines, Mr. Ben, Charlie, John, and the others see that I am not deficient in gratitude. If God gives me life and strength, the grass shan’t grow on that vessel’s bottom. I’ll make her a happy vessel for sailors, and help every young man I can, as father told Captain Rhines to do when he asked him how he could repay him. And as he has helped me, whether I get any thanks for it or not, I’ll look higher than that for my reward,—I’ll get it in doing my duty. I’ll begin with my shipmate, little Ned Gates.”
“I am glad to hear you talk thus, Arthur. Your father’s principle was the true one,—do right because it is right,—and from all I have seen, it generally bears the best fruit even in this life. There was your uncle David, just the opposite of your father; always saving for his children; so close as to be on the edge of dishonesty, if not actually dishonest; never had a thought or care for any one but himself or his own, and, just as he had amassed a large property, went into a great speculation in his old age for the sake of getting more, when he had more than enough already risked the whole, and lost the whole. Now, worn out, and broken down, without a house over his head, everybody says, ‘Served him right,’ and his children all poor, while your father’s good name and deeds have been money at interest for his family, and the bread he cast upon the waters has come back after many days.”
“Mother, there’s one thing I want you to do before I go to sea.”
“What is that, Arthur?”
“Just send off these boarders,—no longer make a slave of yourself,—and take some comfort. The girls are doing well in the store; George supports himself; I am going to have business, and Captain Rhines has given you and the girls money; so there’s no need of working, and wearing your life out now.”
“I couldn’t feel right, Arthur, if I were not earning something; a thousand dollars would soon be spent, come to sit down and live upon it; you may have hard luck at sea; the girls are doing well, to be sure, but they have got to return the money that friends loaned them to start with. I have put that thousand dollars in the bank, against a rainy day; besides, I have another reason for wishing to earn something.”
“What is it?” asked Ellen.