Rushton

“ Rushton, vindictively—"yes, distinctly heard him whisper, 'There's old Rushton again, come to growl, and not buy anything.' The villain! but I disappointed him; and when he said, "Shall they be sent to your office, sir?" in his odious obsequious voice, I replied, 'No, sir! I am not a dandy or fine gentleman, nor a woman;—you, sir, may be accustomed to have your bundles sent—I carry mine myself.' And so, sir, I took the bundle on my shoulder and brought it away, to the astonishment of that young villain, who, I predict, will eventually come to the gallows!" ”

“ The facts are like so many spokes of a wheel, all leading to the hub, and that hub is Rushton.
“Who knew that the examination papers were in your desk? Rushton. Who had been wishing he were a mind reader, so that he might know what questions you were going to ask? Rushton. Who saw, or says he saw a mysterious marauder coming from the building at midnight, and yet said nothing to any one about it? Rushton. And, above all, who actually had the missing package in his locker? Rushton.
“Of course, all this is circumstantial evidence. But sometimes that is the strongest kind. ”

“ Roundjacket's indignation at this unfeeling allusion to his great poem was so intense, that for the moment he was completely deprived of utterance.
"And as for you, young man," said Mr. Rushton, smiling grimly at Verty, "I suppose you are following the ordinary course of foolish young men, and falling in love! Mark me, sir! the man that falls in love makes a confounded fool of himself—you had better at once go and hang yourself. Pretty people you are, with your 'eyes' and 'sighs'—your 'loves' and 'doves'—your moonlight, and flowers and ecstacies! Avoid it, sir! ”

“ CHAPTER LVIII. HOW MR. RUSHTON PROVED THAT ALL MEN WERE SELFISH, HIMSELF INCLUDED. Leaving Mr. Roundjacket contemplating the ceiling, and reflecting upon the various questions connected with bachelorship and matrimony, Verty returned to the office, and reported to Mr. Rushton that the poet was rapidly improving, and would probably be at his post on the morrow.
This intelligence was received with a growl, which had become, however, so familiar an expression of feeling to the young man, that he did not regard it.
"Well, sir," said Mr. Rushton, "what news is there about town?" ”

“ But by this time, the uncle and nephews were well on their way up the hill, and Jed had to save the rest of his discourse for his cronies that evening at the general store.
The Rushton home stood on a beautiful elm-shaded street just beyond the field where the boys had been playing ball. It was a charming, up-to-date house, capacious and well arranged, and furnished with every comfort. A broad, velvety lawn stretched out in front, and towering elms threw their cool shadows over the roadway. ”

“ If you had been Rushton, would you rather have become bankrupt than treat your “hands” and your customers in the same way as your competitors treated theirs? It may be that, so placed, you—being the noble-minded paragon that you are—would have behaved unselfishly. But no one has any right to expect you to sacrifice yourself for the benefit of other people who would only call you a fool for your pains. It may be true that if any one of the hands—Owen, for instance—had been an employer of labour, he would have done the same as other employers. ”

“ Roundjacket pointed toward the sanctum of Mr. Rushton.
Verty only smiled.
Mr. Roundjacket descended from his stool, and cast his eyes upon the paper.
"What!" he cried, "you made that picture! How, sir Upon my word, young man, you are in a bad way. The youngster who stops to make designs upon a copy of a deed in a law office, is on the high-road to the gallows. It is an enormity, sir—horrible! dreadful!"
"What the devil are you shouting about there!" cried the voice of Mr. Rushton, angrily. And opening the door between the two rooms, the shaggy-headed gentleman appeared upon the threshold. ”

“ It was very gratifying to see the good feeling that existed between Mr Rushton and his workmen, which was as it should be, because masters and men was really fellow workers—the masters did the brain work, the men the ’and work. They was both workers, and their interests was the same. He liked to see men doing their best for their master and knowing that their master was doing his best for them, that he was not only a master, but a friend. ”

“ They talked freely as they worked, having no fear of being overheard by Rushton or Nimrod. This job was piecework, so it didn't matter whether they talked or not. They waxed hilarious over Old Latham's discomfiture and wondered what he would say if he could see them now. Then the conversation drifted to the subject of the private characters of the other men who were employed by Rushton and Company, and an impartial listener would have been forced to come to the conclusion that Crass and Slyme were the only two decent fellows on the firm. There was something wrong or shady about everybody else. ”

“ This incident made Rushton an enthusiastic champion through life of the cause of the negro. During a voyage to Dominica malignant ophthalmia broke out among the slave cargo, and Rushton caught the disease by attending them in the hold when all others refused help. This attack deprived him of sight, and cut short a promising nautical career at the age of nineteen. He struggled bravely against difficulties, and besides entering successfully into various literary engagements, maintained himself and family as a bookseller. A volume of his poems containing a memoir was published in 1824. ”

“ Rushton pointed to a large bundle lying on the chair.
"For ma mere!" said Verty.
"Yes; I suppose that, in your outlandish lingo, means mother. Yes, for her; the winter is coming on, and she will need something warm to wrap her—poor creature—from the cold."
"Oh, how kind you are, Mr. Rushton!"
"Nonsense; I suppose I am at liberty to spend my own money."
Verty looked at the lawyer with a grateful smile, and said:
"I don't think that what you said about everybody's being selfish and bad is true, sir. You are very good and kind." ”

“ Rushton had at that period realised the necessity of having a deputy who could be used to do all the drudgery and running about so that he himself might be free to attend to more pleasant and profitable matters. Hunter was then a journeyman, but was on the point of starting on his own account, when Rushton offered him a constant job as foreman, two pounds a week, and two and a half per cent of the profits of all work done. ”

“ Teddy took his hand from the back of the chair and started for the hall, after one despairing glance at the table.
“But, Father―” ventured Fred.
“Wouldn’t it be enough to make him go without dessert?” interposed Mrs. Rushton. “Can’t you let him have at least a piece of bread and butter? The child’s health, you know―”
“Well,” hesitated Mr. Rushton. But he caught sight of the sarcastic grin on Aaron’s face.
“No,” he went on more firmly, “he can’t have a thing. ”

“ The second was to Bartanet Shoals, where the kindly keeper of the lighthouse had his part in the general jubilee. The third, and to the Rushton boys the most important of all, was to Oldtown, where Ross, who accompanied Fred and Teddy, had the proud delight of putting into the hands of Mr. Aaron Rushton the gold that paid his father’s debt.
“I wonder what Uncle Aaron will say when he finds out the money has been found,” remarked Teddy, when the three youths were on the way to Oldtown.
“I’ll wager he’ll hardly be able to believe his ears and eyes,” returned Fred. ”

“ Rushton told the gentleman that he would be astonished if he knew all the facts: the difficulties one has to contend with in dealing with working men: one has to watch them continually! directly one’s back is turned they leave off working! They come late in the morning, and go home before the proper time at night, and then unless one actually happens to catch them—they charge the full number of hours on their time sheets! Every now and then something would be missing, and of course Nobody knew anything about it. Sometimes one would go unexpectedly to a “job” and find a lot of them drunk. ”

“ Aaron Rushton’s temper had a razor edge that day.
“You forgot how he got back your watch and papers,” Mrs. Rushton indignantly reminded him.
“I don’t forget that if it hadn’t been for him I wouldn’t have lost them,” snapped Aaron. “Who 98 was it that hit the horse with a ball and caused the runaway that might have cost me my life? Who was it that painted Jed Muggs’ team red, white and blue on the Fourth of July? Who was it that nearly caused a panic on the common, when he set those mice loose among the women?”
Mrs. Rushton knew only too well who it was, and she took refuge in generalities. ”

“ As he walked homewards through the snow storm, Owen began to realise that Rushton would not give him any more work after this, and as he reflected on all it would mean to those at home for a moment he doubted whether he had done right. ”

“ Between them the two brain workers figured that fifteen pounds would cover the entire cost of the work—painting and decorating.
“Well, I reckon we can charge Sweater forty-five pounds for it,” said Rushton. “It isn’t like an ordinary job, you know. If he gets a London firm to do it, it’ll cost him double that, if not more.”
Having arrived at this decision, Rushton rung up Sweater’s Emporium on the telephone, and, finding that Mr Sweater was there, he rolled up the designs and set out for that gentleman’s office.
The men work with their hands, and the masters work with their brains. ”

“ Redbud.
"That is the man who sold me the necklace, sir!" she says, in a hesitating voice. "I recognize him—it is the pedlar."
Mr. Rushton starts, and catches the pedlar by the arm.
"Come!" he commences.
The pedlar rises without assistance, sullenly, prepared for the stocks.
"Where did you get this necklace? Speak!"
The lawyer's eyes awe the man, and he stammers. Mr. Rushton grasps him by the collar, and glares at him ferociously.
"Where?"
In five minutes he has made the pedlar speak—he bought the necklace from the mother of the young man standing at the door.
"From the Indian woman?" ”

“ Then, defensively, she added: “But, after all, where do you find better boys anywhere than ours? Fred scarcely gives us a particle of trouble, and as for Teddy”–here she floundered a little–“of course, he gets into mischief at times, but he has a good heart and he’s just the dearest boy,” she ended, in a burst of maternal affection.
“How about that boarding school idea?” suggested Mr. Rushton.
“I don’t like it at all,” said Mrs. Rushton. “I simply can’t bear to think of our boys a hundred miles away from home. ”

“ Redbud would have spoken. Mr. Rushton, with a sign, bade her be silent. He looked at the young man with the same strange look, and said in a low tone:
"Must have seen what?"
"Why, this!" said Verty, half extending his arm, and pointing toward a far imaginary horizon, on which his dreamy eyes were fixed—"this! don't you see it? My tribe! my Delawares—there in the woods! They attack the house, and carry off the child in the garden playing with the necklace. His nurse is killed—poor thing! her blood is on the fountain! ”

“ Rushton that there would be no weakness or compromise in this important particular.
“That’s the stuff!” broke in Uncle Aaron, gleefully rubbing his hands. “What did I tell you? Hardach Rally is the one to make boys mind.”
Fred and Teddy failed to share his enthusiasm, and Mrs. Rushton shivered slightly.
But, taken as a whole, the letter met the views of Mr. Mansfield Rushton, and when the family council broke up, it was definitely settled that the boys should go to Rally Hall.
Old Martha was “dead sot,” as she put it, against the whole plan. ”

“ Owen stood examining the photograph, and began to feel an intense desire to do the work.
Rushton shook his head dubiously.
'If I let you spend a lot of time over the sketches and then Mr Sweater does not approve of your design, where do I come in?'
'Well, suppose we put it like this: I'll draw the design at home, in the evenings—in my own time. If it's accepted I'll charge you for the time I've spent upon it. If it's not suitable I won't charge the time at all.'
Rushton brightened up considerably. 'All right, you can do so,' he said with an affectation of good nature. ”

“ You know him well, I dare say. They tell me that he pays the interest regularly to his nieces for their money out of his own income still.”
I made no answer to Mr Rushton at the moment, for a communication so wholly unexpected had awakened a new set of ideas, which I was busily following out in my mind. I seemed to hold in my hands the clue to a good deal of misunderstanding and unhappiness. My determination was soon [Pg 100] taken to go to Southampton, see Russell at once, and tell him what I had just heard, and of which I had no doubt he had hitherto been as ignorant as myself. ”

“ The footman hesitated, a half-scared expression in his look.
“Never fear,” said Gordon, and laughed—a tightening laugh that strained the cords of his throat. “Put them on! That’s right! What are you staring at? Do you think she will hear you? Not she! Put up your [48] hands—so! Touched, by the Lord! Not up to your old style, Rushton! You never used to spar so villainously. You will disgrace the fancy. ”

“ Ross had insisted on a share of the recovered money going to the Rushton boys and Lester. The friendship between the boys had grown very strong and they were delighted when in answer to their urging, Ross agreed to go with them to Rally Hall. ”