"He was, Horry. You don't know what a brick he was." She sighed lightly and then she laughed. "Whatever did you do with your jacket?"
"M—m—most s—set th—the h—house af—f—fire w—with it. I—it w—w—was a p—pretty n—n—new j—j—j—th—there!—c—coat, and m—m—moth—ther c—c—couldn't b—b—bear to th—throw it aw—w—way, s—so sh—sh—she k—k—kept it l—lying ar—r—round 'n—n—ntil w—w—winter. Th—then sh—she t—t—told m—me t—to p—p—put it in—n—to th—the f—f—furnace. M—m—most s—set th—the h—house af—f—f—fire. F—f—full o' o—o—oil, y' kn—n—now. H—h—hor—rid sm—sm—smoke."
Ollie and Sally were chuckling in little bursts.
Horry sighed. "Th—those t—t—times w—were f—f—fun, th—though," he said; "g—great—t—test f—f—fun th—that e—ever w—was. N—never c—c—come ag—g—gain, w—will th—they, Ol—Ollie?"
"Oh," Ollie replied lazily, grinning, "I don't know. I'd like to run 'em again, right now."
"You boys had better not," Sally remarked, with a shake of the head. "Those barrels belong to the firm, you know. You'd be the losers, as well as I—and the Hazen Estate."
"'T—t w—w—would b—be m—m—more f—f—fun th—than s—some th—things I kn—n—now ab—b—bout," Horry observed cryptically, "an' l—l—less ex—x—xpen—s—sive."
Ollie looked at him and they both grinned and went back to their desks.
As may have been inferred, Horry Carling and Ollie Pilcher were, if not members of the firm of John Hazen, Inc., at least stockholders. Harry Carling would have liked to enter the Law School; but being debarred, for obvious reasons, from practising law, he had chosen engineering. Which, it may be remarked in passing, having been chosen rather from reasons of expedience than because he had any natural taste or aptitude in that direction, may not have been a wise choice. Horry, who had gone into what he liked the best and wanted the most, stood a much better chance of making a success of his life. Had not his grandfather been a great ship captain almost all the days of his life? And Ollie's grandfather, too? It was in their blood. If the salt is in a man's blood—or a boy's—it must come out, sooner or later, or engender a ferment which will trouble that man as long as he lives. And Horry and Ollie, having the natural taste for what they were doing and having had a pretty fair training for it all through their boyhood, fitted into the new firm of John Hazen, Inc., like new parts into a machine. It needed only a little polishing by wear for that machine to run as smoothly as it had been running for fifty years.
Sally worked hard at her new business. She had compounded with her conscience by not giving up her teaching yet—definitely. She would teach one more year, at least. Then, she said to herself, if she still felt as she did now, it would not be right for her to keep on with it. Meanwhile, she would have some time every afternoon, and, with Horry and Ollie,—really, it was going pretty well, much better than she had sometimes feared. And at this point she would sigh and smile and fall to looking out of the window at the yards of the ships—her ships, she liked to think, although, of course, they were not all hers, but they belonged to the stockholders in John Hazen, Inc., according to their holdings, and that list included Patty and Dick and Horry Carling and Ollie Pilcher and some others; but she liked to look out at the vessels and imagine that they were all hers. And she saw the rows of oil-barrels and the black dust of the road, which was kept pretty well stirred up by the feet of the horses which dragged the heavy trucks in an almost continuous procession. At any rate, she could call the dust hers,—if she wanted to,—for it would not have been stirred up if it had not been for her, but would have lain quietly there until it ceased to be dust at all and became no more than the surface of a street that was almost abandoned; baked hard by the sun and gullied by the rain and somewhat grass-grown. Then she would laugh and decide that she did not want the dust anyway; she had quite enough of that. As for her method of compounding with her conscience, it pleased her better than it pleased Mr. MacDalie, who did not share her misgivings.