Paul Prescotts Charge | Page 3

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ALGER SERIES FOR BOYS. UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME.
BY HORATIO ALGER, JR. {about 50 titles}

TO The Boys WHOSE MEMORY GOES BACK WITH ME TO THE
BOARDING SCHOOL AT POTOWOME THIS VOLUME IS
AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE ----
"PAUL PRESCOTT'S CHARGE" is presented to the public as the
second volume of the Campaign Series. Though wholly unlike the first
volume, it is written in furtherance of the same main idea, that every
boy's life is a campaign, more or less difficult, in which success
depends upon integrity and a steadfast adherence to duty.
How Paul Prescott gained strength by battling with adverse
circumstances, and, under all discouragements, kept steadily before him
the charge which he received from his dying father, is fully told; and
the author will be glad if the record shall prove an incentive and an
encouragement to those boys who may have a similar campaign before
them.

PAUL PRESCOTT'S CHARGE.

I.
SQUIRE NEWCOME.
"HANNAH!"
The speaker was a tall, pompous-looking man, whose age appeared to
verge close upon fifty. He was sitting bolt upright in a high- backed
chair, and looked as if it would be quite impossible to deviate from his
position of unbending rigidity.
Squire Benjamin Newcome, as he was called, in the right of his
position as Justice of the Peace, Chairman of the Selectmen, and
wealthiest resident of Wrenville, was a man of rule and measure. He
was measured in his walk, measured in his utterance, and measured in
all his transactions. He might be called a dignified machine. He had a
very exalted conception of his own position, and the respect which he
felt to be his due, not only from his own household, but from all who
approached him. If the President of the United States had called upon
him, Squire Newcome would very probably have felt that he himself
was the party who conferred distinction, and not received it.
Squire Newcome was a widower. His wife, who was as different from
himself as could well be conceived, did not live long after marriage.
She was chilled to death, as it was thought, by the dignified iceberg of
whose establishment she had become a part. She had left, however, a
child, who had now grown to be a boy of twelve. This boy was a thorn
in the side of his father, who had endeavored in vain to mould him
according to his idea of propriety. But Ben was gifted with a spirit of
fun, sometimes running into mischief, which was constantly bursting
out in new directions, in spite of his father's numerous and rather prosy
lectures.
"Han-nah!" again called Squire Newcome, separating the two syllables
by a pause of deliberation, and strongly accenting the last syllable,--a
habit of his with all proper names.

Hannah was the Irish servant of all work, who was just then engaged in
mixing up bread in the room adjoining, which was the kitchen.
Feeling a natural reluctance to appear before her employer with her
hands covered with dough, she hastily washed them. All this, however,
took time, and before she responded to the first summons, the second
"Han-nah!" delivered with a little sharp emphasis, had been uttered.
At length she appeared at the door of the sitting-room.
"Han-nah!" said Squire Newcome, fixing his cold gray eye upon her,
"when you hear my voice a calling you, it is your duty to answer the
summons IMMEJIATELY."
I have endeavored to represent the Squire's pronunciation of the last
word.
"So I would have come IMMEJOUSLY," said Hannah, displaying a
most reprehensible ignorance, "but me hands were all covered with
flour."
"That makes no difference," interrupted the Squire. "Flour is an
accidental circumstance."
"What's that?" thought Hannah, opening her eyes in amazement.
"And should not be allowed to interpose an obstacle to an IMMEJIATE
answer to my summons."
"Sir," said Hannah, who guessed at the meaning though she did not
understand the words, "you wouldn't have me dirty the door- handle
with me doughy hands?"
"That could easily be remedied by ablution."
"There ain't any ablution in the house," said the mystified Hannah.
"I mean," Squire Newcome condescended to explain, "the application
of water--in short, washing."

"Shure," said Hannah, as light broke in upon her mind, "I never knew
that was what they called it before."
"Is Ben-ja-min at home?"
"Yes, sir. He was out playin'