CHAPTER XIV.
HARRY BECOMES AN AUTHOR.
The closing of the Academy made quite a difference in the life ofCentreville. The number of boarding scholars was about thirty, andthese, though few in number, were often seen in the street and at thepostoffice, and their withdrawal left a vacancy. Harry Walton feltquite lonely at first; but there is no cure for loneliness likeoccupation, and he had plenty of that. The greater part of the daywas spent in the printing office, while his evenings and earlymornings were occupied in study and reading. He had become very muchinterested in French, in which he found himself advancing rapidly.Occasionally he took tea at Mr. Ferguson's, and this he alwaysenjoyed; for, as I have already said, he and Ferguson held verysimilar views on many important subjects. One evening, at the houseof the latter, he saw a file of weekly papers, which proved, onexamination, to be back numbers of the "Weekly Standard," a literarypaper issued in Boston.
"I take the paper for my family," said Ferguson. "It contains quitea variety of reading matter, stories, sketches and essays."
"It seems quite interesting," said Harry.
"Yes, it is. I will lend you some of the back numbers, if you like."
"I would like it. My father never took a literary paper; his meanswere so limited that he could not afford it."
"I think it is a good investment. There are few papers from whichyou cannot obtain in a year more than the worth of the subscription.Besides, if you are going to be an editor, it will be useful for youto become familiar with the manner in which such papers areconducted."
When Harry went home he took a dozen copies of the paper, and sat uplate reading them. While thus engaged an idea struck him. It wasthis: Could not he write something which would be accepted forpublication in the "Standard"? It was his great ambition to learn towrite for the press, and he felt that he was old enough to commence.
"If I don't succeed the first time, I can try again," he reflected.
The more he thought of it, the more he liked the plan. It is verypossible that he was influenced by the example of Franklin, who,while yet a boy in his teens, contributed articles to his brother'spaper though at the time the authorship was not suspected. Finallyhe decided to commence writing as soon as he could think of asuitable subject. This he found was not easy. He could think ofplenty of subjects of which he was not qualified to write, or inwhich he felt little interest; but he rightly decided that he couldsucceed better with something that had a bearing upon his ownexperience or hopes for the future.
Finally he decided to write on Ambition.
I do not propose to introduce Harry's essay in these pages, but willgive a general idea of it, as tending to show his views of life.
He began by defining ambition as a desire for superiority, by whichmost men were more or less affected, though it manifested itself invery different ways, according to the character of him with whom itwas found. Here I will quote a passage, as a specimen of Harry'sstyle and mode of expression.
"There are some who denounce ambition as wholly bad and to be avoidedby all; but I think we ought to make a distinction between true andfalse ambition. The desire of superiority is an honorable motive, ifit leads to honorable exertion. I will mention Napoleon as anillustration of false ambition, which is selfish in itself, and hasbrought misery and ruin, to prosperous nations. Again, there aresome who are ambitious to dress better than their neighbors, andtheir principal thoughts are centred upon the tie of their cravat, orthe cut of their coat, if young men; or upon the richness and styleof their dresses, if they belong to the other sex. Beau Brummel is anoted instance of this kind of ambition. It is said that fully halfof his time was devoted to his toilet, and the other half todisplaying it in the streets, or in society. Now this is a very lowform of ambition, and it is wrong to indulge it, because it is awaste of time which could be much better employed."
Harry now proceeded to describe what he regarded as a true andpraiseworthy ambition. He defined it as a desire to excel in whatwould be of service to the human race, and he instanced his oldFranklin, who, induced by an honorable ambition, worked his way up toa high civil station, as well as a commanding position in thescientific world. He mentioned Columbus as ambitious to extend thelimits of geographical knowledge, and made a brief reference to thedifficulties and discouragements over which he triumphed on the wayto success. He closed by an appeal to boys and young men to directtheir ambition into worthy channels, so that even if they could notleave behind a great name, they might at least lead useful lives, andin dying have the satisfaction of thinking that they done someservice to the race.
This will give a very fair idea of Harry's essay. There was nothingremarkable about it, and no striking originality in the ideas, but itwas very creditably expressed for a boy of his years, and did evenmore credit to his good judgment, since it was an unfolding of theprinciples by which he meant to guide his own life.
It must not be supposed that our hero was a genius, and that he wrotehis essay without difficulty. It occupied him two evenings to writeit, and he employed the third in revising and copying it. It coveredabout five pages of manuscript, and, according to his estimate, wouldfill about two-thirds of a long column in the "Standard."
After preparing it, the next thing was to find a _nom de plume_, forhe shrank from signing his own name. After long consideration, he atlast decided upon Franklin, and this was the name he signed to hismaiden contribution to the press.
He carried it to the post-office one afternoon, after his work in theprinting office was over, and dropped it unobserved into theletter-box. He did not want the postmaster to learn his secret, ashe would have done had he received it directly from him, and notedthe address on the envelope.
For the rest of the week, Harry went about his work weighed down withhis important secret--a secret which he had not even shared withFerguson. If the essay was declined, as he thought it might verypossibly be, he did not want any one to know it. If it wereaccepted, and printed, it would be time enough then to make it known.But there were few minutes in which his mind was not on his literaryventure. His preoccupation was observed by his fellow-workmen in theoffice, and he was rallied upon it, good-naturedly, by Ferguson, butin a different spirit by Clapp.
"It seems to me you are unusually silent, Harry," said Ferguson."You're not in love, are you?"
"Not that I know of," said Harry, smiling. "It's rather too earlyyet."
"I've known boys of your age to fancy themselves in love."
"He is is more likely thinking up some great discovery," said Clapp,sneering. "You know he's a second Franklin."
"Thank you for the compliment," said our hero, good-humoredly, "but Idon't deserve it. I don't expect to make any great discovery atpresent."
"I suppose you expect to set the river on fire, some day," saidClapp, sarcastically.
"I am afraid it wouldn't do much good to try," said Harry, who wastoo sensible to take offence. "It isn't so easily done."
"I suppose some day we shall be proud of having been in the sameoffice with so great a man," pursued Clapp.
"Really, Clapp, you're rather hard on our young friend," saidFerguson. "He doesn't put on any airs of superiority, or pretend toanything uncommon."
"He's very kind--such an intellect as he's got, too!" said Clapp.
"I'm glad you found it out," said Harry. "I haven't a very high ideaof my intellect yet. I wish I had more reason to do so."
Finding that he had failed in his attempt to provoke Harry by hisridicule, Clapp desisted, but he disliked him none the less.
The fact was, that Clapp was getting into a bad way. He had no highaim in life, and cared chiefly for the pleasure of the presentmoment. He had found Luke Harrison a congenial companion, and theyhad been associated in more than one excess. The morning previous,Clapp had entered the printing office so evidently under theinfluence of liquor, that he had been sharply reprimanded by Mr.Anderson.
"I don't choose to interfere with you
r mode of life, unwise andruinous as I may consider it," he said, "as long as it does notinterfere with your discharge of duty. But to-day you are clearlyincapacitated for labor, and I have a right to complain. If ithappens again, I shall be obliged to look for another journeyman."
Clapp did not care to leave his place just at present, for he had nomoney saved up, and was even somewhat in debt, and it might be sometime before he got another place. So he rather sullenly agreed to bemore careful in future, and did not go to work till the afternoon.But though circumstances compelled him to submit, it put him in badhumor, and made him more disposed to sneer than ever. He had anunreasoning prejudice against Harry, which was stimulated by LukeHarrison, who had this very sufficient reason for hating our hero,that he had succeeded in injuring him. As an old proverb has it "Weare slow to forgive those whom we have injured."
Risen from the Ranks; Or, Harry Walton's Success Page 14