Snowflakes and Sunbeams | Page 8

sedentary life will ruin him."
"Ruin him! Humbug!" said Kennedy, who never failed to express his
opinion at the shortest notice and in the plainest language--a fact so
well known by his friends that they had got into the habit of taking no
notice of it. "Humbug!" he repeated, "perfect humbug! You don't mean
to tell me that the way to break him in is to let him run loose and wild
whenever and wherever he pleases?"
"By no means. But you may rest assured that tying him down won't do
it."
"Nonsense!" said Mr. Kennedy testily; "don't tell me. Have I not
broken in young colts by the score? and don't I know that the way to fix
their flints is to clap on a good strong curb?"
"If you had travelled farther south, friend," replied Mr. Grant, "you
would have seen the Spaniards of Mexico break in their wild horses in
a very different way; for after catching one with a lasso, a fellow gets
on his back, and gives it the rein and the whip--ay, and the spur too;
and before that race is over, there is no need for a curb."
"What!" exclaimed Kennedy, "and do you mean to argue from that, that
I should let Charley run--and help him too? Send him off to the woods
with gun and blanket, canoe and tent, all complete?" The old gentleman
puffed a furious puff, and broke into a loud sarcastic laugh.
"No, no," interrupted Mr. Grant; "I don't exactly mean that, but I think
that you might give him his way for a year or so. He's a fine, active,
generous fellow; and after the novelty wore off, he would be in a much
better frame of mind to listen to your proposals. Besides" (and Mr.
Grant smiled expressively), "Charley is somewhat like his father. He
has got a will of his own; and if you do not give him his way, I very
much fear that he'll--"
"What?" inquired Mr. Kennedy abruptly.

"Take it," said Mr. Grant.
The puff that burst from Mr. Kennedy's lips on hearing this would have
done credit to a thirty-six pounder.
"Take it!" said he; "he'd better not."
The latter part of this speech was not in itself of a nature calculated to
convey much; but the tone of the old trader's voice, the contraction of
his eyebrows, and above all the overwhelming flow of cloudlets that
followed, imparted to it a significance that induced the belief that
Charley's taking his own way would be productive of more terrific
consequences than it was in the power of the most highly imaginative
man to conceive.
"There's his sister Kate, now," continued the old gentleman; "she's as
gentle and biddable as a lamb. I've only to say a word, and she's off like
a shot to do my bidding; and she does it with such a sweet smile too."
There was a touch of pathos in the old trader's voice as he said this. He
was a man of strong feeling, and as impulsive in his tenderness as in his
wrath. "But that rascal Charley," he continued, "is quite different. He's
obstinate as a mule. To be sure, he has a good temper; and I must say
for him he never goes into the sulks, which is a comfort, for of all
things in the world sulking is the most childish and contemptible. He
generally does what I bid him, too. But he's always getting into scrapes
of one kind or other. And during the last week, notwithstanding all I
can say to him, he won't admit that the best thing for him is to get a
place in your counting- room, with the prospect of rapid promotion in
the service. Very odd. I can't understand it at all;" and Mr. Kennedy
heaved a deep sigh.
"Did you ever explain to him the prospects that he would have in the
situation you propose for him?" inquired Mr. Grant.
"Can't say I ever did."
"Did you ever point out the probable end of a life spent in the woods?"

"No."
"Nor suggest to him that the appointment to the office here would only
be temporary, and to see how he got on in it?"
"Certainly not."
"Then, my dear sir, I'm not surprised that Charley rebels. You have left
him to suppose that, once placed at the desk here, he is a prisoner for
life. But see, there he is," said Mr. Grant, pointing as he spoke towards
the subject of their conversation, who was passing the window at the
moment; "let me call him, and I feel certain that he will listen to reason
in a few minutes."
"Humph!" ejaculated Mr. Kennedy, "you may try."
In another minute Charley had been summoned, and was seated,