Part 37 (1/2)
”It is dated from his office in London,” continued our hero, ”and runs thus:--
”MY DEAR BROOKE,--We were all very glad to hear of your safe arrival in New York, and hope that long before this reaches your hand you will have found poor Leather and got him to some place of comfort, where he may recover the health that we have been given to understand he has lost.
”I chanced to be down at Sealford visiting your mother when your letter arrived; hence my knowledge of its contents. Mrs Leather and her daughter May were then as _usual_. By the way, what a pretty girl May has become! I remember her such a rumpled up, dress-anyhow, harum-scarum sort of a girl, that I find it hard to believe the tall, graceful, modest creature I meet with now is the same person! Captain Stride says she is the finest craft he ever saw, except that wonderful `Maggie,' about whose opinions and sayings he tells us so much.
”But this is a double digression. To return: your letter of course gave us all great pleasure. It also gave your mother and May some anxiety, where it tells of the necessity of your going up to that wild-west place, Traitor's Trap, where poor Leather is laid up. Take care of yourself, my dear boy, for I'm told that the red savages are still given to those roasting, scalping, and other torturing that one has read of in the pages of Fenimore Cooper.
”By the way, before I forget it, let me say, in reference to the enclosed bill, it is a loan which I have obtained for Leather, at very moderate interest, and when more is required more can be obtained on the same terms. Let him understand this, for I don't wish that he should think, on the one hand, that he is drawing on his mother's slender resources, or, on the other hand, that he is under obligation to any one. I send the bill because I feel quite sure that you started on this expedition with too little. It is drawn in your name, and I think you will be able to cash it at any civilised town--even in the far west!
”Talking of Captain Stride--was I talking of him? Well, no matter.
As he is past work now, but thinks himself very far indeed from that condition, I have prevailed on him to accept a new and peculiar post arising out of the curious evolutions of the firm of Withers and Company which satisfies the firm completely and suits the captain to a T. As the work can be done anywhere, a residence has been taken for him in Sealford, mid-way between that of your mother and Mrs Leather, so that he and his wife and little girl can run into either port when so disposed. As Mrs L, however (to use his own phraseology), is almost always to be found at anchor in the Brooke harbour, he usually kills both with the same visit. I have not been to see him yet in the new abode, and do not know what the celebrated Maggie thinks of it.
”When you find Leather, poor fellow, tell him that his mother and sister are very well. The former is indefatigable in knitting those hundreds of socks and stockings for poor people, about which there has been, and still is, and I think ever will be, so much mystery. The person who buys them from her must be very deep as well as honest, for no inquiries ever throw any fresh light on the subject, and he--or she, whichever it is--pays regularly as the worsted work is delivered--so I'm told! It is a little old lady who pays--but I've reason to believe that she's only a go-between--some agent of a society for providing cheap clothing for the poor, I fancy, which the poor stand very much in need of, poor things! Your good mother helps in this work--at least so I am told, but I'm not much up in in the details of it yet. I mean to run down to see them in a few days and hear all about it.
”Stride, I forgot to say, is allowed to smoke a pipe in your mother's parlour when he pays her a visit. This is so like her amiability, for she hates tobacco as much as I do. I ventured on a similarly amiable experiment one day when the worthy Captain dined with me, but the result was so serious that I have not ventured to repeat it. You remember my worthy housekeeper, Mrs Bland? Well, she kicked over the traces and became quite unmanageable. I had given Stride leave to smoke after dessert, because I had a sort of idea that he could nor digest his food without a pipe. You know my feelings with regard to _young_ fellows who try to emulate chimneys, so you can understand that my allowing the Captain to indulge was no relaxation of my principles, but was the result of a strong objection I had to spoil the dinner of a man who was somewhat older than myself by cramming my principles down his throat.
”But the moment that Mrs Bland entered I knew by the glance of her eye, as well as by the sniff of her nose, that a storm was brewing up--as Stride puts it--and I was not wrong. The storm burst upon me that evening. It's impossible, and might be tedious, to give you all the conversation that we had after Stride had gone, but the upshot was that she gave me warning.
”`But, my good woman,' I began--
”`It's of no use good-womaning me, Mr Crossley,' said she, `I couldn't exist in a 'ouse w'ere smokin' is allowed. My dear father died of smokin'--at least, if he didn't, smokin' must 'ave 'ad somethink to do with it, for after the dear man was gone a pipe an' a plug of the nasty stuff was found under 'is piller, so I can't stand it; an' what's more, Mr Crossley, I _won't_ stand it! Just think, sir, 'ow silly it is to put a bit of clay in your mouth an' draw smoke through it, an' then to spit it out again as if you didn't like it; as no more no one _does_ on beginnin' it, for boys only smoke to look like men, an' men only smoke because they've got up the 'abit an'
can't 'elp it. W'y, sir, you may git up _any_ 'abit. You may git the 'abit of walkin' on your 'ands an' shakin' your legs in the hair if you was to persevere long enough, but that would only prove you a fool fit for a circus or a lunatic asylum. You never see the hanimals smokin'. They knows better. Just fancy! what would you think if you saw the cab 'osses all a-settin' on their tails in the rank smokin'
pipes an' cigars! What would you think of a 'oss w'en 'is cabby cried, ”Gee-up, there's a fare a 'owlin' for us,” an' that 'oss would say, ”Hall right, cabby, just 'old on, hold man, till I finish my pipe”? No, Mr Crossley, no, I--'
”`But, my good soul!' I burst in here, `do listen--'
”`No use good-soulin' me, Mr Crossley. I tell you I won't stand it.
My dear father died of it, an' I _can't_ stand it--'
”`I _hate_ it, Mrs Bland, myself!'
”I shouted this interruption in such a loud fierce tone that the good woman stopped and looked at me in surprise.
”`Yes, Mrs Bland,' I continued, in the same tone, `I detest smoking.
You know I always did, but now more than ever, for your reasoning has convinced me that there are _some_ evil consequences of smoking which are almost worse than smoking itself! Rest a.s.sured that never again shall the smell of the noxious weed defile the walls of this house.'
”`Lauk, sir!' said Mrs Bland.
”I had subdued her, Charlie, by giving in with dignity. I shall try the same role next breeze that threatens.
”I almost feel that I owe you an apology for the length of this epistle. Let me conclude by urging you to bring poor Leather home, strong and well. Tell him from me that there is a vacant situation in the firm of Withers and Company which will just suit him. He shall have it when he returns--if G.o.d spares me to see him again. But I'm getting old, Charlie, and we know not what a day may bring forth.”
”A kind--a very kind letter,” said Leather earnestly, when his friend had finished reading.
”Why, he writes as if he were your own father, Brooke,” remarked Buck Tom, who had been listening intently. ”Have you known him long?”
”Not long. Only since the time that he gave me the appointment of supercargo to the _Walrus_, but the little I have seen of him has aroused in me a feeling of strong regard.”
”My sister May refers to him here,” said Leather, with a peculiar smile, as he re-opened his letter. ”The greater part of this tells chiefly of private affairs which would not interest any of you, but here is a pa.s.sage which forms a sort of commentary on what you have just heard:--