All Adrift Part 35

Mr. Hawlinshed went back to his hotel. The New Yorkers finished their survey of the Sylph; and she soon left with the Goldwing Club, with the exception of Dory, on board. Not a word had been said in regard to Captain Gildrock's plan.

Dory slept on board of the Goldwing that night. The next morning he started with his pa.s.sengers. They went over to Mallett's Bay first on a fis.h.i.+ng-excursion. When they got there, the skipper was astonished to find that the polite young gentlemen from New York were too tipsy to use the bait and lines he had procured. They drank all they could hold, and then went to sleep. They had not told Dory where to go next, and he anch.o.r.ed to wait for further orders.

At noon they both turned out, but it was only to drink till they were tipsy again. They insisted that the skipper should drink with them; but, when he asked them who was to take care of the boat if he did as they did, they gave up the point. They remained in Mallett's Bay all the first day. The next morning they wanted to go to Missisquoi Bay, and the skipper sailed the Goldwing to that part of the lake. The second day was like the first. On the third they had drank so much that they could not keep up the debauch, and they gambled with props in the cabin.

Dory was disgusted with his pa.s.sengers; but, when he landed them in Plattsburgh, they were as sober and polite as though they had been with their mothers all the time. The skipper received his fifteen dollars, and that was all the satisfaction he got out of the cruise. He returned to Burlington the next day, and spent the afternoon in looking for another party at the hotels.

There was no more business that week. The next week he got only a half-day job, taking a party of ladies and gentlemen across the lake.

Three dollars was all he made that week; and he was beginning to be discouraged when he received a postal from the Witherill House. It was a fis.h.i.+ng-party to Mallett's Bay. The young gentlemen from New York were saints compared with his present pa.s.sengers. They got crazy drunk; and, when a shower came up, they threatened to throw the skipper overboard because he anch.o.r.ed the boat to avoid a squall. Dory was afraid of his life, and five dollars a day was no compensation for the misery he endured.

Another week satisfied Dory that the business was a failure, for he did not obtain a single fare. He went to his mother, and told her he had had quite enough of it. He was ready to sell the boat, though the Goldwing Club had fine times in her when she was not engaged; and there were plenty of fine times for them. He had been offered a place in a dry-goods store, and he was willing to take it.

"I think you had better see uncle Royal before you take the place," said his mother. "I have never sailed in the Goldwing, and Marian and I would like to have you sail us up to Beech Hill."

"What does uncle Royal want me to do, mother?" asked Dory, who suspected that the captain and his mother had something on their minds.

"I don't know. You must let him speak for himself," replied Mrs.

Dornwood.

The next morning Dory took his mother and sister into the Goldwing, and sailed up to Beech Hill. His mother had to act as his pilot, for he did not know how to take the boat from the river to the estate. Leaving Beaver River, he followed a narrow and crooked stream, though it was very deep, till he reached a small lake, on the sh.o.r.e of which stood the house of Captain Gildrock.

The party received a warm welcome, and Mrs. Dornwood stated the business that had brought them to Beech Hill. Seated in the library, the great question was opened for discussion and settlement.

"Go into a store!" exclaimed Captain Gildrock. "There are more merchants and traders in the country now than can get a living, and mercantile life is a desperate struggle in these days. Be a mechanic, Theodore."

"A mechanic!" exclaimed Mrs. Dornwood.

"A mechanic, Patty," added the captain decidedly. "The first thing a boy wants is an education, and the next is a good trade. I have been thinking of this subject for years. Now I am going to tell you about my scheme. I want to help supply the country with good, educated mechanics."

"I don't think mechanics need much education, Royal," suggested Mrs.

Dornwood.

"There you are mistaken, Patty. What this country, especially the Eastern and Middle States, needs more than any other cla.s.s of men, is educated mechanics,--skilled labor. Too many boys want to be shopkeepers, and wear fine clothes."

"I should like to be a mechanic, uncle Royal," said Dory.

"So would the other members of the Goldwing Club," continued Captain Gildrock. "Now I will tell you about my scheme. For the last year I have had enrolled about a dozen of the young fellows of this vicinity as volunteers on board of the Sylph. Jepson and I have been instructing them in seamans.h.i.+p and mechanics. Jepson has instructed them in the science of the steam-engine, so that they know all about the building of one, though they haven't the practical skill to build one. They have acted as engineers and firemen of the yacht; and every one of them is competent to run a marine engine, or any other."

"Those were the young fellows that were pulling your boats that day, were they not?" asked Dory.

"They were, Theodore. The only men I employ on board are the cook and a waiter, but I have required every one of these young men to learn to do plain cooking. All of them have served a term in the galley. I am captain, and Jepson is the first officer, of the Sylph. I have taught these students how a vessel or a boat is built, how to sail a boat or a s.h.i.+p; I have instructed them in navigation, and required them to get the lat.i.tude and longitude of every princ.i.p.al point on the lake; I have taught them how to heave the log, and keep a vessel's dead reckoning; I have required them to survey portions of the lake, and make charts of their work. They have been greatly interested, and they have profited by their opportunities. Not one of them has rich parents, and all of them must soon earn their own living; and you may be sure that not one of them will be a shopkeeper, a lawyer, a doctor, or a minister."

"I should say that was first-rate," added Dory, with enthusiasm. "I suppose some of them will be sailors."

"About half of them have a desire to go to sea, and some of them have got places as engineers, oilers, and firemen. Two of them will run stationary engines. I have done with them; for most of them were obliged to go to work, and take care of themselves."

"Won't they go in the Sylph any more?" asked Dory.

"I have done all I could for them, and so has Jepson. So far as our teaching facilities are concerned, they have learned out. My new scheme contemplates doing the same work in a more thorough and practical manner. The trouble with my past crew was, that I did not have them more than one day in a week; though we occasionally put in a week at a time in vacation, as at the time when I went down the lake to find you. That was their last cruise; and they were discharged, so to speak, two weeks ago."

"Are you going to s.h.i.+p another crew like that, uncle Royal?" inquired Dory eagerly.

"Not as I did the last one. I am going to establish a sort of practical school," replied the captain.

"I should like to s.h.i.+p for one," added Dory.

"I have had my eye on the members of the Goldwing Club, for they are just the boys I desire to take. I don't want any sons of rich men. I want those who need looking after, and I think the Goldwings fill the bill. I shall take only half a dozen to begin with. I want them all to come to Beech Hill, and live here. I won't take them on any other terms.

I shall look out for their book-learning; but, at the same time, the boys must become carpenters and machinists. They must work at these trades, and others as the plan is enlarged. I shall keep them busy all day long, from one end of the year to the other. We shall build houses, boats, bridges, wharves, and eventually steam-engines, and various kinds of machinery. I expect to see the time, though it may not be for ten years, when we can build a steamer like the Sylph, including her engine, and about every thing on board of her."

"It seems to me you are laying out a great undertaking, Royal," said Mrs. Dornwood.

"If I can make honest and useful men out of even half a dozen boys like the members of the Goldwing Club, who are in danger of going to ruin, my money will be well spent. A kind Providence permitted me to make a fortune before I was forty-five, though I had to work hard for it. I have no wife, no children. I think I can realize more enjoyment from a portion of my money in this way than I can in any other. It is wholly to my taste and fancy, this scheme of mine; and it holds out to me a thousand times as much pleasure as any business enterprise I can think of. That's the whole of it, Patty."

"It is a good deal better to use your fortune in that way than to risk it in speculating in stocks, as a great many rich men do," added Mrs.

Dornwood sagely. "But it seems to me that you mean to work the boys very hard,--from morning till night from one year's end to the other."

"But I mean that they shall have abundance of recreation. They will be the crew of the Sylph; they shall have hours for their games; they shall have plenty of reading, both for recreation and for study: and if they don't enjoy themselves from morning till night, and from one end of the year to the other, it will be my fault as well as their own."

"When will this thing begin?" asked Dory.

"I intend to make a beginning by the first of September next. Patty, you must move up to Beech Hill at once, now that Theodore has given up the boating-business. You may tell the other members of the Goldwing Club all about my plan, my boy. I have seen the parents of some of them. They can see their friends as often as they please, and spend Sunday at home if they wish. If you see any other boys like those of your club, you may report them to me; but don't ask them to come to the school, or hold out any inducements to them. I must pick the boys myself."

"But I must take time to sell the boat I bought," suggested Dory.

"You needn't sell her, Theodore. I have no sailboat of just her size, and she may be useful. Now keep cool, and remember that it will take some time to get the school into running order, and fit up our shops.

But we will begin the scholastic work at once, so that the boys will not lose what they have learned in school."

Captain Gildrock talked about his plan till dinner-time; and the skipper of the Goldwing was so delighted with it, that he felt as though he wanted to fly. He went all over the estate at Beech Hill, and examined the boats with a professional eye. In the middle of the afternoon the family started for home in the schooner.

In the evening Dory went to see all the members of the Goldwing Club, and their eyes were as big as saucers while they listened to the notable scheme of the retired s.h.i.+pmaster. They were quite as enthusiastic as Dory over the idea. The next day their mothers had consented to their joining the embryo school, which was as yet without a name.

Mrs. Dornwood gave up her house, and at the end of a week Dory sailed the family up to their new home at Beech Hill. The other boys were to come up on the first day of September, which was two weeks hence. Though the Sylph was without a crew, the captain made up one, and they visited various parts of the lake on business and for pleasure. Mr. Jepson, who had first come to Beech Hill as the engineer of the steam-yacht, resumed his old position. Dory was wheelman, and a couple of men who worked on the place did duty as deck-hands. Dory liked this position as pilot even better than sailing the Goldwing, though his services were often in demand as skipper of the schooner.

For more than a year Dory had felt as though he were all adrift in the world. He wanted to get some steady work by which he could help support the family. He had not succeeded very well. But now, for the first time since he had come to think for himself, he did not feel as though he was All Adrift in the world. He was settled with the future before him, and he was resolved that it should be filled with good work.

He read in the newspaper that Pearl Hawlinshed had been sent to the state prison for a year and a half; and he could not help thinking what a terrible thing it was for a young man who had a kind and devoted father, whose existence had been bound up in him, to come to a bad end.

Dory Dornwood was no longer "All Adrift;" and the Goldwing Club were anch.o.r.ed with him. In another volume we shall look in upon them in their "Snug Harbor" as "The Champlain Mechanics."