The Bobbin Boy | Page 4

principle of legislation--discussed other topics--the
lecture gained him much applause--the rumseller Miles was reached
and resolved to quit selling liquor--Johnson his customer attacking him
next morning--their battle of words--the result--delivered the lecture in
neighboring towns--delivered others at home 277-286
CHAPTER XXVIII.
SPEECH-MAKING.
Nat's position--worked for it--bobbin boy father of the orator--so with
other men--Sir James Mackintosh--Audubon--Benjamin West--Eli
Whitney, and what his sister said--poem of Longfellow--interest in
politics--urged to address political bodies--conversation with
Charlie--decides to speak--does so at home and abroad--the adventure
of a political committee, and a good joke--Nat's speech and their
arrangement 287-297
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE EARLY VICTIM.
News that James Cole is frozen--Frank's version of the affair--made
drunk at a grog-shop--lay senseless in the street all night--his previous
character--his good abilities--all sorts of rumors abroad--he revives, but
is still very sick--what the physician says--nearly three months pass--a
funeral described--the last of James Cole--the sexton's view--the
youthful drunkard's grave 298-304
CHAPTER XXX.

THE END.
A quarter of a century passed--what and where is Nat and his
associates--the drunkard--Sam and Ben Drake in prison--power of early
vicious habits--Frank Martin at the head of a public institution--Charlie
Stone agent of one of the wealthiest and best known manufacturing
companies of New England--Marcus Treat a highly distinguished
lawyer in his adopted State--Nat governor of the best State in the
Union--the change--appeal to youth 305-310
CHAPTER I.
A GOOD BEGINNING.
A little patch of ground enclosed by a fence, a few adjacent trees, Nat
with his hoe in hand, his father giving directions, on one of the
brightest May mornings that was ever greeted by the carol of birds, are
the scenes that open to our view.
"There, Nat, if you plant and hoe your squashes with care, you will
raise a nice parcel of them on this piece of ground. It is good soil for
squashes."
"How many seeds shall I put into a hill?" inquired Nat.
"Seven or eight. It is well to put in enough, as some of them may not
come up, and when they get to growing well, pull up all but four in a
hill. You must not have your hills too near together,--they should be
five feet apart, and then the vines will cover the ground all over. I
should think there would be room for fifty hills on this patch of
ground."
"How many squashes do you think I shall raise, father?"
"Well," said his father, smiling, "that is hard telling. We won't count the
chickens before they are hatched. But if you are industrious, and take
very good care indeed of your vines, stir the ground often and keep out
all the weeds, and kill the bugs, I have little doubt that you will get well

paid for your labor."
"If I have fifty hills," said Nat, "and four vines in each hill, I shall have
two hundred vines in all; and if there is one squash on each vine, there
will be two hundred squashes."
"Yes; but there are so many ifs about it that you may be disappointed
after all. Perhaps the bugs will destroy half your vines."
"I can kill the bugs," said Nat.
"Perhaps dry weather will wither them all up."
"I can water them every day if they need it."
"That is certainly having good courage, Nat," added his father, "but if
you conquer the bugs, and get around the dry weather, it may be too
wet and blast your vines, or there may be such a hail storm as I have
known several times in my life, and cut them to pieces."
"I don't think there will be such a hail storm this year; there never was
one like it since I can remember."
"I hope there won't be," replied his father. "It is well to look on the
bright side, and hope for the best for it keeps the courage up. It is also
well to look out for disappointment. I know a gentleman who thought
he would raise some ducks. So he obtained a dozen eggs, and put them
under a hen, and then he hired a man, to make a small artificial pond in
his garden, which he could fill from his well, for the young ducks to
swim in. The time came for the ducks to appear, but not one of the eggs
hatched, and it caused much merriment among the neighbors, and the
man has never heard the last of counting ducks before they are hatched.
I have heard people in the streets and stores say, when some one was
undertaking a doubtful enterprise, 'he is counting ducks.' Now, possibly,
your squashes may turn out like the gentleman's ducks, though I do not
really think it will be so. I speak of it that you may think of these
things."

A sly sort of smile played