"Don"t you like the smell of it?"
"First-rate."
"Then why don"t you take it?"
"Ain"t a going to."
"But _why_?"
And then for the first time his companion spoke:
"Are you a total abstainer?"
"What"s them?"
Both boys stopped to laugh ere they made answer.
"Why people who think it wicked to "touch, taste or handle," you know.
Say, Pliny, did you know there"s quite an excitement on the subject up our way? Old Mousey is round trying to get all the folks to promise not to sell Joe any more brandy."
"Stuff and nonsense!" oracularly p.r.o.nounced Pliny, quoting the unanswerable argument of his elders.
"Fact. And folks say Joe has been drunk more times in a week since than he ever was before."
"Of course, that"s the way it always works, trying to _make_ folks do what they won"t do. Joe ought to be hung, though. What does a fellow want to be a fool for and go and get drunk? But say, Todie, why don"t you drink a drop?"
"I ain"t a going to," was Tode"s only answer.
The two friends looked at each other curiously.
"You"re green," said Pliny, at last.
"Yes," said Tode, promptly, "maybe; so"s the moon."
Whereat the two laughed and strolled away.
"Isn"t he a queer chap?" they said to each other as they went out into the snow.
Meantime Tode looked after them for a moment before he began briskly to gather up the remains of the feast. Tode had some new ideas. He had formerly lived a stratum below the temperance movement; it had scarce troubled his father"s cellar; so he had to-day discovered that there were others besides his mother who prayed their sons not to drink a drop of rum. Also that a young man who went and got drunk was considered a fool by elegant young men, such as he had just been serving. Also, and sharpest, these two evidently thought him "green." If they had said a thief or scamp Tode would have laughed, but "green!" that touched.
"I"ll show them a thing or to, maybe," he said, defiantly, as he seized a pile of plates and vanished.
Now our three babies, nurtured severally in the lace-canopied crib, in the plump-cushioned rocking-chair, in the reeking cellar corner, had come together from their several "spheres" and held their first conversation. Other hungry people came for their dinner and Tode served them, and was very attentive to their wants and their words. A busy life the boy led during these days--a brisk, bustling life, which kept him in a state of perpetual delight. There was something in his nature which answered to all this rush and systematic confusion of business, and rejoiced in it. He liked the air of method and system which even the simplest thing wore; he liked the stated hours for certain duties; the set programme of employment laid out for each; the set places for every thing that was to be handled; the very bells, as with their different tongues they called him hither and thither to different duties, were all so much music to him. He did not know why he chuckled so much over his work; why, at the sound of one of his bells, he gave that quick spring which was so rapidly earning him a reputation for remarkable promptness; but in truth there was that in the boy which met and responded to all these things. Every bit of the clock-work machinery filled him with a kind of glee.
There was another reason why Tode enjoyed his hotel life. He had discovered himself to be an epicure, and an amazing quant.i.ty of the good things of this life fell to his share--no, hardly that--but disappeared mysteriously from shelf and jar and box, and only grave, innocent-looking Tode could have told whither they went. Mince-pies, and cranberry-pies, and lemon-pies, and the whole long catalogue of pies, were equal favorites of his, and huge pieces of them had a way of not being found. Poor Tode, his training-school had been a sad one; the very first principle of honesty was left out of his street education, and the only rule he recognized was one which would a.s.sist him in not being discovered. So he eluded sharp eyes and hoodwinked sharp people; he commended himself for being a cute, and, withal, a lucky fellow. On the whole, although Tode was certainly clad in decent garments, and slept in a comfortable bed, and was to all outward appearances earning a respectable living, I can not say that I think he was really improving.
There were ways and means of leading astray in that hotel, to which even his street life had not given him access; and if anybody"s brain ever appeared ripe for mischief of any sort, it was certainly Tode Mall"s.
Any earthly friend, if he had possessed one, would have watched his course just now with trembling terror, and made predictions of his certain downfall. But Tode had no friend in all that great city; not one who ever gave him a second thought. Christian men came there often, and were faithfully served by the boy whose soul was very precious in their Master"s eyes, but his servants never thought to speak a word to the soul for the Master. Why should they?--it was a hotel, and they had come in to get their dinner; that duty accomplished and they would go forth to attend the missionary meeting, or the Bible meeting, or the tract meeting, or some other good meeting; but those and the hotel dinner were distinct and separate matters, and the little Bibleless heathen, who served them to oysters and coffee, went on his way, and they went theirs. But G.o.d looked down upon them all. As the days pa.s.sed, the three boys, whose lives had been cast in such different molds, met often.
Pliny Hastings liked exceedingly to come to the hotel for his dinner, and, loitering around wherever best suited his fancy, await his father"s carriage. This was very much pleasanter than the long walk alone; and he liked to bring Ben Phillips with him--first, because he was in some respects a generous-hearted boy, and liked to bestow upon Ben the handsome dinners which he knew how to order; and secondly, because he was a pompous boy, and liked to show off his grandeur to his simple friend. Was there another reason never owned even to each other, why these two boys loved to come to that place rather than to their pleasant homes? Did it lie in the bottom of those bright gla.s.ses filled with "something nice and warm," which Pliny never forgot to order? Sometimes little Mrs. Phillips worried, and good-natured Mr. Phillips laughed and "poohed" at her fancies. Sometimes Mr. Hastings sharply forbade his son"s visits to his favorite hotel, and the next windy day sent him thither to dine. Sometimes his fond mother thought his face singularly flushed, and wondered why he suffered so much from headache; but only Tode who had come up in the atmosphere, and knew all about it, cool, indifferent Tode, looked with wise eyes upon the two boys, and remarked philosophically to himself:
"Them two fellows will get drunk some day, fore they know what they"re up to."
[Ill.u.s.tration]
CHAPTER VII.
TWO T"S.
Evil days had fallen upon Tode. He stood before the window with an unmistakable frown on his face. The demon "Ambition" had taken possession of him, and metamorphosed him so that he didn"t know himself.
The Hastings" carriage pa.s.sed in its elegant beauty, and as Tode gazed his frown deepened. Not that he wanted to be seated among the velvet cushions with Mrs. Hastings and Miss Dora. Oh no, he still belonged to that other sphere; but he did long with a burning, absorbing pa.s.sion to be seated on the box, not with the driver, but alone, himself _the_ driver, above all others. Oh to be able to grasp those reins, to guide and direct those two proud-stepping horses, to wind in and out of the crowded street, to drive where no other dared to go, to extricate the wheels very skillfully from among the bewildering confusion, to be a prince among drivers! He could do it, he _knew_ he could, if only he had the chance; but how was that to be had? Poked up here, carrying plates and cups, and cleaning knives, wouldn"t help him to that longed-for place, Tode said, and drummed crossly on the window pane.
Already he was changed in the short s.p.a.ce of six weeks. The clothes clean, and whole, the clean warm bed, the plentiful supply of food, had become every-day affairs to him, and were now just nothing at all in comparison with those prancing horses, and his desire to get dominion over them. Sad results had come of this new desire; all his list of duties had dropped suddenly into entire insignificance, and he had taken to leaving black stains on the knives, and rivers of water on the plates, and being just exactly as long as he chose to be in doing everything. Mr. Roberts was getting out of sorts with him, and things were looking very much as though he would soon be discharged, and permitted to gaze after the black horses with no troublesome interruptions such as came to him at this present moment.
"Bother the coffee and the old fellow who wants it. I hope it will be hot enough to scald him. I"ll drink it half up on the way in, anyhow,"
muttered Tode, as he turned slowly and reluctantly from the window, whence he could see Jonas just getting into a delightful snarl among the wheels. Jonas was Mr. Hastings" coachman. Three gentlemen were waiting for coffee and oysters; two friends talking and laughing while they ate; one, sitting apart from the others, eating with haste and with a preoccupied air. Tode having served them, fell into his accustomed habit of hovering near, ready for service, and making use of his ears.
Curious yet respectful glances were cast now and again at the preoccupied stranger; and when he paid his bill and departed in haste, the two broke into a conversation concerning him.
"Richest man in this city," remarked one of them, swallowing an immense oyster. "Made it all in ten years, too. Came here a youngster twenty-five years ago; had exactly twenty-five cents in the world."
"How did he make his money?" queried his friend.
Whereat Tode drew nearer and listened more sharply. He was immensely interested. He was certainly a youngster, and twenty-five cents was the exact amount of money he possessed.
"I heard a man ask him just that question once, and he answered, book-fashion. He"s a precise sort of a fellow, and it makes me think of Ben Franklin, or some of those fellows who ate and drank and slept by rule.
""Well, sir," he said, drawing himself up in a proud way that he has.
"Well, sir, the method is very simple. I made it a point to live up to three maxims: Do everything exactly in its time. Do everything as well as possible. Learn everything I possibly can about everything that can be learned.""
The two laughed immensely over these directions, then swallowed their last drops of coffee and departed, leaving Tode in an ecstasy of glee.
He had learned how to secure the management of those horses; they were not beyond his reach after all. If so great things were attainable merely from the following out of those simple rules, why then the position of coachman was attainable to him.
"Easy enough thing to do," he said, as he freshened the tables for new comers. "It"s just going straight ahead, pitching into what you"ve got to do, and doing it first-rate, and finding out about everything under the sun as fast as you can. I can do all _that_."
And having reduced the synopsis of all success to language that best suited his style, Tode straightened the cloths and brought fresh napkins, and gave an extra touch to the glittering silver, and managed to throw so much practice from his newly acquired stock in trade into his movements, that Mr. Roberts, pa.s.sing through the room, said within himself: "That queer scamp is improving again. I believe I"ll hold on to him a while longer." So sunshine came back to Tode. Not that he gave up the horses--not he, it was not his way to give up; but he had bright visions in the dim distant future of himself seated grandly on a stylish coach box, and he whistled for joy and pushed ahead.
The very next afternoon Tode was sent on an errand to the Hastings mansion. It wasn"t often he got out in the daytime, so he made the most of his walk; and the voice was fresh and cheery which floated up to Pliny Hastings as he tossed wearily among the pillows in his mother"s room.
"Is that Tode? Yes, it is, I hear his voice. Dora, ring the bell, I want to have him come up here."
"My son--" began Mrs. Hastings.
"Oh now, mother, do let a fellow breathe. I"ve staid poked up here until I"m ready to fly, and he"s just as cute as he can be. Ring the bell, Dora."
Dora obeyed, and in a very few minutes thereafter Tode was ushered into the elegance of Mrs. Hastings" sitting-room.
"_You_ sick," he said, pausing in his work of gazing eagerly about him to bestow a pitying glance on Pliny"s pale face. "Jolly! that"s awful stupid work, ain"t it? What"s the matter?"