Haste and Waste | Page 5

on the other side, but the captain was so cross I didn't like to ask him when we were so close to this shore. Your father is the ferryman, I believe."
"Yes, sir."
"Will you ask him to take me over?"
"He's going right over in the large boat, for there's a team waiting for him," replied Lawry, pointing to a horse and wagon, the owner of which had sounded the horn just as the passengers from the boat landed.
"Ask him to be as quick as possible, for I'm in a hurry," added the bank director.
"Won't you come into the house, sir?"
"No, I will sit down under this tree."
Lawry went into the house, where the family were at dinner, the meal having been delayed by the absence of the ferryman on the other side of the lake. The youth was greeted coldly by his father, and very warmly by his mother.
"I'm glad you've got home, Lawry, for Mr. Sherwood has been after you three times," said Mrs. Wilford, when the young pilot had been duly welcomed by all the family.
"What does he want?" asked Lawry.
"His little steamboat is at Port Henry, and he wants you to go up and pilot her down."
"The Woodville?"
"Yes, that's her name, I believe."
"Well, I'm all ready to go."
"Sit down and eat your dinner.
"I've been to dinner."
"Mr. Sherwood wanted you to go up in the Sherman; but it is too late for her, and he may go in the night boat."
"I'm ready when he is. Father, there is a gentleman outside who wants to go over the lake; and there is a team waiting in the road," continued Lawry.
"They must wait till I've done my dinner," replied the ferryman. "Who is the gentleman?"
"Mr. Randall; he is a director in a bank, and has six thousand dollars with him."
"I suppose so; every man but me has six thousand dollars in his pocket. Where's he going to?"
"To Shoreham, and he wants to get there by five o'clock, if he can."
"What's he traveling with so much money for?"
"I don't know. It is in his coat pocket, and it would have gone overboard if it hadn't been for me."
The ferryman finished his dinner in moody silence. He seemed to be thinking of the subject always uppermost in his mind, his thoughts stimulated, no doubt, by the fact that his expected passenger carried a large sum of money on his person.
"Mr. Randall is in a hurry, father," interposed Lawry, when the ferryman had sat a good half-hour after his son's arrival.
"He must wait till I get ready. He's got money, and I haven't; but I'm just as good as he is. I don't know why I'm poor when so many men are rich. But I'm going to be rich, somehow or other," said he, with more earnestness than he usually exhibited. "I'm too honest for my own good. I'm going to do as other men do; and I shall wake up rich some morning, as they do. Then I sha'n't have to go when folks blow the horn. They'll be willing to wait for me then."
"Don't keep the gentleman waiting, father," added Mrs. Wilford.
"I'm going to be rich, somehow or other," continued the ferryman, still pursuing the exciting line of thought he had before taken up. "I'm going to be rich, by hook or by crook."
"This making haste to get rich ruins men sometimes, husband; and haste makes waste then."
"If I can only get rich, I'll risk being ruined," said John Wilford, as he rose from the table and put on his hat.
He looked more moody and discontented than usual. Instead of hastening to do the work which was waiting for him, he stood before the window, looking out into the garden. Mrs. Wilford told him the gentleman would be impatient, and he finally left the house and walked down to the ferry-boat.
"I wonder what your father is thinking about," said Mrs. Wilford, as the door closed behind him.
"I don't know," replied Lawry; "he don't seem to be thinking that people won't wait forever for him. I guess I'll go up to Mr. Sherwood's, and see when he wants me."
"You must fix up a little before you go," replied the prudent mother. "They are very grand people up at Mr. Sherwood's, and you must look as well as you can."
"I'll put on my best clothes," added Lawry.
In half an hour he had changed his dress, and looked like another boy. Mrs. Wilford adjusted a few stray locks of his hair, and as he put on his new straw hat, and left the house, her eye followed him with a feeling of motherly pride. He was a good boy, and had the reputation of being a very smart boy, and she may be pardoned for the parental vanity with which she regarded him. While he