doing something wrong."
"Is that your uncle on board of the steamer?" asked Mr. Hawlinshed,
indicating the captain, who had seated himself with his sister and niece
on the hurricane deck. "I wish you would introduce me to him, and I will
soon set you right."
Dory conducted him to the presence of the captain and his mother, and
introduced him to both of them. Mr. Hawlinshed told the whole story of
his relations with his unfortunate son, who was now in jail. He related
the particulars of the scene in the woods, and assured them that he had
given Dory one hundred and five dollars for the good service he had
rendered on that occasion.
"I am very glad to have this matter cleared up," said Captain Gildrock.
"I am happy now," added Mrs. Dornwood. "That money had worried me ever
since I heard of it."
"I should not have allowed your nephew to buy that boat if I had known
what he was going to do with the money," added Mr. Hawlinshed. "I think
that boats have been the ruin of my boy; and, when they are used to take
any and every body out for a frolic, they seem to me to be worse than
bar-rooms and other bad places," continued Mr. Hawlinshed.
"My sentiments exactly!" exclaimed Captain Gildrock, looking at Dory.
"Of course I don't think there is any thing bad in the boat itself; but
my son was going to take out parties, and make a business of it. Some
very fair sort of men leave all their good behavior at home when they go
off on these boat-scrapes, and I don't like to have a boy of mine with
them at such times."
Dory felt very uneasy during this conversation. He began to have his
doubts about the business in which he had engaged. There was nothing bad
in the use of boats, but Captain Gildrock contended that a man ought to
be as careful in regard to whom he took into his boat as into his house.
It was not the boat or the boating to which Mr. Hawlinshed and Dory's
uncle objected, but only to the miscellaneous parties he would be
obliged to take out in order to earn his living.
Mr. Hawlinshed did not care to have the story of the scene in the woods
repeated at this time; for it might make it go harder with Pearl on his
trial. But those to whom he had told it were too glad to have Dory's
secret cleared up to care any thing more about the matter, though they
were full of sympathy for the unhappy father.
Mr. Hawlinshed went back to his hotel. The New Yorkers finished their
survey of the Sylph; and she soon left with
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