Clinton stood silent a moment, as if uncertain how to take these words, and then, calling after Jerry, who had now turned to go home, said,—
“If you should want any help, Jerry, let us know.”
FOOTNOTES
[1] For a fuller account of Jerry’s early career, and his flight from home, the reader is referred to the first and second volumes of this series, “Oscar” and “Clinton.”
[2] Probably Jerry’s “breaking-in” at sea was a little severer than it would have been if he had learned to obey at home. With his lazy and disobedient habits, no doubt it took some hard knocks to make him understand that no shirking was allowed on board the Susan, but that every order and every duty must be performed promptly and good-naturedly.
“Is this all?” we think we hear many an eager and deeply-interested, yet disappointed boy exclaim, as he arrives at this point of the volume. “Oh, it’s too bad to be cut short right in the midst of such an interesting story!”
The only reply to be made is, “A wise Providence has so ordered it;” and you can only be thankful that you have so much. The author had proceeded thus far with the volume completing the history of Jerry, when death closed his useful life, and he was transferred from the toils of earth to the rest of heaven. To make up for this deficiency, a Memoir of the Author, with a fine likeness, is added, which cannot fail to interest all the readers of the “Aimwell Stories.”