Will the reader imagine a year to have passed?
During the time several things have happened.
In the first place, Mr. Bowman has invited Charlie to become a member of his family.
In the second place, charmed by the beauty and grace, as well as the more valuable qualities of Mrs. Codman, with whom he has had a good chance of becoming acquainted during her residence in his family, he has invited her to become his wife. Mrs. Codman[300] was taken by surprise, but found this proposition not altogether unwelcome. She had become attached to Bert, who added her persuasions to those of her father, and at length her governess promised to assume to her a nearer relation.
Through the testimony of Randall, the identity of Peter Manson with Peter Thornton was fully established, and the law decided that the miser's wealth must go to Charlie and his mother. It was found to exceed the estimate which had been made of it, verging close upon forty thousand dollars. Including interest for twenty years, all this, and more of right, belonged to those who had so long been defrauded of it.
Mrs. Codman could not help pitying the miserable and disconsolate old man, pinched with privation, which had enfeebled him, and made him old before his time. She continued to allow him the use of the old building which he had occupied so many years, and allowed him a certain sum payable on the first of every month, to provide for his wants.
[301]
The sudden loss of the gold which he had been hoarding up so long did not kill Peter Manson, but it affected his intellect. The habit of avarice never left him. He saved up nine tenths of his allowance, and starved himself on the remainder. Attempts were made to remedy this by bringing him supplies of fuel and provisions, but these he economized as before. One day, when Charlie looked in to see how he was getting along, he beheld a sight which made him start back in affright.
The old man lay stretched out upon the floor cold and dead, with a few gold pieces firmly clutched in his grasp. He had received a sudden summons while engaged in counting over the little gold he had accumulated from his allowance.
So ended the wasted life of Peter Manson, the miser.
From him we turn to others who have figured in these pages.
Randall received the thousand dollars which had been promised as the reward of his disclosure. It appeared as if prosperity,[302] rather than retribution, was to attend him. He succeeded in obtaining the command of a fine ship, with an excellent salary, and sailed with fair prospects. But his tyrannical habits had not deserted him. His unjustifiable abuse aroused the deadly anger of one of the crew, a man of excitable temper, who, before he could be withheld, plunged a knife into his heart one day, just after punishment, killing him instantly.
As for Captain Brace, he, too, demands a word. Brief mention will suffice. In a fit of ungovernable rage he burst a blood-vessel, and he, too, died instantly, without a moment's preparation, in which to repent of the many wrongs he had committed.
From the sad fate of these miserable men we turn gladly to brighter scenes.
Mrs. Codman, now Mrs. Bowman, has had no cause to regret her second choice. Her husband commands her respect and esteem, and makes her very happy. Charlie is now at an excellent school. After he has completed a liberal course of instruction, he will enter the counting-room of his step-father,[303] where, as we cannot doubt, an honorable and useful career awaits him.
As for Bill Sturdy,—honest, brave, stout-hearted Bill Sturdy,—he could not be persuaded to abandon the sea, but now sails as captain of a vessel belonging to Mr. Bowman. He is unboundedly popular with his crew, whom he treats as comrades in whose welfare he is interested. Whenever he is in port, Captain Sturdy dines once with Mr. Bowman. He feels more at his ease now than when he was only a forecastle hand, but he will always be modest and unassuming. He is a prime favorite with Bert, and always brings her home something when he returns from foreign parts.
It is not ours to read the future; but I should not be surprised, when Charlie grows to manhood, if we should find Bert's early choice of him as her husband prophetic.
So we bid farewell to Charlie Codman. His trials and struggles have come early in life, but now his bark has drifted into smoother waters. The sky above him is cloudless.[304] His character has been strengthened by his combat with adversity. Let us hope that his manhood may redeem the promise of his youth, and be graced by all the noblest attributes of humanity.
The End