A great collation was served on the lawn at sundown, and the Genverres band played all the evening. The grounds were thronged with people, and an impromptu dance, in which most of the students took part, closed the festivities of the day.
The rest of the Building of the House was a matter of detail, and the work was done in shop time. By the first of November the boat-house was shingled and clapboarded, the windows were put in, and a few temporary doors were hung. During the winter the students got out the finish, and the building was entirely completed on the first day of June of the following year.
The wharf had been finished according to Bolly Millweed's plan by the middle of May. The parts of the truss bridge had been made in the shop in the winter. The sides of the caisson were built up of the timbers which had remained inside of it from the beginning. The architect fixed its position with the compass from the shore. The Sylph towed rafts of refuse stone to the enlarged caisson, and it was sunk into position. A plank floor was laid on the top of it, and Bolly's dream became a reality.
Of course such an event as the completion of the great boat-house and the wharf could not be passed by without a suitable celebration. This included a magnificent collation, music on the lawn, and a big social dance in the hall. Many people from Burlington attended it, and even Lew Shoreham was willing to admit that the uniform of the Beech Hill Industrial School was a big thing, inasmuch as no young lady would look at a young man on that day who did not wear it. In fact it had come to be regarded as an honorable distinction, and the students were proud to wear it.
The Building of the House by the students had given the school no little reputation, and the "Tinkers" were lions in many places where they went. Captain Gildrock had applications enough to quadruple the number of his pupils, and he was considering the question of enlarging the sphere of its usefulness from the beginning of the next year.
Among those present at the celebration of the completion of the boat-house were Mr. Plint the architect, and the fat civil engineer, Mr. Bridges. The former was so pleased with Bolly's work and his ideas, that he offered him a place in his office at Albany, with a salary of fifty dollars a month, as a draughtsman. Bolly did not want to leave the school, but his father's circumstances made it his duty to accept the offer.
The civil engineer wanted a young man, and Lew Shoreham found a place with him, for he had to earn his own living. Corny Minkfield and John Brattle had places offered to them to run stationary engines in a marble quarry; but as they were still young, the principal advised them to remain another year at the school. A dozen of the students could have obtained fair wages as carpenters, but they were counselled to continue their studies.
The thoughts of the boys at Beech Hill had a nautical tendency, and Captain Gildrock was now ready to carry out his second great idea, which was to build a sailing craft somewhat larger than the Goldwing; and the next volume will explain how, in the midst of many adventures with the Chesterfields and the Topovers, the students did all the work, from "Stem to Stern," in the practical work of "Building the Boat."