 | VI.
PHIL RESIGNS HIS SITUATION. Coupon bonds, and other stories |  |
6. VI.
PHIL RESIGNS HIS SITUATION.
Kermer, on coming up, found the three in consultation.
“How is this, Kermer?” said the president, from under
his rich sleigh-robes.
“Gentlemen,” said Phil, “I 'll tell you just how it is,”
the haggard face and earnest manner of the man commanding
at once their sympathy and respect. “I suppose
I am to blame in this matter.” He hesitated, dropped his
head upon his breast, clinching his hands and his teeth
drunk last night, and I was n't myself this morning.
There 's no use disguising the fact; I don't wish to disguise
it; I don't wish to shirk the consequences. Do
your worst with me, gentlemen. I 'm prepared.”
“But what can we do, Kermer?”
“One thing, certainly. You can discharge a foreman
who has been guilty of such gross neglect of duty. You
can't do less than that. You can do as much more as you
please.”
“But we don't know how to spare you; we don't want to
spare you, Kermer,” said the president. “You have been
a very useful man to us. And this being the first offence
of the kind, which I am sure you will never repeat —”
“It 's no use, sir!” answered the foreman, in a voice
shaken to its depths by strong emotion. “You don't see
your own interests as I see them. You will stand better
with the community if you discharge me. That 's the only
atonement you can make to the boy's friends. They will
feel better. And as an example, gentlemen, you ought to
do it, if for no other reason.”
“How so, Kermer?”
“Because,” said Phil, who seemed to have lived and
thought more in the past two hours than in years before,
and to have come to great conclusions, — “because young
men ought not to be able to say that a foreman in an important
place like mine can keep that place after he has
caused the death of one man, and endangered the lives of
fifty, by getting drunk.”
The president and his two associates on the spot, being
kind-hearted and just men, were greatly embarrassed to
know what to do in the case. If Kermer had approached
them with falsehood and excuse, endeavoring to cast the
blame of the accident upon others, their duty would have
have deserved to be dismissed. But nothing disarms censure
like self-accusation; and the deep remorse he evinced,
yet more by his manner than by his words, seemed the
best guaranty he could give of sober and faithful behavior
in the future.
“There is force in what you say, Kermer,” said one of
the directors. “But the very fact that you say it convinces
me that you are, after all, a man to be trusted.
You have shown great ability and fidelity to our interests
hitherto, and I don't think one such indiscretion ought to
ruin a man. What 's your opinion, gentlemen?”
The other two agreed with him, and proposed that the
decision of the question should be postponed until the next
regular meeting of the board. The truth was, Phil was
too valuable a man to lose.
The foreman was deeply affected, but by no means
persuaded, by this unexpected kindness. He struggled a
moment with his emotions, then said, “Gentlemen, I
thank you, this is so much more than I deserve, but
it can't be as you wish. If you won't discharge me
for the reasons I have given, then discharge me for
my own sake. I can't go on as if nothing had happened.
If I could exchange places with that dead boy
under the ice, I should be contented, I should be quite
happy. Since that can't be, it seems to me that the only
relief I can have will be in punishment. If I don't have
some outward punishment, my inward punishment will be
too great to bear. Let me go to work by the day under
some other foreman, if you still want to keep me.”
“Very well, Kermer,” said the president. “We don't
discharge you, mind, but we accept your resignation, since
you insist upon it, and we hire you by the day.”
“Like any other laborer,” Kermer stipulated.
“Like any other experienced laborer. You won't object
to having charge of a gang of men, under me, will you,
till we can find another foreman? I shall stay and look
after the work myself for the present.”
“I am at your service, gentlemen; drive me,” said
Phil.
And he looked as if he would like to be driven hard.
| VI.
PHIL RESIGNS HIS SITUATION. Coupon bonds, and other stories | |