“When the boys had gone, I had a talk with the girls. I told them the plain truth, and insisted that they should go to work. Both of them said they were willing; but their mother declared they should not go into a store or factory, or any thing of that sort, to work. They had been finely educated, and were fit to adorn the drawing-room of a rich man.”
“Very likely they are; but the next thing is to find the drawing-room,” suggested the captain.
“That is the very thing I said to Matilda—that’s my wife. I told the girls I would try to find places, and they both said they would take
any places I could get for them. Matilda said they should not. I told them I had not money enough to buy a meal of victuals, and the storekeepers and the butchers won’t trust me. I found a place in a store for Elinora myself; and she went to it, after dinner, to-day.”
“Excellent! You are doing bravely!” exclaimed the captain. “I will see what can be done for the other girl as soon as I go ashore. By the way, I was thinking of getting a young man to keep the records of the school, and do some of my writing for me. A woman will do just as well. I will give your other daughter five dollars a week, and raise her wages as fast as she learns to do the work.”
“God bless you, Captain Gildrock!” ejaculated the discouraged father. “If the children can support themselves, I can take care of my wife after we have lost the farm and every thing else. I can get work at day wages.”
“I hope you won’t lose your farm,” added the captain.
“There is no help for it. The mortgage note will be due in a short time; and I can’t pay the interest, let alone any part of the principal.”
Farmer Millweed groaned in spirit, when he thought of the final blow that was about to fall upon him. He had been an honest, temperate, hard-working man all his life, though he was a person of but little force of character. His wife’s aspirations after gentility had actually ruined him. As things were going on the day before, the family were only a few steps from the poorhouse.
“I think you are an honest man, and I am very sorry to see you brought to the verge of ruin in this way,” said Captain Gildrock after a few minutes’ reflection. “I will let you have the money to pay your interest when it is due, and I will take the mortgage on your place myself.”