Disgusted with human beings, especially with the man in the black straw hat, Chap walked directly home.
“I did think,” he said to himself, “that when I got to work with a man something would be done; but men are just as pokey and shilly-shallying as boys. But there is one fellow left yet!” he continued, giving himself a bold slap on the chest; and, with a stern and determined mind, the one fellow who was left yet strode rapidly home.
In the course of a few days Mr. Berkeley made arrangements by which he procured the money to refund to the three boys the amount they had received from the owners of the Thomas Wistar. Phil declared he did not want his share, but his uncle insisted he should take it. It had been fairly earned by his own exertions, and he must keep it. The sum was accordingly handed over to Mr. Welford to be invested in Phil’s name.
“What are you going to do with your money?” asked Chap, the first time he met Phœnix after the distribution.
“We have been talking the matter over a great deal at our house,” said the stout Phœnix, “and I haven’t made up my mind whether I’ll put my money into land or into education.”
“The whole of it into one of them?” eagerly asked Chap.
“Yes,” said Phœnix. “Mother wants me to go to college; but father says if I buy a piece of land down below our place, and get it ditched, and put into grass, and cleared up, it will be a valuable property by the time I am married.”
“Married!” cried Chap, in accents of scorn. “Think of a fellow waiting to get the good of his money till he is married!”
“From what I have heard the folks say,” said Phœnix, “I should think that would be the best time to get the good of it. But I don’t know that I’ll put my money into land. I may switch off into a straight-out education. Mother says that is better than any property. What are you going to do with yours?”
“Well,” said Chap, “a part of mine is to be put into stocks, along with Phil’s. That is what they all thought was the best thing to do with it for the present. But there’s a certain lot of it I’m going to keep for my own square, particular, and not-to-be-talked-about purposes, and no questions asked or answered.”