Mr. Oakly was mistaken: the father would not accept of the tools. Mr. Oakly stood surprised—“Certainly,” said he to himself, “this cannot be such a miser as I took him for”; and he walked immediately up to Grant, and bluntly said to him, “Mr. Grant, your son has behaved very handsomely to my son; and you seem to be glad of it.”
“To be sure I am,” said Grant
“Which,” continued Oakly, “gives me a better opinion of you than ever I had before—I mean, than ever I had since the day you sent me the shabby answer about those foolish, what d’ye call ’em, cursed raspberries.”
“What shabby answer?” said Grant, with surprise; and Oakly repeated exactly the message which he received; and Grant declared that he never sent any such message. He repeated exactly the answer which he really sent, and Oakly immediately stretched out his hand to him, saying “I believe you: no more need be said. I’m only sorry I did not ask you about this four months ago; and so I should have done if you had not been a Scotchman. Till now, I never rightly liked a Scotchman. We may thank this good little fellow,” continued he, turning to Maurice, “for our coming at last to a right understanding. There was no holding out against his good nature. I’m sure, from the bottom of my heart, I’m sorry I broke his tulip. Shake hands, boys; I’m glad to see you, Arthur, look so happy again, and hope Mr. Grant will forgive—”
“Oh, forgive and forget,” said Grant and his son at the same moment. And from this time forward the two families lived in friendship with each other.
Oakly laughed at his own folly, in having been persuaded to go to law about the plum-tree; and he, in process of time, so completely conquered his early prejudice against Scotchmen, that he and Grant became partners in business. Mr. Grant’s book-larning and knowledge of arithmetic he found highly useful to him; and he, on his side, possessed a great many active, good qualities, which became serviceable to his partner.
The two boys rejoiced in this family union; and Arthur often declared that they owed all their happiness to Maurice’s favourite maxim, “Forgive and Forget.”
WASTE NOT, WANT NOT;
OR,
TWO STRINGS TO YOUR BOW.
Mr. Gresham, a Bristol merchant, who had, by honourable industry and economy, accumulated a considerable fortune, retired from business to a new house which he had built upon the Downs, near Clifton. Mr. Gresham, however, did not imagine that a new house alone could make him happy. He did not propose to live in idleness and extravagance; for such a life would have been equally incompatible with his habits and his principles. He was fond of children; and as he had no sons, he determined to adopt one of his relations. He had two nephews, and he invited both of them to his house, that he might have an opportunity of judging of their dispositions, and of the habits which they had acquired.
