The next morning Charles went to look at the willows. He said they were different from the sallies they made baskets of; that the same kind grew in England, but they called them wild sallies there, and never made baskets of them; but he thought if they could be made to grow straight he could make a basket of them. So he got the axe, and cut off a whole parcel of them, in order that they might sprout up the next spring and grow straight.
Intercourse with the main shore was so difficult and dangerous in the winter, as there was nothing better to go in than a canoe, that Ben went off to procure provisions and breadstuff to last him till spring. When he returned he brought Charles powder and shot.
“Father,” said Charles, “you never got all this powder and shot with the money I gave you.”
“No, Charles; I put a little to it, because I wanted to make my little boy a present.”
“John told me that he would like very much to go into the basket business with you, and would pound a lot of basket-stuff, and make it all of a width, and trim the edges smooth and handsome, and get out the rims and handles. He wants to know if you are willing to take Fred Williams into partnership with you and him, because he wants to go in. His father is a miller, and he can sell a good many baskets to folks that come to the mill. Nova Scotia people often come there after corn, and he could sell them to them, to sell again to the fishermen down their way.”
“Yes, father; I should like first rate to have him.”
“John Strout is going to the West Indies this winter, and will bring the Perseverance over here, and leave her, because she’ll be safe. John will send basket-stuff over by him, and you can send back word whether you will take Williams into partnership.”
“I don’t know what would have become of me, if you and mother had not taken me in. Now, John told me all about Fred. He said that he didn’t want him to go with him and Uncle Isaac, because he knew that they should have so much better time together; but he said one day, when they were off together in a boat, Uncle Isaac told him that we ought to deny ourselves to help others, and talked to him in such a way that he felt ashamed of himself, and couldn’t look Uncle Isaac in the face, but had to look right down in the bottom of the boat. Since that he had gone with Fred, and was right glad of it, for he had become a real good boy, and he’s as smart as lightning. I saw that the day I was over to see John.”
“He has become a first-rate boy. Everybody that goes to the mill says there is not a better, more obliging boy in town; and they are always glad when he is in the mill, his father is so cross.”