' so mean to her jes' afore she was took; an'
I'm thinkin' he has some kind of feelin's in respecks of her, all the
more mebbe as he thinks he's goin' to get off 'thout any more
punishment than what he got; an' I don't bear no grudge agin that Dutch
flower-man for what he done to him,--an' isn't he a Dutchy though!
'Pears like he ain't never studied no grammar nor good English, nor
nothin', an' them's my opinions. He do talk the funniest, an' mos'
times I don't hardly make no sense of it. But," with a heavy,
long-drawn sigh, "what was yer both of ye thinkin' it was bes' to do?"

"We have thought, captain," answered uncle Rutherford, to whom father
left all explanations, "we have thought it would be best and wisest, if
you and his grandmother and mother agree, to send Theodore to a
boarding-school on Long Island, where he will be kept under very strict
discipline and supervision."

"Supervision! an' what may that be, Gov'nor, askin' yer pardon?" said
the old man, as uncle Rutherford paused for a moment to see how he
would take his proposal.

Uncle Rutherford explained, and, seeing that he must confine himself to
simple words, went on,--

"We know the gentleman in charge, and believe that he will have an
especial eye to Theodore if we ask him to do so; and he is an excellent
teacher, and will bring him on in his studies. If Theodore does well
there for a year or two, and shows himself fit to be trusted, we may
then remove him to a different and higher school, where he may still
fit himself to be a man, and a help and comfort to you. He has his
future in his own hands; let him do well, and Mr. Livingstone and I
will see that he is provided for till he is fitted to take care of
himself; but an opportunity which might have been his"--O, dear uncle
Rutherford, why need you have told this?--"must pass to another who has
better deserved it. Do you feel that you can part with the boy, and let
him go to boarding-school?"

"I reckon I ain't goin' to have much feelin's agin it," answered the
captain, whose face had assumed an expression of intense relief as
uncle Rutherford unfolded his plans. "I don't set such a heap by the
boy as to set my face against his goin' to the boardin'-school, if it
do be stric'; it'll do him good; an' he ain't got roun' me so's the
other gran'children have, an' I'd a sight rather we had Jim for a
gran'boy than this one, if he is my own flesh an' blood, as they say. I
ain't never took no stock in h