Part 35 (2/2)

”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.”

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