CHAPTER XLI.

THE TURNING OF THE TIDE.

“Wade,” said Mr. Maynard, “I have made some arrangements for the present, which I hope will be satisfactory to you.”

“Any thing you do will suit me, sir,” replied Wade, wondering what was coming.

“Here is the pistol which I provided for the use of John Steeples. I want you to sleep in his room with another man to-night, and till we can make other plans for the future. I will go with you now to a place where you can take all your meals at our expense.”

“Thank you, sir; but now I have got my money back, I am able to take care of myself. All I want is a place to work,” said Wade, who felt as independent as a basket of chips, now that he was rich.

“You shall have a place to work in a few days: you may depend upon that,” added Mr. Maynard.

“I can go to the restaurant, where Mr. Flinker said he would give me a job of some kind, I don’t know what.”

“We can give you better work and better pay than any restaurant in the city,” continued Mr. Maynard. “Don’t think any thing more about Mr. Flinker.”

“I am willing to do any kind of work; and I have been used to hard labor for the last year, and to poor living and very little of it. I don’t expect to live in the parlor,” added Wade.

“Wade, your conduct, including your modesty, pleases us very much; for you don’t seem to think that you have done a great service to us,” said Mr. Maynard; and the other partners could not help laughing at the simplicity of the boy.

“I only did what I thought was right,” replied Wade, fixing his gaze upon the floor. “When I saw those fellows bringing stuff out of the store in the middle of the night, I knew enough to see that it wasn’t the thing to do, if I was not brought up in New York.”

“You did the right thing. Now, have you any idea what the goods the robbers had packed up to take away with them were worth?”

“No, sir, I have not; but I shouldn’t wonder if they would foot up to a thousand dollars, because watches and such things as you keep here count up pretty fast,” added Wade.

“We don’t know what they were worth exactly, but it would be more, rather than less, than twenty thousand dollars.”

“Creation!” exclaimed Wade, astounded at these figures.

“Now I will show you where you are to get your meals,” continued the senior partner.

Wade followed him to a hotel in the neighborhood, where the jeweller had made arrangements for him. He had a nice supper, and then returned to the store, where he was admitted by one of the partners, and introduced to his room-mate. The latter was one of the clerks; and, though he could not wholly conceal his contempt for his companion’s greenness, he treated him very well. No attempt to break into the store was made that night, and Wade slept like a rock till daylight in the morning.

For several days the boy from the country took his meals at the restaurant, slept in the gallery-chamber, and did such work about the store as he could find to do. Some of the clerks were disposed to make fun of him because he was not fashionably dressed; but Wade took no notice of them. He was kind and obliging to all; and, in spite of his verdancy, all in the store began to like him.

He was willing to work, and anxious to do so; and all that troubled him was, that he had so little to do. He kept his ears and eyes wide open, and he soon began to learn something about the business. When he could find nothing else to do, he studied the map of the city, which he found in the store, so as to learn all about the streets; for he found he was often sent upon errands, and required to deliver goods. He seldom saw Mr. Maynard; but the junior partners told him what to do, and gave him all the good advice he needed.

When he had been in the store a week, Mr. Maynard sent for him, and he presented himself in the private office. The senior partner looked very good-natured, and saluted him very kindly. Wade wondered that nothing more had been said to him about the kind of work he was to do, for he had been doing nothing but odd jobs up to this time. He felt now that he was to have some kind of a position in the establishment, and that he would have his particular duties assigned to him.

“Wade, I have been to Midhampton three times since I spoke to you last; and I have seen Capt. Singleton of the cutter,” said Mr. Maynard. “I have inquired into your character of all persons I could find who knew any thing about you.”

“I suppose Obed Swikes didn’t speak very well of me,” added Wade.

“He did not; but everybody else did. I had a long talk with Capt. Trustleton about you, and we went over all the events that occurred before and at the time of your leaving Midhampton. He was confident that you were an honest and truthful boy: he was sure you had a good deal of real grit. I saw your teachers in the day and Sunday school, and their testimony was all in your favor. In a word, Wade, I am entirely satisfied with you. What Swikes says against you, under the circumstances, is rather in your favor than otherwise.”

“I had to bear all the blame, while I was at his house, for whatever his son Matt did that was out of the way. Matt was a bad boy,” said Wade.

“So I ascertained. Swikes wants to get you back; but I went to the authorities of the town, and they say he has no claim upon you.”

“I always said that when I was accused of running away from him. They said I belonged in the poorhouse; and I would rather have gone there, if it hadn’t been for the name of the thing.”

“I have a paper from the overseers of the poor of the town, binding you over to me until you are of age,” added Mr. Maynard.

“I like that first-rate; and I begin to feel as though I belonged somewhere now,” replied Wade, with a cheerful smile.

“You belong to me for the present; but if you do not like the arrangement, after you have tried it a while, I shall be glad to release you from the contract,” added Mr. Maynard. “Now I am going to tell you what I mean to do with you. We all feel an interest in you, and desire to make the best of you that we can. It is not altogether because you have saved a large amount of our property, but because we think you will become a useful young man to us.”

“I shall try to do the best I can,” said the grateful boy.

“Now let me tell you that Steeples was a poor boy like yourself. He did very well for several years; but at last he got above his business. He had ten dollars a week, but that was not enough to support him and his mother; but she was the sufferer, rather than himself. He began to live too fast; and now we find that he has not been honest for the last year, for we have been looking over his affairs since the robbery. We point him out as an example for you to shun.”

“I don’t think I could ever let the robbers into the store, as he did,” said Wade.

“Probably he did not think so when he first got his place. He was considered a very good boy, or we should not have trusted him as we did. We shall give you ten dollars a week, and pay your board.”

“That’s very liberal, as I have no mother to support,” replied Wade, delighted with the prospect thus held out to him, for his dream of riches was fully realized in this plan. “But what am I to do?”

“In the first place, you are to sleep in the store with Ranlet, when he gets well. We close the establishment at six, and open it at eight. Between ten and six, one of you must walk about the store all the time. This will be eight hours, or four for each of you; and you and Ranlet can divide the time as you please: only, when you have made the plan, let me know what it is. To make up for this night service, you will not be asked to do any thing after one o’clock, or before nine o’clock in the morning. One of you may be out of the store till ten every evening.”

“What am I to do in the forenoon, sir?” asked Wade.

“At first you will carry bundles, assist in packing goods, and make yourself generally useful,” replied Mr. Maynard. “During the holidays, and at other times when we are very busy, we shall expect you to do all you can without regard to hours, though you will have plenty of time to eat and sleep. Let me say, Wade, that you must put on better clothes than you wear now, and, if you desire it, one of us will go with you to the tailor’s, and we shall present to you your first suit,” added Mr. Maynard, with a smile, as he surveyed the primitive garments of the “one from the country.”

Wade accepted this kind offer; and in a few days he was as fashionably dressed as the rest of the employés in the store. In another week Ranlet was able to return to his duty, and he and Wade divided the time between them. As his room-mate had friends in the city, it was agreed that he should be out every evening till ten, while Wade was to sleep from six till two. This was eight hours for him, and all he needed. Ranlet was to sleep from two in the morning till eight, and take his nap in the afternoon if he wanted it. Mr. Maynard thought it was about an even thing, and approved the plan.

Then Wade found he had all the afternoon on his hands: and for a few days he preferred to work during these hours, rather than “loaf,” but Mr. Maynard suggested that he could go to school at one of the mercantile academies, and fit himself for business. He took this advice, and was wholly devoted to his studies.

In October he was allowed a week’s vacation; and he spent it in a visit to Midhampton. Even a month of absence had made a wonderful change in his appearance and manners; and his old friends hardly knew him. He found that Capt. Trustleton had sent his son to a boarding-school of the strictest sort, where he had to eat and sleep with his teachers, and had no time at all to “cut up.”

Wade went to see Obed Swikes’s folks; but they were not very glad to see him. The old lady told him he looked like a dandy, and she supposed he was as “stuck up as any of the rest of them city fellers.” Obed thought, as he had plenty of money now, he had better pay for his board for the time he was in the family; but Wade “couldn’t see it.”

Matt had a terrible sore head since he got back from his excursion to New York and out to sea. His father had talked a great deal with Capt. Trustleton about him and Lon. They had been partly spoiled, both of them, by being humored too much. The captain spoke favorably of the boarding-school to which he intended to send his own son; but Obed was too mean to pay the bills, and he thought he could “knock the nonsense out of Matt” by putting him down to hard work. And he did do it. Since Matt had stolen his money, the old man’s eyes were opened. It was hard times with Matt just now; and, if he could have got hold of any money, he would have lost no time in running away again. But Obed kept his money in the bank after it had been stolen twice.

Wade Brooks is now one of the best salesmen in the store of Maynard & Co.; and he knows that part of the business as well as the partners. He has followed up his studies so closely that he is a well-educated man. He is only twenty-two; and there is no doubt that he will soon be one of the partners of the firm. He has been relieved of the duty of sleeping in the store; and though he was “one from the country,” and noted in the beginning for his verdancy, he is now an elegant and accomplished gentleman; and rumor has it that Mr. Maynard’s youngest daughter is not wholly indifferent to him.

Our story is finished. Wade Brooks has come out of all his troubles. He has been faithful to his employers; he has improved his mind; and he has studied to make himself perfect in the knowledge of his business. After his courage and skill had procured him a good situation, the turning of the tide came to him; and since that time, when things good, pleasant, and profitable come to him, it is “Just his Luck.”

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:

Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.

Perceived typographical errors have been corrected.

Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.

Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.