“They were on the same level with Isaac. Your son is educated, and Isaac would seem like an old codger to an educated man.”
“He wouldn’t hold to that opinion long when he came to be acquainted with him. It is too late now for this year. But if you think Benjamin would be willing,—I should expect to pay his way, of course,—I should like to try it, if I could get him to go.”
“Anything that I or Ben can do, we will be glad to. Our hearts and homes are open to you.”
“You are very kind, and I will think more about it; there’s time enough. Now, my dear friend, permit me to say a word to you. I am considerably older than yourself. Our friendship is of long standing. It dates back to the year you was twenty-one, and came to Boston mate of the first vessel I ever owned any part of. We ought by this time to know each other as well as we love each other. I feel as if I must tell you there is but one thing you lack. Do, my old friend, give your heart to God. Let us be one in feeling and sympathies here, as we are in every other respect. In this bitter trial which has come upon me, it has been my stay and comfort. If I could not have cast my burden on the bosom of the Savior, I should have gone mad. There are sorrows to which wealth can offer no alleviation, but there are none beyond the aid of divine grace.”
Captain Rhines was touched to the very heart, and most of all by the noble spirit manifested by his friend, who, when crushed to the earth by individual grief, turned from his own sorrows to seek his good.
“I have, indeed,” he replied, “endeavored to live a moral life. I was the child of godly parents, have been blessed with a pious wife, and am a firm believer in the truths of the gospel; but I know that I need more than this—that I must be born again. It is impossible for a man of ordinary intelligence and capacity to follow the sea, as I have for more than thirty years, without at times feeling deeply his accountability. Oftentimes at sea, and at other times at home, when Mr. Goodhue, a good, faithful man, has talked with me, I have resolved—I have resolved to pray, but never have done it; yet I trust I shall.”
“Life is uncertain. We may never meet again. Kneel down with me.”
They knelt together, and Mr. Welch pleaded with his Maker for the salvation of his friend; and, as they parted, Captain Rhines promised him that he would take the matter into serious consideration, and endeavor to pray for himself. “The same energy and resolution, my dear friend, that carried the Ark through the storms of the Gulf Stream into the harbor of Havana, and at one stroke won a fortune for yourself and son, will carry you into the Ark of Safety, and perhaps be the salvation of your whole family.”
During their stay in Boston, Mr. Welch derived great pleasure from talking with Charlie. It was a relief to the heart of the worn and weary old man to listen to the conversation of the fresh-hearted boy, full of hope and buoyancy. He entered into all his plans, and drew from him his little secrets, which helped to withdraw him from his own griefs. Charlie told him about his great disappointment by the wreck of the West Wind, and he didn’t know how it would be, but thought some time he should try to build a boat with timbers. Aware of Charlie’s love of the soil, and all connected with it, he took him into his orchard, where his gardener was putting in grafts, and told him to show Charlie how to set them, and also how to bud. The first thing he said, after he found he could perform the operation, was, “O, how glad father and mother will be!”
“I wish he was my boy,” was the thought that arose in the mind of the merchant, as he perceived how love for his adopted parents colored every impulse of his heart.