“Ah, father, thee sees every thing in a rose-colored light. I do believe thee wouldn’t have so readily allowed me to begin the study of medicine, if it hadn’t had the novelty of an experiment to thee.”
“And is thee satisfied with it?”
“If thee means, if I have had enough of it, no. I just begin to see what I can do in it, and what a noble profession it is for a woman. Would thee have me sit here like a bird on a bough and wait for somebody to come and put me in a cage?”
Mr. Bolton was not sorry to divert the talk from his own affairs, and he did not think it worth while to tell his family of a performance that very day which was entirely characteristic of him.
Ruth might well say that she felt as if she were living in a house of cards, although the Bolton household had no idea of the number of perils that hovered over them, any more than thousands of families in America have of the business risks and contingences upon which their prosperity and luxury hang.
A sudden call upon Mr. Bolton for a large sum of money, which must be forthcoming at once, had found him in the midst of a dozen ventures, from no one of which a dollar could be realized. It was in vain that he applied to his business acquaintances and friends; it was a period of sudden panic and no money. “A hundred thousand! Mr. Bolton,” said Plumly. “Good God, if you should ask me for ten, I shouldn’t know where to get it.”
And yet that day Mr. Small (Pennybacker, Bigler and Small) came to Mr. Bolton with a piteous story of ruin in a coal operation, if he could not raise ten thousand dollars. Only ten, and he was sure of a fortune. Without it he was a beggar. Mr. Bolton had already Small’s notes for a large amount in his safe, labeled “doubtful;” he had helped him again and again, and always with the same result. But Mr. Small spoke with a faltering voice of his family, his daughter in school, his wife ignorant of his calamity, and drew such a picture of their agony, that Mr. Bolton put by his own more pressing necessity, and devoted the day to scraping together, here and there, ten thousand dollars for this brazen beggar, who had never kept a promise to him nor paid a debt.
Beautiful credit! The foundation of modern society. Who shall say that this is not the golden age of mutual trust, of unlimited reliance upon human promises? That is a peculiar condition of society which enables a whole nation to instantly recognize point and meaning in the familiar newspaper anecdote, which puts into the mouth of a distinguished speculator in lands and mines this remark: — ”I wasn’t worth a cent two years ago, and now I owe two millions of dollars.”
CHAPTER XXVII.
It was a hard blow to poor Sellers to see the work on his darling enterprise stop, and the noise and bustle and confusion that had been such refreshment to his soul, sicken and die out. It was hard to come down to humdrum ordinary life again after being a General Superintendent and the most conspicuous man in the community. It was sad to see his name disappear from the newspapers; sadder still to see it resurrected at intervals, shorn of its aforetime gaudy gear of compliments and clothed on with rhetorical tar and feathers.
But his friends suffered more on his account than he did. He was a cork that could not be kept under the water many moments at a time.
He had to bolster up his wife’s spirits every now and then. On one of these occasions he said:
“It’s all right, my dear, all right; it will all come right in a little while. There’s $200,000 coming, and that will set things booming again: Harry seems to be having some difficulty, but that’s to be expected — you can’t move these big operations to the tune of Fisher’s Hornpipe, you know. But Harry will get it started along presently, and then you’ll see! I expect the news every day now.”
“But Beriah, you’ve been expecting it every day, all along, haven’t you?”
“Well, yes; yes — I don’t know but I have. But anyway, the longer it’s delayed, the nearer it grows to the time when it will start — same as every day you live brings you nearer to — nearer — ”
“The grave?”
“Well, no — not that exactly; but you can’t understand these things, Polly dear — women haven’t much head for business, you know. You make yourself perfectly comfortable, old lady, and you’ll see how we’ll trot this right along. Why bless you, let the appropriation lag, if it wants to — that’s no great matter — there’s a bigger thing than that.”
“Bigger than $200,000, Beriah?”
“Bigger, child? — why, what’s $200,000? Pocket money! Mere pocket money! Look at the railroad! Did you forget the railroad? It ain’t many months till spring; it will be coming right along, and the railroad swimming right along behind it. Where’ll it be by the middle of summer? Just stop and fancy a moment — just think a little — don’t anything suggest itself? Bless your heart, you dear women live right in the present all the time — but a man, why a man lives — —
“In the future, Beriah? But don’t we live in the future most too much, Beriah? We do somehow seem to manage to live on next year’s crop of corn and potatoes as a general thing while this year is still dragging along, but sometimes it’s not a robust diet, — Beriah. But don’t look that way, dear — don’t mind what I say. I don’t mean to fret, I don’t mean to worry; and I don’t, once a month, do I, dear? But when I get a little low and feel bad, I get a bit troubled and worrisome, but it don’t mean anything in the world. It passes right away. I know you’re doing all you can, and I don’t want to seem repining and ungrateful — for I’m not, Beriah — you know I’m not, don’t you?”
“Lord bless you, child, I know you are the very best little woman that ever lived — that ever lived on the whole face of the Earth! And I know that I would be a dog not to work for you and think for you and scheme for you with all my might. And I’ll bring things all right yet, honey — cheer up and don’t you fear. The railroad — — ”
“Oh, I had forgotten the railroad, dear, but when a body gets blue, a body forgets everything. Yes, the railroad — tell me about the railroad.”
“Aha, my girl, don’t you see? Things ain’t so dark, are they? Now I didn’t forget the railroad. Now just think for a moment — just figure up a little on the future dead moral certainties. For instance, call this waiter St. Louis.
“And we’ll lay this fork (representing the railroad) from St. Louis to this potato, which is Slouchburg:
“Then with this carving knife we’ll continue the railroad from Slouchburg to Doodleville, shown by the black pepper:
“Then we run along the — yes — the comb — to the tumbler that’s Brimstone:
“Thence by the pipe to Belshazzar, which is the salt-cellar:
“Thence to, to — that quill — Catfish — hand me the pincushion, Marie Antoinette:
“Thence right along these shears to this horse, Babylon:
“Then by the spoon to Bloody Run — thank you, the ink:
“Thence to Hail Columbia — snuffers, Polly, please move that cup and saucer close up, that’s Hail Columbia:
“Then — let me open my knife — to Hark-from-the-Tomb, where we’ll put the candlestick — only a little distance from Hail Columbia to Hark-from-the-Tomb — down-grade all the way.
“And there we strike Columbus River — pass me two or three skeins of thread to stand for the river; the sugar bowl will do for Hawkeye, and the rat trap for Stone’s Landing — Napoleon, I mean — and you can see how much better Napoleon is located than Hawkeye. Now here you are with your railroad complete, and