Then he dragged Chap, amazed and speechless, into the parlor.
CHAPTER XXV.
OLD BRUDEN MAKES AN IMPRESSION.
When the grocer’s buggy drove away from Hyson Hall it left two happy boys behind. A woman was soon added to the number of rejoicers, for Susan was told the great news, and Jenny, when she heard it, ran to the wheatfield to tell her father and Joel. The whole world seemed more cheerful to the people of Hyson Hall. The sun shone with great brightness, although this had been noticed before by the workers in the harvest-field.
Everything out-doors, as well as in-doors, seemed to have something bright and sparkling about it; and a fresh breeze sprang up, which, if the bells had still been hanging on the roof, would have added a merry peal to the rejoicing. But the bells were not there. Susan and Phœnix had taken them down soon after young Touron had made his precipitate retreat from the place.
The two gentlemen who came in the buggy were connected with the railroad company which owned the Thomas Wistar and other steamboats plying upon the river.
Full reports of the manner in which the boat had been run ashore had been given to the company; and now that everything of value had been taken from the Wistar, and a calculation had been made of the amount of the loss, and the value of the goods, machinery, etc., which had been saved, the two gentlemen had been sent to Boontown, to make arrangements for compensating the persons who had been instrumental in saving a portion of the boat and cargo.
Of these, the young fellows who had boarded the burning steamboat and had run her ashore deserved the principal portion of the salvage-money.
Both the gentlemen were acquainted with Mr. Welford, and they went first to his office to make inquiries in regard to Phil and his companions. Now it was that the good effect of Helen’s visit to the banker began to show itself.
Had these gentlemen come to see Mr. Welford before Helen’s warm defence of Phil had made the banker investigate, as far as he was able, the character and conduct of that young person, they would probably have heard that it would be extremely injudicious to put money into the hands of a boy who might spend hundreds of dollars in discharging old servants and in carrying on all sorts of wild and disorderly pranks in his uncle’s house.