Part 2 (1/2)
”I'm glad you've got home, Lawry, for Mr. Sherwood has been after you three times,” said Mrs. Wilford, when the young pilot had been duly welcomed by all the family.
”What does he want?” asked Lawry.
”His little steamboat is at Port Henry, and he wants you to go up and pilot her down.”
”The _Woodville?_”
”Yes, that's her name, I believe.”
”Well, I'm all ready to go.”
”Sit down and eat your dinner.
”I've been to dinner.”
”Mr. Sherwood wanted you to go up in the _Sherman_; but it is too late for her, and he may go in the night boat.”
”I'm ready when he is. Father, there is a gentleman outside who wants to go over the lake; and there is a team waiting in the road,”
continued Lawry.
”They must wait till I've done my dinner,” replied the ferryman.
”Who is the gentleman?”
”Mr. Randall; he is a director in a bank, and has six thousand dollars with him.”
”I suppose so; every man but me has six thousand dollars in his pocket. Where's he going to?”
”To Sh.o.r.eham, and he wants to get there by five o'clock, if he can.”
”What's he traveling with so much money for?”
”I don't know. It is in his coat pocket, and it would have gone overboard if it hadn't been for me.”
The ferryman finished his dinner in moody silence. He seemed to be thinking of the subject always uppermost in his mind, his thoughts stimulated, no doubt, by the fact that his expected pa.s.senger carried a large sum of money on his person.
”Mr. Randall is in a hurry, father,” interposed Lawry, when the ferryman had sat a good half-hour after his son's arrival.
”He must wait till I get ready. He's got money, and I haven't; but I'm just as good as he is. I don't know why I'm poor when so many men are rich. But I'm going to be rich, somehow or other,” said he, with more earnestness than he usually exhibited. ”I'm too honest for my own good. I'm going to do as other men do; and I shall wake up rich some morning, as they do. Then I sha'n't have to go when folks blow the horn. They'll be willing to wait for me then.”
”Don't keep the gentleman waiting, father,” added Mrs. Wilford.
”I'm going to be rich, somehow or other,” continued the ferryman, still pursuing the exciting line of thought he had before taken up.
”I'm going to be rich, by hook or by crook.”
”This making haste to get rich ruins men sometimes, husband; and haste makes waste then.”
”If I can only get rich, I'll risk being ruined,” said John Wilford, as he rose from the table and put on his hat.