Herbert Pocket

“ He travels a good deal. Sometimes he goes to St. Louis. I have heard that he sometimes even visits New York.”
“And is he not recognized?”
“No; he looks like anything but an outlaw. If you should see him you might think him a prosperous merchant, or banker.”
“That's curious!” said Herbert.
“The fact is,” said the colonel, “when you travel by stage-coaches in these solitudes you have to take the chances. Now I carry my money concealed in an inner pocket, where it isn't very likely to be found. Of course I have another wallet, just for show, and I give that up when I have to.” ”

“ Provis, regarding him with a fixed attention, was slowly putting up his jack-knife, and groping in another pocket for something else.
"Herbert, my dear friend," said I, shutting the double doors, while Herbert stood staring and wondering, "something very strange has happened. This is—a visitor of mine."
"It's all right, dear boy!" said Provis coming forward, with his little clasped black book, and then addressing himself to Herbert. "Take it in your right hand. Lord strike you dead on the spot, if ever you split in any way sumever! Kiss it!"
"Do so, as he wishes it," I said to Herbert. ”

“ With the game standing at 75 all Herbert made a stroke that left the red hovering on the brink of a pocket. He waited anxiously, but with no result. At this point one of the crowd emitted a prodigious yawn, and it was the intense vibration set up from this act, so James declared, that induced the ball to topple over into the pocket. In support of his contention that no score should ensue he pointed to a framed copy of the Rules of Billiards on the wall that balanced a coloured advertisement of Tommy Dodd whisky, and recited the rule on vibration. ”

“ Oh, what a curse this money is!"
"I think the want of it a far greater one," says Herbert, ruefully.
"At any rate," continues Beatrice, "I am determined to put an end to this state of things; we must take the law into our own hands."
"Am I to wait for you in a carriage and pair at the corner of Eaton Square in the middle of the night?" inquires Herbert, grimly.
"No; don't be foolish; people don't do things now-a-days in the way our grandmothers did. I shall go to morning service one day at some out of-the-way church, where you will meet me with a licence in your pocket ”

“ We fell into an earnest conversation, in the midst of which Herbert suddenly said:
"Ah! there, I must run and join Lulu!" and left me.
Who has not had just this experience, or a similar one, at any Watering-Place? One day you suddenly discover that some certain person has arrived; and when you go to your room to dress for dinner, your boots look splayed—your waistcoats are not the thing—your coat isn't half as handsome as other coats—and you spoil all your cravats in your nervous efforts to tie them exquisitely. ”

“ My own father is rich now, but when he was of your age he was only a poor 'bobbin boy' working at scanty pay in the factory of which he is now owner.”
“I should like to be rich for my mother's sake,” said Herbert.
“With money one can do a great deal of good, though not all rich men choose to apply their riches worthily. How smooth the water is to-day! Isn't there a boat somewhere that we can use?”
“There's one a few rods from here, but it belongs to James Leech.” ”

“ It was a sad thing to think of, yet there was this consolation: the three or four hundred dollars cash which the squire would pay would tide over the next year or two, until Herbert was older and could earn more.
But, after all, was it certain that he would earn more? Could he sell more papers two years hence than now? That was hardly likely. If he wanted to advance his income, it must be in some other business. Yet, to a boy situated as he was, there was little chance of getting any employment that would make as good immediate returns as selling papers. ”

“ And, by way of a clue, I added, inconsequently enough: "Gott strafe England!"
I chuckled inwardly at the thought of Herbert's face on receiving this preposterous demand that he should abandon his dusty desk in Downing Street and betake himself across the North Sea to fetch my luggage. But he'd go all right. I knew my Herbert, dull and dry and conventional, but a most faithful friend.
I called a porter at the entrance of the buffet and handing him Semlin's bag and overcoat, bade him find me a first-class carriage in the Berlin train when it arrived. I would meet him on the platform. ”

“ Herbert gladly accepted the invitation. He was tired of wandering about the great city, not knowing where to lay his head; accordingly he joined his genteel cousin, and they walked toward Bleecker Street.
“Have you got any money?” queried Cornelius, cautiously.
“Not much. If I don't find something to do in a week, I must go back to the country.”
“A week's a short time to find a place. But hold on! We want a boy in our store. I guess I could get you in.”
“What wages would I get?”
“Two dollars a week, to begin with.” ”

“ What an interest is upon the faces of the crowd, who gaze upon the very kegs and boxes; feasting upon the bald idea—the unprofitable consciousness—that gold and silver are within; and reminding one of old George Herbert’s lines,—
“Wise men with pity do behold
Fools worship mules, that carry gold.”
“Verily,” saith an ancient writer, “traffickers and the getters of gain, upon the mart, are like unto pismires, each struggling to bear off the largest mouthful.”
I am glad to see that the moderns are collecting the remains of good old George Herbert, and giving them an elegant surtout. ”

“ I shall have to go home. I b’lieve I am dying. Herbert! Herbert! Come here!”
Herbert came quickly, and said to him: “Brace up and put on your coat. We are going through. They can run till doomsday, and we’ll hold out.”
The judge did not know what he meant, but he felt cheered in some way, and put on his coat, and was standing up when the door swung open a second time and four women came in, headed by Nancy Sharp, who thrust her great bare red arm through the opening in the screen and said to the cashier, “I want my money—twenty good round silver dollars, honestly earned by washing.” ”

“ In fact, they were energetic; an energetic man will succeed where an indolent one would vegetate and inevitably perish.
Herbert distinguished himself in these works. He was intelligent and active; understanding quickly, he performed well; and Cyrus Harding became more and more attached to the boy. Herbert had a lively and reverent love for the engineer. Pencroft saw the close sympathy which existed between the two, but he was not in the least jealous. ”

“ Their income from the living and the fortune, comprised together, was over a thousand pounds a-year. They lived very quietly, not spending, she was sure, anything like half of it; Herbert put by the rest. What good did all the money bring them? But little. Herbert was always ailing, fretful, and grumbling: the propensity to set the world to rights grew upon him: he had ever taken pleasure in that, from the time when a little lad he would muffle himself in his step-father’s surplice, and preach to Jack and Alice. Poor Jack had to work hard for what he earned at sea ”

“ Of all men in the world he kept closest to the exact hair-line; indeed, one of Herbert’s peculiarities, as I have said, was his always understating rather than overstating a fact.
“Yes,” he continued, “the only way out is to ‘lie like a gentleman,’ as the saying is, and be done with it. I’ve been through it myself and know. Your story, madame, has brought it all back to me.”
“It’s about a girl, of course,” remarked Louis, flashing a smile around the circle, “and your best girl, of course. Have a drop of cognac, old man,” and he filled Herbert’s tiny glass. ”

“ He's so unique—so utterly unlike anyone else's umbrella. I know you'll love him."
I did as soon as ever I saw him coming out of the cloak-room hanging on her arm. There was a gentle coyness in the turn of Herbert's handle, a nutty daintiness about his little gold tie which made me look involuntarily for his socks.
"Now, you wait and see if someone doesn't try to run off with him before we get home," said Stella-my-niece. "I'll hold him on a long lead so that people will think he's out by himself, and we'll await developments." ”

“ Without his pockets John would be a cipher, and a decimal cipher at that. If some men were not all pocket they would never be Johns, for no Jill would be so demented as to "come tumbling after" them. I have seen a pocket marry off a hump-back, a twisted foot and sixty winters' fall of snow upon the head, while a pocketless Adonis sighed in vain for Beauty's glance. A full pocket balances an empty skull as a good heart cannot; a plethoric pocket overshadows monstrous vices. ”

“ When a gentleman takes a drink he takes his bitters. Now, what'll you have?”
“Nothing, thank you.”
“Oh, you needn't thank me. I didn't offer to give you a drink. What do you want, anyhow?”
“Have you got a directory?”
“No; we don't keep one. We don't care where our customers live. All we want is their money.”
Herbert did not fancy the bartender's tone or manner; but felt that it would be foolish to get angry. So he explained: “I have a cousin living in the city; I thought I could find out where he lived in the directory.”
“What's your cousin's name?”
“Cornelius Dixon.” ”

“ Now we'll take a walk. You shall show me the houses of Wrayburn.”
“The houses of Wrayburn are four in number,” said Herbert; “the two churches, the town hall, and Squire Leech's house.”
“There's another walk which I prefer; I mean to Prospect Pond. Suppose we walk over to it.”
“I shall be glad to,” said Herbert.
“You are a very accommodating professor. You let me off from study when I feel lazy.”
CHAPTER XX PROSPECT POND
It was a beautiful afternoon and Herbert was satisfied to lay books aside and walk over to Prospect Pond. ”

“ Herbert proved to be right. Two days later the squire offered six hundred dollars over the mortgage for the place, and it was accepted.
“The place is worth more, mother,” he said; “but it will relieve us from care to sell it.”
James was even more annoyed than his father when he heard of Herbert's good fortune; but after his first annoyance he showed a disposition to be friendly. It is the way of the world. Nothing makes us sought after like a little good fortune. James felt that, now Herbert was in a position to live without work, he was a gentleman, and to be treated accordingly. ”

“ And now let me have a look at my gentleman agen."
Once more, he took me by both hands and surveyed me with an air of admiring proprietorship: smoking with great complacency all the while.
It appeared to me that I could do no better than secure him some quiet lodging hard by, of which he might take possession when Herbert returned: whom I expected in two or three days. That the secret must be confided to Herbert as a matter of unavoidable necessity, even if I could have put the immense relief I should derive from sharing it with him out of the question, was plain to me. ”

“ James looked after him with a scowl. He was sharp enough to see that Herbert, in spite of his patched pants, was a better scholar and a greater favorite than himself. He had intended to humiliate him on the present occasion, but he was forced to acknowledge that he had come off second best from the encounter. He walked moodily away, and took what comfort he could in the thought that he was far superior to a boy who owned but two pairs of pants, and one of them patched. He was foolish enough to feel that a boy or man derived importance from the extent of his wardrobe ”

“ They went up the steps of the Astor House, and Ralph led the way to his room, an apartment of good size and handsomely furnished.
“Now, Herbert, take a chair and tell me all,” he said.
To repeat Herbert's story here is unnecessary. Ralph listened with attention, and when it was concluded he said: “The main thing is to account for the money in your possession. Do you think you should remember the policeman who aided you in recovering your money?” ”

“ He acts as if it was your duty to oblige him.”
“I don't know but we shall have to come to his terms,” said Herbert, rather dejectedly. “We certainly shall if I don't find anything to do.”
“I wish I could help you; but, if you were to learn my trade, you wouldn't be worth any wages for nigh a year, and you couldn't afford to work so long without pay.”
“No, I couldn't.”
“Besides, in a village like this, there isn't more than enough work for one man. Why, there isn't more than one new house built a year. If the squire wants to provide Mr. Banks with a house, why doesn't he build him one? ”

“ But Herbert was quick to learn. The second day, though he still had some papers left, he cleared twenty-five cents. The third day he netted seventy-five. He felt now that he had passed the period of experiment, and that he would at any rate, be able to pay his board. Of course, he hoped for something better, and indeed felt confident of it.
Three weeks later, about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, as he stood in front of the Astor House, with his last paper in his hand, he heard his name called:
“Hello, Carter; are you here?” ”

“ For he did not starve, though Herbert had gone quite out of his life, and he had none with whom to exchange the thoughts of youth.
Two pounds ten shillings lent on his dress-suit staved off hunger and his tailor (who got the pounds) , till, by the aid of the landlady’s son’s book, he found out how to tint photographs, and earned sixpences and shillings by coloring cartes-de-visite and cabinets for cheap touting photographers, censoriously critical and given to refusing the work of hours. ”