Roswell

“ More provident than his brother, Roswell lived comfortably on his share for nearly seven years, only in the end to envy the superior shrewdness of Eugene, who, putting his portion into cash, realized more from it, and spent it like a lord while it lasted. I must confess that I share Roswell's views, for the investment which Eugene Field made in the two years after coming of age in spending $20,000 on experience, returned to him many fold in the profession he was finally driven to adopt, not as a pastime, but to earn a livelihood for himself and his growing family. ”

“ To see the pompous air with which Roswell threw himself back in his chair, it might have been supposed that he was the proprietor of the establishment, though I believe it is true, as a general rule, that employers are not in the habit of putting on so many airs, unless the position is a new one, and they have not yet [167] got over the new feeling of importance which it is apt to inspire at first.
While Roswell was thus engaged Mark returned from his errand.
He looked about him in some uncertainty on entering the store, not seeing either Mr. Baker or the chief clerk. ”

“ It must have cost, with the chain, a hundred and twenty-five dollars."
"The idea of a boot-black with a gold watch!" exclaimed Roswell, with a sneer. "It's about as appropriate as a pig in a silk dress."
"I can't understand it at all," said Mrs. Crawford. "It can't be that he's a poor relation of theirs, can it?"
"I should say not. Mr. Rockwell wouldn't be likely to have a relation reduced to blacking boots."
"Is the boy so attractive, then? What does he look like?"
"He's as bold as brass, and hasn't got any manners nor education," said Roswell.
Poor Dick! ”

“ Your head will become as strong as mine after a while. I'm as cool as a cucumber."
"It's rather late, isn't it?" asked Roswell.
"Hark, there's the clock striking. I'll count the strokes. Eleven o'clock!" he said, after counting. "That isn't very late."
Ralph accompanied Roswell to the door of his mother's house in Clinton Place.
"Good-night, old fellow!" he said. "You'll be all right in the morning."
"Good-night," said Roswell.
He crept up to bed, but his brain was excited by the punch he had drank, and it was only after tossing about for two hours that he at length sank into a troubled sleep. ”

“ I don't know what Roswell means by what he has just said, but I was not left alone in the store for a moment all day yesterday, nor did Roswell go out to speak to a friend while I was about."
"There seems to be a conflict of evidence here," said Mr. Baker.
"I hope the word of a gentleman's son is worth more than that of a match boy," said Roswell, haughtily.
"To whom do you refer, when you speak of a match boy?"
"To him," said Roswell, pointing to Mark. "He used to be a vagabond boy about the streets [240] selling matches, and sleeping anywhere he could. No wonder he steals." ”

“ You see them letters? They're all from wholesale customers."
"I congratulate you on your success," said Roswell, in the same disagreeable manner. "Of course that's all humbug. I suppose you've got a place."
"Yes," said Dick.
"Who are you with?"
"Rockwell & Cooper, on Pearl Street."
"How did you get it?" asked Roswell, appearing surprised. "Did they know you had been a boot-black?"
"Of course they did."
"I shouldn't think that they would have taken you."
"Why not?"
"There are not many firms that would hire a boot-black, when they could get plenty of boys from nice families." ”

“ Baker and Mr. Jones were absent, and Roswell was left alone. But to his great vexation, an old gentleman came in directly after Mr. Baker went out, and inquired for him.
"He's gone to dinner," said Roswell.
"I think I'll wait till he returns," said the visitor, coolly sitting down in Mr. Baker's arm-chair.
Roswell was in dismay, for this would of course prevent his using the key which he had taken so much trouble to obtain.
"Mr. Baker is always out a good while," said Roswell. ”

“ At supper Mr. Hofford asked him how he was enjoying himself, and Roswell answered that he was doing very well. After supper, when the table was cleared, he got out a lot of traps and set to work on an electrical machine he was trying to make, but his father promptly checked him.
"That won't do, Roswell. Work is strictly forbidden." ”

“ Crawford. "I thought you were his friend."
"So I am; but he's acted foolishly for all that. He should have known better."
"I ought to be worth six dollars, if your boot-black is worth ten," responded Roswell.
"He isn't worth ten."
"Why do you pay him that, then?"
"It's Mr. Rockwell who pays him, not I. Why he does it, I can't say. It isn't because he earns it. No boy of his age, or yours either, can earn ten dollars a week."
"At any rate he gets ten, and I get only four. I certainly earn more than that," said Roswell.
"I am not so sure about that," said his cousin. ”

“ When the performance was over, he suggested an ice- cream.
"With all my heart," said Ralph. "I feel warm and thirsty, and an ice-cream will cool my throat."
So they adjourned to a confectionery establishment nearly opposite, and Roswell, with an air of importance, called for the creams. They sat leisurely over them, and it was nearly half past eleven when Roswell got home.
"What keeps you out so late, Roswell?" asked his mother, anxiously, for she was still up.
"I was at the theatre," said Roswell. ”

“ It would have been lucky for Roswell if the key had not fitted. But it proved to fit exactly. Turning it in the lock, the drawer opened, and before him lay a pile of bills.
How much or how little there might be Roswell did not stop to examine. He knew that a customer might come in at any time, and he must do at once what he meant to do. ”

“ What, then, was that intellect of which he had been so proud, and what reason had he to rely on himself in those matters that lay equally beyond the cradle and the grave--that incomprehensible past, and the unforeseen future, towards which all those in existence were hastening! Roswell had received many lessons in humility, the most useful of all the lessons that man can receive in connection with the relation that really exists between the Deity and himself. ”

“ As is the case with most successful men who pride themselves upon their cold caution and business acumen—and Mr. Roswell did so pride himself—he really was a person of impulse, and intuition played a much larger part in his conduct of affairs than he would have acknowledged. ”

“ He'll make you a key for two shillings."
"I don't know," said Roswell, undecidedly. "I don't quite like to do it."
"Do just as you please," said Ralph; "only if I carry you to the theatre I expect you to return the compli- ment."
"Well, I'll think of it," said Roswell.
"There is another way you can do," suggested Ralph, who was full of evil suggestions, and was perhaps the most dangerous counsellor that Roswell could have had at this time.
"What is it?"
"If you make any sales while you are alone you might forget to put the money in the drawer." ”

“ Down this last declivity, Roswell proposed to lower his casks by means of a projecting derrick, the rock being sufficiently precipitous to admit of this arrangement, while his spare spars furnished him with the necessary means. Thus was every preparation made with judgment and foresight.
In this manner did the first ten days pass, every man and boy being as busy as bees. To own the truth, no attention was paid to the Sabbath, which would seem to have been left behind them by the people, among the descendants of those Puritans who were so rigid in their observance of that festival. ”

“ To think of sawing through ice as thick as that of the floe, for any material distance, would be like a project to tunnel the Alps.
Melancholy was the meeting between Roswell and Daggett that morning. The former was too manly and generous to indulge in reproaches, else might he well have told the last that all this was owing to him. There is a singular propensity in us all to throw the burthen of our own blunders on the shoulders of other folk. ”

“ He used to be a boot-black, [203] as I told you; but he's got up in the world, and now he's putting on airs."
"He seems to have got into good company, at any rate. He is walking with the daughter of Mr. Greyson, a rich merchant down town."
"He's got impudence enough for anything," said Roswell, with a feeling of bitter envy which he could not conceal. "It really makes me sick to see him strutting about as if he were a gentleman's son."
"Like you," suggested Ralph, slyly; for he had already been informed by Roswell, on various occasions, that he was "a gentleman's son." ”

“ We are a band of good fellows, who like to meet together and have a social time. We are proud to receive you into our ranks."
"And I am very glad to belong," said Roswell, [221] who felt highly pleased at the cordial manner in which he was received.
"You'd better go to the secretary, and enter your name in the books of the club," suggested Ralph. "You can pay him the five dollars at the same time. Here, Tracy, Mr. Crawford wants to enroll his name."
"All right," said Tracy; "walk this way if you please, Mr. Crawford."
Roswell wrote down his name, residence, and the store where he was employed. ”

“ Such is man, when sustained by his fellows, in every interest of life; from religion, the highest of all, down to the most insignificant of his temporal concerns.
In this spirit did Daggett and his crew now feel and act. Roswell had early seen, with regret, that something like a feeling of party was getting up among the Vineyarders, who had all along regarded the better fortune of their neighbours with an ill-concealed jealousy. ”

“ It is not, however, for his learning and accomplishments of mind and person that we are interested in Roswell Martin Field, but for the strange incident in his life that uprooted him from the congenial environments of New England and the career opening so temptingly before him, to transplant him to Missouri, there to become the father of a youth, who, by all laws of heredity and by the peculiar tang of his genius, should have been born and nurtured amid the stern scenes and fixed customs of Puritan New England. ”

“ Roswell had a last word on his part, however, in the shape of a message to Mary.
"Tell Mary, deacon," said the young sailor, in an aside, "that I rely on her promise, and that I shall think of her, whether it be under the burning sun of the line, or among the ice of the antarctic."
"Yes, yes; that's as it should be," answered the deacon, heartily. "I like your perseverance, Gar'ner, and hope the gal will come round yet, and I shall have you for a nephew. There's nothing that takes the women's minds like money. ”

“ I tell you, Roswell, I believe something has gone wrong."
And Frank sat down, removed his cap, and wiped his moist forehead with his handkerchief.
"What could have gone wrong?" asked the other lad, who, despite his jauntiness, shared in a degree the anxiety of his friend.
"All the gold we have gathered is in the cavern. I believe Hardman and those fellows are in the neighborhood and mean to steal it."
"It's a pity we didn't think of this before," said Roswell, laying down his shovel. "Let's go back to the cavern and keep watch till Jeff comes back." ”

“ If I ever go into that line again, it'll be in a wholesale store. There's a chance there for a man to rise."
"You don't call yourself a man yet,—do you?"
"I call myself a gentleman," said Roswell, shortly. ”

“ We have splendid times."
"I'll see what I can do to raise the money," said Roswell.
"That's the way to talk. You'll manage to get it some way."
It was a great temptation to Roswell. The more he thought of it, the more he thought he should like to say that he was a member of the Madison Club. He had a weak love of gentility, and he was persuaded that it would improve his social standing. But he did not wish to adopt the course recommended [210] by Ralph if there was any other way of getting the money. ”

“ The desire to enjoy wealth doesn't bring it, and the tastes of a gentleman are not a very good stock to begin life with. So Roswell sauntered along in rather a discontented frame of mind until he reached Madison Park, where he sat down on a bench, and listlessly watched some boys who were playing there. ”

“ There was not a man among the Oyster Ponders who did not, just at that moment, feel his whole being concentrated in that one desire to obtain warmth. The cold had slowly, but surely, insinuated itself among their garments, and slight chills were now felt even by Roswell, whose frame had been most wonderfully sustained that night, through the force of moral feeling. Stimson was the individual who was put forward at the camboose, others holding the lamps, canvass saturated with oil, and some prepared paper. ”

“ Baker, Roswell had gone out to dinner. When he returned, Mark had gone out with the parcel to West Twenty-first Street. So they missed each other just at first.
"Well, Crawford," said Mr. Jones, as Roswell re-entered the store, "Mr. Baker has engaged a new boy."
"Has he? What sort of a fellow is he?"
[166]
"A little fellow. He doesn't look as if he was more than ten years old."
"Where is he?"
"Mr. Baker sent him on an errand to Twenty-first Street."
"Humph!" said Roswell, a little discontented, "I was going to recommend a friend of mine."
"There may be a chance yet. This boy may not suit." ”