The Gilded Age, Part 3. eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 78 pages of information about The Gilded Age, Part 3..

The Gilded Age, Part 3. eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 78 pages of information about The Gilded Age, Part 3..

Sellers found the mob quiet enough when he reached the Landing.  They had gutted the Navigation office, then piled the beautiful engraved stock-books and things in the middle of the floor and enjoyed the bonfire while it lasted.  They had a liking for the Colonel, but still they had some idea of hanging him, as a sort of make-shift that might answer, after a fashion, in place of more satisfactory game.

But they made the mistake of waiting to hear what he had to say first.  Within fifteen minutes his tongue had done its work and they were all rich men.—­He gave every one of them a lot in the suburbs of the city of Stone’s Landing, within a mile and a half of the future post office and railway station, and they promised to resume work as soon as Harry got east and started the money along.  Now things were blooming and pleasant again, but the men had no money, and nothing to live on.  The Colonel divided with them the money he still had in bank—­an act which had nothing surprising about it because he was generally ready to divide whatever he had with anybody that wanted it, and it was owing to this very trait that his family spent their days in poverty and at times were pinched with famine.

When the men’s minds had cooled and Sellers was gone, they hated themselves for letting him beguile them with fine speeches, but it was too late, now—­they agreed to hang him another time—­such time as Providence should appoint.

CHAPTER XXVI.

Rumors of Ruth’s frivolity and worldliness at Fallkill traveled to Philadelphia in due time, and occasioned no little undertalk among the Bolton relatives.

Hannah Shoecraft told another, cousin that, for her part, she never believed that Ruth had so much more “mind” than other people; and Cousin Hulda added that she always thought Ruth was fond of admiration, and that was the reason she was unwilling to wear plain clothes and attend Meeting.  The story that Ruth was “engaged” to a young gentleman of fortune in Fallkill came with the other news, and helped to give point to the little satirical remarks that went round about Ruth’s desire to be a doctor!

Margaret Bolton was too wise to be either surprised or alarmed by these rumors.  They might be true; she knew a woman’s nature too well to think them improbable, but she also knew how steadfast Ruth was in her purposes, and that, as a brook breaks into ripples and eddies and dances and sports by the way, and yet keeps on to the sea, it was in Ruth’s nature to give back cheerful answer to the solicitations of friendliness and pleasure, to appear idly delaying even, and sporting in the sunshine, while the current of her resolution flowed steadily on.

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The Gilded Age, Part 3. from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.