Читать книгу: «Charlie Codman's Cruise», страница 13
XXXVII.
REUNITED AT LAST
Mrs. Codman was sitting in a little room opening out from the breakfast-room, which had been appropriated as a sort of study by Bert and herself.
Topsy, the kitten, who had not yet attained the sobriety and demureness of old cat-hood, was running round after her tail.
"Oh, dear," sighed Bert, who was puzzling over a lesson in geography, "I can't study any to-day."
"Why not?" asked Mrs. Codman.
"Oh, I feel so restless."
"That isn't very unusual, is it?" asked her governess, with a smile.
"I feel more so than usual. Something is going to happen, I know."
"Something does happen every day, doesn't there?"
"Well, you know what I mean; something out of the way. I shouldn't wonder if Charlie got home to-day."
"Heaven grant he may!" exclaimed his mother, fervently.
By a strange coincidence—and coincidences do sometimes happen in real life, though not quite so often, perhaps, as in stories,—Mrs. Codman had hardly given utterance to her wish when the bell rang.
Bert jumped from her seat.
"It is he, I know it is!" she exclaimed. "Do let me go to the door."
"You are very fanciful to-day, Bert," said Mrs. Codman. But she did not forbid her going. Bert's earnestness had given birth to a wild hope on her part, that it might be as she had fancied.
Before the loitering servant had a chance to reach the door, Bert had already opened it.
Bill Sturdy and Charlie stood on the steps, Charlie looking handsome and manly, with an eager look on his bright face. Sturdy, it must be owned, looked and felt a little awkward, not being accustomed to call as a visitor at houses as elegant as Mr. Bowman's.
"Oh! this is Charlie, isn't it?" exclaimed Bert, with childish delight, instinctively putting out her hand.
"What, do you know me?" asked Charlie, pleased with this cordial reception, but astonished at being recognized.
"Oh, yes."
"Is my mother here?"
"Yes; I will go and call her. But won't you come in?"
"I would rather you would call her," said Charlie, bashfully.
Bert danced back into the little study.
"I was right, Mrs. Codman," said she, triumphantly, "It is Charlie."
"Has he come?" asked the mother, precipitately, letting fall, as she rose, the astonished kitten, who had clambered into her lap. "Oh, where is he?"
"At the door."
Mrs. Codman waited for no more, but hastened to the door, and, in a moment, the mother was face to face with her lost boy. Of the delight of that meeting, of the numberless questions which each had to ask, with what fond pride the mother noted the increased manliness of Charlie, I cannot speak in detail. Both hearts were full to overflowing with love and gratitude.
Meanwhile Bert was endeavoring, in her way, to entertain Bill Sturdy, who, though no man was braver or more self-reliant among his comrades, felt abashed in the presence of Bert, whom he looked upon as made of finer clay than himself. And, indeed, the beauty and sprightliness of the child made her look like a charming picture, and even Charlie's eyes could not help straying to her, from time to time, while he was talking with his mother.
Bill was perched upon an elegant chair, scarcely daring to rest his whole weight upon it, for fear it might give way under him, swinging his hat awkwardly in his hand.
"You are Bill Sturdy, are you not?" said Bert, determined to become better acquainted.
"How do you know that is my name?" asked Bill, half fancying she must have learned it in some supernatural way.
"Oh, Charlie wrote about you in his letter."
"Did his mother get a letter from him, then?"
"Yes; it was from some place with a hard name. I never can remember those geography names."
"Was it Rio Janeiro?"
"Yes; that was it. What an awful time he must have had! Do you like going to sea?"
"Yes, miss; I feel more at home on the sea than on the land."
"You do! Well, that's funny. I know I should be sea-sick, and that must be horrid."
"Well, it doesn't feel very pleasant," said Bill, with a smile.
"Oh, Mr. Sturdy, did you ever see a whale?"
"Yes, miss, plenty of them."
"I suppose you never came near being swallowed by one—like Jonah, you know?"
"No, miss; I don't think I should like that."
"What lots of adventures you must have had! You must stay to dinner, and afterwards you can tell me of some."
"I don't think I could, thank you, miss, all the same," said Bill, alarmed at the suggestion. "Not but I'd be glad to spin you a yarn some time."
Just then Charlie bethought himself of his companion.
"Mother," said he, "you must let me introduce to you my good friend, Bill Sturdy. You don't know how kind he has been to me."
"I am quite ready to believe it," said Mrs. Codman, holding out her hand quickly.
Bill took it shyly in his.
"I thank you most heartily for all you have done for my dear boy," said she.
"Anybody that wasn't a brute would have done as much, ma'am."
"Then I am afraid there are a great many brutes in the world."
Charlie stopped to dinner, but Bill could not be prevailed upon to do so. "You see, my boy," he explained to Charlie, "it don't come nat'ral; I shouldn't know how to behave. So I'll just go back to my boardinghouse, and you'll find me there after dinner."
XXXVIII.
REACHING PORT
Will the reader imagine a year to have passed?
During the time several things have happened.
In the first place, Mr. Bowman has invited Charlie to become a member of his family.
In the second place, charmed by the beauty and grace, as well as the more valuable qualities of Mrs. Codman, with whom he has had a good chance of becoming acquainted during her residence in his family, he has invited her to become his wife. Mrs. Codman was taken by surprise, but found this proposition not altogether unwelcome. She had become attached to Bert, who added her persuasions to those of her father, and at length her governess promised to assume to her a nearer relation.
Through the testimony of Randall, the identity of Peter Manson with Peter Thornton was fully established, and the law decided that the miser's wealth must go to Charlie and his mother. It was found to exceed the estimate which had been made of it, verging close upon forty thousand dollars. Including interest for twenty years, all this, and more of right, belonged to those who had so long been defrauded of it.
Mrs. Codman could not help pitying the miserable and disconsolate old man, pinched with privation, which had enfeebled him, and made him old before his time. She continued to allow him the use of the old building which he had occupied so many years, and allowed him a certain sum payable on the first of every month, to provide for his wants.
The sudden loss of the gold which he had been hoarding up so long did not kill Peter Manson, but it affected his intellect. The habit of avarice never left him. He saved up nine tenths of his allowance, and starved himself on the remainder. Attempts were made to remedy this by bringing him supplies of fuel and provisions, but these he economized as before. One day, when Charlie looked in to see how he was getting along, he beheld a sight which made him start back in affright.
The old man lay stretched out upon the floor cold and dead, with a few gold pieces firmly clutched in his grasp. He had received a sudden summons while engaged in counting over the little gold he had accumulated from his allowance.
So ended the wasted life of Peter Manson, the miser.
From him we turn to others who have figured in these pages.
Randall received the thousand dollars which had been promised as the reward of his disclosure. It appeared as if prosperity, rather than retribution, was to attend him. He succeeded in obtaining the command of a fine ship, with an excellent salary, and sailed with fair prospects. But his tyrannical habits had not deserted him. His unjustifiable abuse aroused the deadly anger of one of the crew, a man of excitable temper, who, before he could be withheld, plunged a knife into his heart one day, just after punishment, killing him instantly.
As for Captain Brace, he, too, demands a word. Brief mention will suffice. In a fit of ungovernable rage he burst a blood-vessel, and he, too, died instantly, without a moment's preparation, in which to repent of the many wrongs he had committed.
From the sad fate of these miserable men we turn gladly to brighter scenes.
Mrs. Codman, now Mrs. Bowman, has had no cause to regret her second choice. Her husband commands her respect and esteem, and makes her very happy. Charlie is now at an excellent school. After he has completed a liberal course of instruction, he will enter the counting-room of his step-father, where, as we cannot doubt, an honorable and useful career awaits him.
As for Bill Sturdy,—honest, brave, stout-hearted Bill Sturdy,—he could not be persuaded to abandon the sea, but now sails as captain of a vessel belonging to Mr. Bowman. He is unboundedly popular with his crew, whom he treats as comrades in whose welfare he is interested. Whenever he is in port, Captain Sturdy dines once with Mr. Bowman. He feels more at his ease now than when he was only a forecastle hand, but he will always be modest and unassuming. He is a prime favorite with Bert, and always brings her home something when he returns from foreign parts.
It is not ours to read the future; but I should not be surprised, when Charlie grows to manhood, if we should find Bert's early choice of him as her husband prophetic.
So we bid farewell to Charlie Codman. His trials and struggles have come early in life, but now his bark has drifted into smoother waters. The sky above him is cloudless. His character has been strengthened by his combat with adversity. Let us hope that his manhood may redeem the promise of his youth, and be graced by all the noblest attributes of humanity.
