Bernard Brooks' Adventures: The Experience of a Plucky Boy

“Is Professor Puffer on board?” he asked.

“Yes, sir; he is in the cabin.”

“Thank you.”

They proceeded to the cabin, where they found the professor. He was a short, rather stout man, with a red face, scanty hair, and a green shade covering the lost eye.

Mr. McCracken went up and shook his hand.

“Professor Puffer,” he said, “I have brought Bernard Brooks, your new secretary. I hope he will prove satisfactory.”

Professor Puffer turned his glance towards Bernard, whom he examined attentively. Then he said, in a deep bass voice: “I have taken him on your recommendation, Mr. McCracken. You know what I want. If you say he will suit me I have no doubt he will. Young man, I hope we shall get on well together.”

“I hope so, sir.”

“Has your guardian acquainted you with the details of your engagement?”

“He hasn’t told me exactly what I will have to do.”

“You will learn in good time,” said the professor, with a wave of his hand.

“Whatever the duties are I will try to give you satisfaction.”

“All right!”

“You can look about the vessel, Bernard,” said Mr. McCracken, “while the professor and I have a little conversation.”

“All right, sir. I shall be glad to do so.”

So Bernard walked about the ship and watched with interest the preparations for departure. It was all new to him, and he could not help feeling elated when he reflected that he was about to see something of foreign countries, while at the same time earning his living.

He was obliged to confess that Professor Puffer did not come up to his expectations. In fact, he looked like anything but a literary man or professor. Bernard had imagined a tall, slender man, with a high intellectual brow, a pale face, an air of refinement and cultivation, and a quiet manner. Professor Puffer was quite the reverse. He looked more like a sailor, and his red face seemed to indicate that he was not a member of a total abstinence society.

“I never in the world should think that he was a professor,” reflected Bernard. “However, appearances are not always to be trusted, and he may be very intellectual, though he certainly does not look so. I do hope we shall get along well together.”

He was interrupted in his reflections by the appearance of Mr. McCracken on deck.

“I shall have to say good-by, Bernard,” said his guardian, “as the vessel is about ready to start. I hope you will be a good boy and give satisfaction to Professor Puffer. If you do not, you cannot expect me to do anything more for you.”

“No, sir, I won’t. I thank you for procuring me the situation. I will try to justify your recommendation.”

“All right! Well, good-by.”

It might have been supposed that Mr. McCracken would have shaken hands with Bernard now that he was about to go away to a distant point and for an indefinite time, but he did not offer to do it, and Bernard on the whole was glad to have it so. He felt a physical repulsion for Mr. McCracken which he could not explain, and preferred to dispense with all signs of friendliness.

He felt rather relieved, too, when Mr. McCracken had left the vessel, and he had seen the last of him, for a time at least.

The preparations for departure continued. The sailors were busy, and soon the vessel left her wharf, and was towed out into the stream. Bernard watched the shipping in the harbor, the ferry-boats darting here and there, the Jersey shore, and later the spires and warehouses of the great city on the other side of the river. He rather wondered why he did not see Professor Puffer, but that gentleman had gone below. At length Bernard thought it time to inquire the whereabouts of his employer. The steward led him below, and pointed to the door of a stateroom. He knocked at the door, and did not at first have a reply. A second knock elicited an indistinct sound which he interpreted as “Come in!”

He opened the door and saw the professor lying in the lower berth in what appeared to be a stupor.

“Don’t you feel well, Professor Puffer?” asked Bernard.

“Who are you?” returned the professor, with a tipsy hiccough.

This, with the undeniable smell of liquor, and a whisky bottle on the floor, showed clearly enough what was the matter with the professor.

Bernard was shocked. He had always had a horror of intemperance, and he regarded his corpulent employer with ill-concealed disgust.

“I am Bernard Brooks, your new secretary,” he answered.

“Thatsh all right! Take a drink,” returned the professor, trying to indicate the bottle.

“No, thank you. I am not thirsty,” said Bernard.

“Give it to me, then.”

Much against his will Bernard handed the bottle to his learned employer, who poured down the small amount that was left in it.

“Thatsh good!” he ejaculated.

“Have I got to occupy the room with a man like that?” thought Bernard, with disgust. “I hope there are very few professors like Professor Puffer.”

CHAPTER XIV. SOME OF THE PASSENGERS

Bernard had always cherished high respect for literary men and professors, though it must be confessed that he did not venerate Professor Snowdon. To find Professor Puffer an inebriate was certainly a shock to him. Still, he remembered that Burns had been intemperate, and that Byron loved gin, and that in spite of his taste for whisky Professor Puffer might be a learned man.

The next day the professor was sober, partly, perhaps, because his supply of drink had given out. Bernard resolved to get better acquainted with him.

“Professor Puffer,” he said, after breakfast, “I am ready to begin work whenever you please.”

“All right! Have you been seasick?”

“No, sir.”

“I thought perhaps for the first three or four days you might be affected.”

“I thought so, too, as I am not used to the sea, but I haven’t had any trouble yet, so that I can go to work any time you desire.”

“I shan’t undertake to do any work on the ship, Mr. – what is your name?”

“Brooks – Bernard Brooks.”

“Just so. I shall remember after a while.”

“I am very much obliged to you for giving me a situation when you don’t know any more of me.”

“Oh, Mr. McCracken spoke for you. A sharp man is Mr. McCracken.”