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Page 9
"Excep' talk. I'd forgot that. You ain't asked to talk more'n
you've a mind to aboard the 'We're Here'. Keep your eyes open, an'
help Dan to do ez he's bid, an' sechlike, an' I'll give you--you
ain't wuth it, but I'll give--ten an' a ha'af a month; say
thirty-five at the end o' the trip. A little work will ease up
your head, and you kin tell us all abaout your dad an' your ma
an' your money afterwards."
"She's on the steamer," said Harvey, his eyes flling with tears.
"Take me to New York at once."
"Poor woman--poor woman! When she has you back she'll forgit it
all, though. There's eight of us on the 'We're Here', an' ef we went
back naow--it's more'n a thousand mile--we'd lose the season. The
men they wouldn't hev it, allowin' I was agreeable."
"But my father would make it all right."
"He'd try. I don't doubt he'd try," said Troop; "but a whole
season's catch is eight men's bread; an' you'll be better in your
health when you see him in the fall. Go forward an' help Dan. It's
ten an' a ha'af a month, e I said, an' o' course, all f'und,
same e the rest o' us."
"Do you mean I'm to clean pots and pans and things?" said Harvey.
"An' other things. You've no call to shout, young feller."
"I won't! My father will give you enough to buy this dirty little
fish-kettle"--Harvey stamped on the deck--"ten times over, if
you take me to New York safe; and--and--you're in a hundred and
thirty by me, anyhow."
"Haow?" said Troop, the iron face darkening.
"How? You know how, well enough. On top of all that, you want
me to do menial work"--Harvey was very proud of that
adjective--"till the Fall. I tell you I will not. You hear?"
Troop regarded the top of the mainmast with deep interest for a
while, as Harvey harangued fiercely all around him.
"Hsh!" he said at last. "I'm figurin' out my responsibilities in my
own mind. It's a matter o' jedgment."
Dan stole up and plucked Harvey by the elbow. "Don't go to
tamperin' with Dad any more," he pleaded. "You've called him a
thief two or three times over, an' he don't take that from any livin'
bein'."
"I won't!" Harvey almost shrieked, disregarding the advice, and
still Troop meditated.
"Seems kinder unneighbourly," he said at last, his eye travelling
down to Harvey. "I -- don't blame you, not a mite, young feeler, nor
you won't blame me when the bile's out o' your systim. Be sure you
sense what I say? Ten an' a ha'af fer second boy on the
schooner--an' all found--fer to teach you an' fer the sake o' your
health. Yes or no?"
"No!" said Harvey. "Take me back to New York or I'll see you--"
He did not exactly remember what followed. He was lying in the
scuppers, holding on to a nose that bled while Troop looked down
on him serenely.
"Dan," he said to his son, "I was sot agin this young feeler
when I first saw him on account o' hasty jedgments. Never you be
led astray by hasty jedgments, Dan. Naow I'm sorry for him,
because he's clear distracted in his upper works. He ain't
responsible fer the names he's give me, nor fer his other
statements--nor fer jumpin' overboard, which I'm abaout ha'af
convinced he did. You he gentle with him, Dan, 'r I'll give you
twice what I've give him. Them hemmeridges clears the head. Let
him sluice it off!"
Troop went down solemnly into the cabin, where he and the older
men bunked, leaving Dan to comfort the luckless heir to thirty
millions.
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