Paul was fully justified and acquitted, and the people praised him for his defence of his sister. Fathers and mothers were interested, for they looked to the law for the protection of their children. Every effort was made to save the magnate from the disgrace of being confined in a common prison, but public sentiment would have been indignant, and he had to serve out his time.
The farmers and mechanics were inclined to go as far the wrong way in one direction as the major and his friends were in the other. The magnate was a "soulless capitalist," a "bloated bondholder," and he suffered, especially among the mill hands, for this senseless reason. But the judge was even-handed between the two parties, and the major learned a lesson which was worth half his fortune to him—that before the law he was no more than the equal of the poor man.
Four of the six ruffians were taken from the institute by their parents, who had sent them there to be fitted for college, and they were sure that their sons had been led away by the influence of Major Billcord, and by the lack of proper discipline in the school. Three others were removed for the same reason. The loss of these pupils was a severe blow to Colonel Buckmill, who had condemned the conduct of the major from the first.
Though other students were soon obtained to take their places, and even to increase the number of pupils in the school, the colonel realized that he was not managing the institution on the right principle. The magnate had lost much of his influence in the vicinity, and the principal found that he could afford to be independent of him, for it would pay better.
On the day of the examination, Captain Gildrock called the students of Beech Hill together in the school-room in the afternoon, after the studies had been finished. The model to which he had alluded at the time of his lecture on shipbuilding was still on the table where it had been placed on that occasion. The students had examined it with a great deal of interest. They had read all they could find in the books in the library on the subject, and studied the three plans on the wall.
They were very impatient, as young men always are, to begin the actual work of building the boat. It was even more to their taste than erecting a house, though many of them were now competent to frame a building from the plans.
The subject of a name for the craft had engaged their attention, and they had given a great deal of thought to it. They were all ambitious to name the schooner, and a great variety of names was likely to be presented. They had all been handed in; and when the principal announced that the first business was to select one from them, Mr. Bentnick handed him the envelope which contained them.
"Lily," said the captain, laughing, as he took the first paper from the enclosure.
All the boys looked very good-natured, though something like embarrassment appeared upon the faces of not a few of them.