The first thing Mr. Atherton did was to get in communication with his son, a Wall Street banker and broker, and he had no difficulty in making good his promise to Jack.
Then they went upstairs in the hotel to the room that had been temporarily engaged by Mrs. Bruce (which was the name of Mr. Atherton’s daughter).
“Laura, dear, this is Jack Hazard, the boy who saved our little Fanny’s life. You may remember he was standing near us at the time Fanny fell into the river.”
We will not repeat what Mrs. Bruce said to Jack.
She felt as all fond mothers do feel under the circumstances, and expressed herself accordingly.
She was deeply grateful for what the boy had done, and she brought him over to the bed where little Fanny lay covered up, waiting for her garments to dry, and made the child kiss him and say, “T’ank oo, Jack.”
While it is very nice to be praised, and all that, for doing a plucky action, still our hero rather objected, on the whole, to be made a hero of.
He was glad when the interview was over and he was permitted to take his leave with a letter from Mr. Atherton in his pocket addressed to “William Atherton,—Wall Street,” accompanied with instructions to present same immediately.
It was a vastly different boy that walked across the Brooklyn bridge about eleven o’clock from the one who a couple of hours before had crossed the river on the Fulton Ferry.
His thrilling adventure, with its attendant results, had left an indelible mark upon him.