Tom Thatcher

“ The doctor says he died of heart disease.”
“That’s very sudden,” said John Simpson, no longer incredulous. “I can hardly believe it.”
“I wonder where Tom Thatcher’s mother will live now,” continued Rupert.
“I didn’t think of that,” said his father, his face lighting up with satisfaction. “To be sure, it will be a great loss to her. She will lose a comfortable living.”
“I’m glad of it,” said Rupert.
“Rupert, Rupert, don’t rejoice over the misfortunes of your neighbors,” but he spoke very mildly.
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“I can’t help it father. I hate Tom Thatcher and all his relations.” ”

“ I should judge that your own affairs required all your attention.”
“So they do,” said Darius Darke, imperturbably. “I am coming to them by and by. But it occurred to me that poor Thatcher’s family needed the money he had when I knew him at Rocky Gulch.”
“How do you know he left a family?”
“I was speaking to his boy this evening. A fine, manly fellow Tom Thatcher is. He’ll make a smart man if he lives.”
“You were speaking to Tom Thatcher this evening?” gasped John Simpson, unpleasantly surprised. ”

“ I am sorry he fell in with Tom Thatcher, and told him that story about his father’s having twenty-five thousand dollars. Tom was already inclined to be suspicious. I wish he were out of the village—he and his whole family. If he can’t find work, he may have to go yet. The family can’t live on nothing, and the cottage isn’t worth much. I wish I had a mortgage on it. ”

“ If you are out of work we shall starve.”
“No, you won’t, mother. In one way or another I will manage to earn fifty cents a day, and I hope more. Now I am going to the shop to collect my money.”
Tom went out, leaving his mother in low spirits. She was not so hopeful as he of his ability to make up the sum which he had lost by his discharge from the shop.
In the shoe-shop Tom found plenty of sympathy. There was even a strong feeling of indignation excited against Mr. Simpson, for Tom Thatcher was a popular favorite. He collected his money—three day’s wages—and left the shop. ”

“ This boy is my friend, Tom Thatcher. We are on our way to Californy, and we may get there if we don’t run a-foul164 of any murderous Indians. I ain’t quite ready to part with my scalp yet, so I hope they’ll keep away. ”

“ Tom began. “You worked together, and went to California together. You came home rich, while he was unfortunate enough to lose his money and his life. To-day you are a rich manufacturer, while his widow and children are compelled to live chiefly on a boy’s small wages. You know all this, and it has never come into your mind to help them, or to pay the boy as good wages as he could get elsewhere. If you had died, and my father had come home prosperous, he would not have treated your family so.” ”

“ Tom Thatcher is a brave, ambitious, unselfish boy. He supports his mother and sister on meagre wages earned as a shoe-pegger in John Simpson’s factory. Tom is discharged from the factory and starts overland for California. ”

“ DARIUS DARKE. AS TOM was on his way home, walking slowly and thoughtfully, while he considered the change which had taken place in his circumstances and prospects, his attention was attracted to a man shabbily dressed, whose suit looked as if it had been worn five years steadily, advancing along the pathway in an opposite direction.
Nowadays the man would be called a tramp, but at that time the name was not as common as now.
He was a stranger in the village, but Tom didn’t give any thought to his appearance. He was too much interested in his own thoughts and his own troubles. ”

“ Thatcher told Tom that Mr. Simpson was coming the next day to arrange about a mortgage on the place.
“That is, if you think it best, Tom.”
“Let him come, mother. We will talk it over. I shall want to see him myself about business.”
“You won’t say anything to irritate him, Tom? You know he might refuse to give you a place again in the shop.”
“And that would be a misfortune,” said Tom, smiling.
“Of course. That will enable you to stay at home with me, and we can be so happy together, Tom. We may live poorly, but if we are together, we won’t mind that.” ”

“ His father’s mind returned to its normal condition, and four weeks after his arrival in San Francisco Tom and his father sailed for New York by the regular steamer.
Mr. Percival had settled up his indebtedness, and Tom carried with him drafts on New York for twenty-four thousand dollars. A part of the remaining thousand paid their passage, and the balance Tom carried with him in hard cash. Of course, the money properly belonged to his father, but it was Mr. Thatcher’s desire that Tom should relieve him entirely of business cares. ”

“ I believe Tom is quite safe, and that you will soon receive tidings from him.”
“I wish I could feel so,” said Mrs. Thatcher, sadly. “Mr. Julian, he is my only boy. I have Tillie, but my hopes rested with him. I looked to Tom to be the prop of my old age. Without him my life will be worth nothing.”
“Don’t say that, Mrs. Thatcher. You will still have your daughter to live for. But don’t give up Tom. He is a manly boy, and will come back to you well and prosperous, if God wills.”
“But if he is well why doesn’t he write? He is not a boy to give me unnecessary anxiety by neglect.” ”

“ ITHIN a few minutes the news had spread, and a dozen skiff-loads of men were on their way to McDougal's cave, and the ferry-boat, well filled with passengers, soon followed. Tom Sawyer was in the skiff that bore Judge Thatcher.
When the cave door was unlocked, a sorrowful sight presented itself in the dim twilight of the place. Injun Joe lay stretched upon the ground, dead, with his face close to the crack of the door, as if his longing eyes had been fixed, to the latest moment, upon the light and the cheer of the free world outside. ”

“ Tom went home considerably encouraged. True, he had no prospect of a place, but the sympathy and kindness of Harry Julian had made the world seem brighter to him. Boys, as well as men, when in trouble crave sympathy. They like to feel that they are not standing alone, but have some one’s good wishes.
“What a splendid fellow Harry is,” said Tom, warmly, to himself; “not much like Rupert. I really believe Rupert would be glad to see me in the poor-house. If I were rich and he were poor, I would try to help him, and not be mean enough to rejoice in his misfortune.” ”

“ Tom owes his life to the sudden fancy which Miantonimo has taken for him. When the boy is just recovering, you may be sure his father will not allow any fancy of his to be thwarted. Tom must stay.”
“And spend his life with the Indians?”
“No. Tom is a smart boy. Sooner or later he will escape. He is lucky to save his life, even by a long term of captivity. We will bid him farewell, and urge him to keep up a good heart, and persuade them to let him go as soon as possible.”
Brush and Dr. Spooner signified their desire to speak to Tom, and our hero was allowed to approach them. ”

“ Rupert, now reduced to penury, found his way back to Wilton, and obtained a position as workman in the shop which his father had once owned. His pride had had a severe fall.
Tom became his father’s junior partner, and at twenty-one is really acting-manager and responsible head of the great shop where he once worked for three dollars a week. Of course, Mr. and Mrs. Thatcher now live in the handsome house once owned by John Simpson, while Rupert, rather curiously, is a boarder in the humble cottage once occupied by the Thatchers. ”

“ Thatcher, in a tone which quite mystified Tom.
“While you have been away, Tom, I, too, have had a proposal made to me.”
“A proposal, mother! Surely you will not marry again?”
“You are a foolish boy,” said his mother, smiling. “The proposal is of quite a different character.”
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“What is it, mother?”
“You remember that Mr. Hiram Bacon lost his wife a year since,” said Mrs. Thatcher. “Since then his daughter has been keeping house for him. Now she is to be married, and will move out of town. He came here this afternoon to ask me to become his housekeeper.”
“But what is to become of Tillie?” ”

“ DO THE DEAD LIVE? “I WISH you were going with me, Mr. Darke,” said Tom, as he sat in that gentleman’s room at the Astor House, making his farewell call.
He had made all arrangements, seen his mother and sister installed in the comfortable farm-house of Hiram Bacon, had procured a modest outfit, and was ready to start for the Pacific coast. He felt that it was a great undertaking for a boy of fifteen, and he longed for the championship of some one whom he knew, even but slightly.
Darius Darke shook his head.
“I have had enough of California!” he answered. ”

“ As he came within sound of the falling water, he heard voices, and pressing on, he was suddenly brought to an abrupt halt by recognizing the tones of Ralph Thatcher. What the young man was saying Tom did not catch, but the reply of Celia came to his ears with cutting distinctness.
“And does it seem to you honorable, Ralph,” she said, “to follow me here and talk to me in this way, when you know I am engaged to another man, and he your friend?”
“No man is my friend that takes you away from me!” Thatcher returned hotly. ”

“ Spooner,” said Tom, “I shall be sorry to leave you and Mr. Brush, but I feel that I ought to go to my father as soon as possible.”
“Of course, of course, Tom,” said Peter; “but we sha’n’t be separated. We will all go together.”
“So say I,” said Dr. Lycurgus Spooner.
“Good!” said Tom, joyfully.
“Then,” said the banker, “I shall be able to complete my business with you all. I have bought your gold dust, you remember, and must settle for it. I can do so better in San Francisco than here. Besides, I shall have a large account to settle with my young friend here.”
“With me?” asked Tom. ”

“ During that time they had made about five hundred miles.
“Tom,” said Peter Brush, as they rode side by side over a broad, rolling prairie, “this is lonely, isn’t it? For all we can see we are the only people living in the world. There isn’t a house, nor a clearing, nor the smoke of a chimney, anywhere in sight.” ”

“ If they do they’ll have a tough job. I’ll make it lively for them.”
Mrs. Thatcher, privately, was of the opinion that Mr. Julian had acted imprudently in trusting a boy with so important a commission, but she saw that Tom had no fears, and acquiesced in his going.
The morning train for New York left the Wilton station at half-past eight o’clock.
Rather to Tom’s surprise, Rupert Simpson was a passenger by this train. As Tom entered the cars, he found Rupert already installed in a seat by the window. There was no other seat vacant except the one beside him. ”

“ He reflected a moment, and his face brightened as something occurred to him.
“Tom,” he said, “will you do me a favor?”
“Of course I will, Julian.”
“Then let me lend you this,” and before Tom understood what he meant, he had thrust something into his vest-pocket.
Tom drew it out, unfolded it, and found it to be a five-dollar bill.
“Thank you, Harry,” he said; “but I can’t take this.”
“Why not? Remember, I ask it as a favor to me.”
“But it isn’t that; it is a favor to me.”
“Well, are you too proud to accept a favor from your friend Harry? Listen, Tom,” he added, rapidly. ”

“ Thatcher recognized the ribbon and cried over it. She said it was the last relic she should ever have of her child; and that no other memorial of her could ever be so precious, because this one parted latest from the living body before the awful death came. Some said that now and then, in the cave, a far-away speck of light would glimmer, and then a glorious shout would burst forth and a score of men go trooping down the echoing aisle—and then a sickening disappointment always followed ”

“ At last frocks ceased to appear, and he dropped hopelessly into the dumps; he entered the empty schoolhouse and sat down to suffer. Then one more frock passed in at the gate, and Tom’s heart gave a great bound. The next instant he was out, and “going on” like an Indian; yelling, laughing, chasing boys, jumping over the fence at risk of life and limb, throwing handsprings, standing on his head—doing all the heroic things he could conceive of, and keeping a furtive eye out, all the while, to see if Becky Thatcher was noticing. ”

“ You may be as rich as his father some day.”
“I don’t want to be rich unless I can get money honestly.”
“Stick to that, Tom. I haven’t led a model life. I’ve made mistakes, and committed errors, but I don’t look upon them now as I once did. I have turned over a new leaf, and I mean to do what I can to redeem myself.”
Before the two new friends parted, Darius Darke gave Tom an address in New York, where he could direct any communication. ”

“ Suppose you were going to be hung to-morrow morning—how do you think you could sleep?”
“No such fate as that is in store for us, at any rate. People are hung only in civilized communities. Did you ever hear of a man shipwrecked on a territory entirely unknown to him, who in the course of his first walk came to a man hanging upon a gallows? ‘Thank heaven!’ he said, ‘I am in a civilized country!’”
Tom and Mr. Brush laughed in spite of the peril that menaced them, and this unexpected sound drew the wondering attention of the Indians. Indeed, it increased their respect for their captives. ”

“ Tom would have declined taking money for his expenses, but he could not do so without betraying his own secret. He therefore made no objection.
Mrs. Thatcher felt a little nervous about Tom’s going to the city alone. He was old enough to be trusted to make such a journey, but his mother had traveled so little that she felt timid.
“You must be very careful, Tom,” she urged. “I75 hear there are a great many wicked men in New York, who may lie in wait for you, and lead you astray.” ”