CHAPTER XV A NEW LIGHT
Even a cursory examination of the bulletin told Alec he was right in thinking that the little pamphlet held the secrets for which he had been searching. Here, in this unconsidered little publication that had been consigned to the oblivion of a dusty pigeonhole by a man who was beginning to fall behind the times, was an open sesame to the treasure-house of the deep. Alec wondered how many more of these bulletins were likewise resting in dusty pigeonholes. He was sure there must be many of them similarly tucked out of sight, for the bulletin, which was the very first of a series planned by the state to set forth the knowledge of the oyster that had been accumulated by the scientists of the world, plainly said that the position of the oyster-planter of to-day was very similar to that of the land farmer of fifty years ago, before the application of scientific methods to agriculture. If that were true, Alec knew that little heed would be given to the publication by many of the oyster-planters. They were too old to change. The situation gave him the opportunity to become a pioneer and, he firmly believed, to reap the rewards of the pioneer.
The quality that distinguished Alec's mind from the mind of the average lad of his years was that of understanding or comprehension. At school he had never won unusual grades; yet he had been an unusual student. Indeed, it would have been remarkable had a lad of his wide interests gained high marks. His participation in athletics, his accomplishments with the wireless, his devotion to nature and out-of-door pleasures, and his efforts along many lines not directly connected with his studies, practically precluded the possibility of his being an honor student. Yet no winner of high grades ever understood what he studied better than Alec comprehended the work he covered. Very early Alec had imbibed the idea that the purpose of schooling is understanding, not grades, ability to accomplish, and not diplomas. So he had been more or less indifferent to the marks he received, but very particular to grasp what he studied. To an unusual degree he had gained the essence of education, which is the ability to think. He saw facts as they were, he drew correct deductions from these facts, and he consequently came to truthful conclusions.
Nothing whatever could have meant as much to Alec, situated as he now was, as did this double ability to understand facts and to draw right conclusions from them. He was just starting his life-work. He was building his career. He was erecting a structure to last a lifetime and perhaps many generations longer. He must fight for all he got. There would be few who cared whether he built well or poorly, and fewer still to help him. His alone was the responsibility for the quality of the job he was doing. What he had told Captain Rumford was true: he wanted to know, not only about what oyster-planters had done and were doing, but also what they would be doing in future. Alec had always been like that. He had always wanted to know the whole truth.
As he read the bulletin in his hands, he told himself that he was a fortunate lad, indeed. If oyster-farming is to-day just where land farming was half a century ago, he told himself, he had become an oysterman at exactly the right moment. He had had a great deal more schooling than most of the men now in the business. He could learn the truth more easily. He had the advantage of knowing nothing whatever about the oyster business, so that he had no prejudices to hamper him, no preconceived ideas to hold him back. He was free to learn the truth, and when he found it, to act accordingly. He could make all his plans upon a scientific basis. He could be a pioneer in scientific oyster-culture. And like the farmers who sprayed their fruit-trees while their neighbors laughed at them, and the dairymen who began raising blooded stock while their neighbors ridiculed them, he would reap his reward, the same as those intelligent orchardists and cattlemen had done.
Perhaps Alec did not actually think the situation out in such detail, but the underlying idea he felt very strongly. He had come into the oyster business at a time when it was about to undergo a change. Not all the oyster-shippers, he felt sure, would toss aside this valuable compendium of information as thoughtlessly as Captain Rumford had done. Few of them, perhaps, were as well qualified as he himself was to carry out the suggestions made in the book; for he had studied biology. He knew how to use the microscope. He was familiar with the work that would be required of the scientific oysterman as suggested by the bulletin.
For this marvelous little publication told him, not only about the life-history and habits of oysters, but also how and where they could best be raised. An open sesame, indeed, was this book. For Alec had long understood that the present method of oyster-culture was largely a game of blind man's buff.