“No, sir,” said Clinton.
“Well, your hundred dollars would not go far, if you undertook to pay those bills,” continued his father. “More than that, the law of the land gives me a right to all your earnings until you are twenty-one years old; did you know that?”
“No, sir; I never heard of that before,” replied Clinton.
“It is so,” resumed his father; “but, in return, the law obliges me to support you, during that time, unless you run away from me, or refuse to obey me. And you will find that this dependence upon others will follow you through life. We never outgrow it, no matter how old or how rich we become. We are all of us beholden to others, but most of all to God, every day of our lives.”
This conversation led Clinton to make an estimate of his pecuniary loss during the afternoon, and he found that it amounted to the sum of five dollars and fifty cents. He showed Whistler his account book, which was kept in a neat and accurate manner. In this book he set down all his receipts and expenses on account of the poultry, and at the close of each year he “struck a balance,” and ascertained the amount of his profits. At this time he had one hundred dollars in a savings bank, on interest, besides about five dollars in his own hands,—all of which his fowls, and the labor of his own hands, had earned him. He also owned his stock of poultry, which, before the disaster of the previous night, he valued at about twenty dollars.
After tea the boys baited the trap, and set it in the garden, near the hen-house. They skilfully concealed it under leaves and other litter, leaving only the bait prominent; and, after watching it from the chamber window as long as there was light enough to distinguish anything, they went to bed, to dream of bears, and wolves, and wild-cats, and to see visions of nondescript beasts not to be found in any work on natural history.
CHAPTER X.
THE HOMEWARD TRIP.
“WELL, Clinty, have you caught your wild-cat?” inquired Mr. Preston, the morning after the boys set the trap.
“No, sir; it’s so stormy, I suppose he thought he would not go out,” replied Clinton.