Part 19 (2/2)
”A fleet of boats!” exclaimed he. ”If it would raise up such boys as these, it ought to be procured at the public expense. Thank G.o.d! I am rich.”
”I understand you, Mr. Walker,” replied Captain Sedley; ”but I beg you will not let your generosity do anything more for the boys.”
”Captain Sedley, I _love_ those boys! They are good boys, and good boys are a scarcity nowadays. There is nothing too good for them.”
”You are enthusiastic.”
”But I tell you, sir, there are no such boys as those in the world!”
exclaimed Mr. Walker, with a gesture of earnestness.
”O, yes, sir; I presume, under the same discipline, other boys would be the same.”
”Then let them have the same discipline.”
”It would cost a fortune. It is a very extravagant recreation, this boating.”
”But it makes men of them. I read the const.i.tution of the clubs, and Tony tells me it is carried out to the fullest extent.”
”No doubt of it. There are boys among them, who, under other circ.u.mstances, would be bad boys. I am satisfied the club keeps them true to themselves and their duty.”
”That's just my idea; and these n.o.ble-hearted little fellows have bestowed the money I gave them in such a commendable manner, I mean to give them as much more.”
”That was my own feeling about the matter; but I do not think it is a good plan to make good all they sacrifice. This fleet scheme was a cherished project, and it was n.o.ble in them to give it up that they might do a good deed.”
”n.o.ble! It was heroic--I was just going to use a stronger word.”
”It is good for them to practise self-denial. That is all that makes the deed a worthy one.”
”Exactly so.”
”Therefore, my friend, we will not say anything more about the fleet at present.”
”But if they bear it well, if they don't repent what they have done, why, I should not value one or two thousand dollars. Besides, it might be the means of bringing a large number of boys within the pale of good influences.”
”That is my own view; and by and by we will talk more of the matter.”
Captain Sedley then introduced Mr. Walker to the company, and the benevolent gentleman took a great deal of pains to inform himself in relation to the influence of the boat clubs upon the boys. He asked a great many questions of their parents, and of Mr. Hyde, the teacher.
They all agreed that the young men were the better for the a.s.sociations; that the discipline was very useful, and the physical exercise very healthy; but some of them were afraid their sons would acquire such a taste for the water as to create a desire to follow the seas. But few of them considered boating, under the discipline of the clubs, a dangerous recreation; so that the only real objection was the tendency to produce longings for
”A life on the ocean wave, A home on the rolling deep.”
Mr. Walker tried to make the sceptical ones believe that Wood Lake was so entirely different from the ”rolling deep” as scarcely to suggest the idea of a s.h.i.+p, or of the ocean. But the disadvantages were trivial compared with the benefits which all acknowledged to have derived from the a.s.sociations, even independently of the libraries, the lectures, and the debating societies at the halls.
Tony and his companions soon returned with the Munroe family, who were cordially received by the guests. Captain Sedley expressed his sympathy for the poor man, regretting that he had not known his situation before.
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