“I am glad to hear it, Tom,” said Herbert, heartily3. “I didn't want to feel that I was depriving you of employment.”
“You are welcome to my place in the store,” said Tom. “I'm glad to give it up. Mr. Graham seemed to think I was made of iron, and I could work like a machine, without getting tired. I hope he pays you more than a dollar and a half a week.”
“He has agreed to pay me three dollars,” said Herbert.
“What! has the old man lost his senses?” he exclaimed. “He must be crazy to offer such wages as that.”
“He didn't offer them. I told him I wouldn't come for less.”
“I don't see how he came to pay such a price.”
“Because he wanted me to take care of the post office. I know all about it, and he doesn't.”
“As soon as he learns, he will reduce your wages.”
“Then I shall leave him.”
“Well, I hope you'll like store work better than I do.”
The next two or three days were spent in removing the post office to one corner of Eben-ezer Graham's store. The removal was superintended by Herbert, who was not interfered5 with to any extent by his employer, nor required to do much work in the store. Our hero was agreeably surprised, and began to think he should get along better than he anticipated.
At the end of the first week the storekeeper, while they were closing the shutters6, said: “I expect, Herbert, you'd just as lieves take your pay in groceries and goods from the store?”
“No, sir,” answered Herbert, “I prefer to be paid in money, and to pay for such goods as we buy.”
“Then if it comes to the same thing,” retorted Herbert, “why do you want to pay me in goods?”
“Ahem! It saves trouble. I'll just charge everything you buy, and give you the balance Saturday night.”
“I should prefer the money, Mr. Graham,” said Herbert, firmly.
So the storekeeper, considerably8 against his will, drew three dollars in bills from the drawer and handed them to his young clerk.
“It's a good deal of money, Herbert,” he said, “for a boy. There ain't many men would pay you such a good salary.”
“I earn every cent of it, Mr. Graham,” said Herbert, whose views on the salary question differed essentially9 from those of his employer.
The next morning Mr. Graham received a letter which evidently disturbed him. Before referring to its contents, it is necessary to explain that he had one son, nineteen years of age, who had gone to Boston two years previous, to take a place in a dry-goods store on Washington Street. Ebenezer Graham, Jr., or Eben, as he was generally called, was, in some respects, like his father. He had the same features, and was quite as mean, so far as others were concerned, but willing to spend money for his own selfish pleasures. He was fond of playing pool, and cards, and had contracted a dangerous fondness for whisky, which consumed all the money he could spare from necessary expenses, and even more, so that, as will presently appear, he failed to meet his board bills regularly. Eben had served an apprenticeship10 in his father's store, having been, in fact, Tom Tripp's predecessor11; he tired of his father's strict discipline, and the small pay out of which he was required to purchase his clothes, and went to Boston to seek a wider sphere.
To do Eben justice, it must be admitted that he had good business capacity, and if he had been able, like his father, to exercise self-denial, and make money-getting his chief enjoyment12, he would no doubt have become a rich man in time. As it was, whenever he could make his companions pay for his pleasures, he did so.
I now come to the letter which had brought disquietude to the storekeeper.
It ran thus:
“DEAR SIR: I understand that you are the father of Mr. Eben Graham, who has been a boarder at my house for the last six months. I regret to trouble you, but he is now owing me six weeks board, and I cannot get a cent out of him, though he knows I am a poor widow, dependent on my board money for my rent and house expenses. As he is a minor13, the law makes you responsible for his bills, and, though I dislike to trouble you, I am obliged, in justice to myself, to ask you to settle his board bill, which I inclose.
“You will do me a great favor if you will send me the amount—thirty dollars—within a week, as my rent is coming due.
“Yours respectfully, SUSAN JONES.”
The feelings of a man like Ebenezer Graham can be imagined when he read this unpleasant missive.
“Thirty dollars!” he groaned14. “What can the graceless boy be thinking of, to fool away his money, and leave his bills to be settled by me. If this keeps on, I shall be ruined! It's too bad, when I am slaving here, for Eben to waste my substance on riotous15 living. I've a great mind to disown him. Let him go his own way, and fetch up in the poorhouse, if he chooses.”
But it is not easy for a man to cast off an only son, even though he is as poorly supplied with natural affections as Ebenezer Graham. Besides, Eben's mother interceded16 for him, and the father, in bitterness of spirit, was about to mail a registered letter to Mrs. Jones, when the cause of his anguish17 suddenly made his appearance in the store.
“How are you, father?” he said, nonchalantly, taking a cigar from his mouth. “Didn't expect to see me, did you?”
“What brings you here, Eben?” asked Mr. Graham, uneasily.
“Well, the cars brought me to Stockton, and I've walked the rest of the way.”
“I've heard of you,” said his father, frowning. “I got a letter last night from Mrs. Jones.”
“She said she was going to write,” said Eben, shrugging his shoulders.
“How came it,” said his father, his voice trembling with anger, “that you haven't paid your board bill for six weeks?”
“I didn't have the money,” said Eben, with a composure which was positively18 aggravating19 to his father.
“And why didn't you have the money? Your wages are ample to pay all your expenses.”
“It costs more money to live in Boston than you think for, father.”
“Don't you get ten dollars a week, sir? At your age I got only seven, and saved two dollars a week.”
“You didn't live in Boston, father.”
“I didn't smoke cigars,” said his father, angrily, as he fixed20 his eye on the one his son was smoking. “How much did you pay for that miserable21 weed?”
“You're mistaken, father. It's a very good article. I paid eight dollars a hundred.”
“Eight dollars a hundred!” gasped22 Mr. Graham. “No wonder you can't pay your board bill—I can't afford to spend my money on cigars.”
“Oh, yes, you can, father, if you choose. Why, you're a rich man.”
“A rich man!” repeated Mr. Graham, nervously23. “It would take a rich man to pay your bills. But you haven't told me why you have come home.”
“I lost my situation, father—some meddlesome24 fellow told my employer that I occasionally played a game of pool, and my tailor came to the store and dunned me; so old Boggs gave me a long lecture and my walking papers, and here I am.”
Ebenezer Graham was sorely troubled, and, though he isn't a favorite of mine, I confess, that in this matter he has my sincere sympathy.
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收听单词发音
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1
joyful
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| adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的 | |
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2
anticipations
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| 预期( anticipation的名词复数 )； 预测； （信托财产收益的）预支； 预期的事物 | |
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3
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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4
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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5
interfered
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| v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 )；调停；妨碍；干涉 | |
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6
shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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7
odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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8
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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9
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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10
apprenticeship
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| n.学徒身份；学徒期 | |
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11
predecessor
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| n.前辈，前任 | |
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12
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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13
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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14
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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15
riotous
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| adj.骚乱的；狂欢的 | |
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16
interceded
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| v.斡旋，调解( intercede的过去式和过去分词 )；说情 | |
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17
anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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18
positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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19
aggravating
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| adj.恼人的，讨厌的 | |
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20
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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21
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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22
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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23
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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24
meddlesome
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| adj.爱管闲事的 | |
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