Prince Dusty: A Story of the Oil Regions

On the evening before they were to go away, Colonel Dale, in his grandson’s name, invited all the citizens of Dustindale to assemble on the lawn in front of the farmhouse.

It was a dark night, but the lawn was brilliantly illuminated by hundreds of natural gas torches, that produced a novel and beautiful effect. When the guests arrived—and everybody accepted the invitation—they found that they were to be entertained with fireworks, by the music of the Dustindale Cornet band, by an address from Colonel Dale, and with a supper.

The address was a short one, but it was received with tremendous applause, for it was a presentation, on behalf of Arthur Dale Dustin, to Dustindale, of the plans for a town-hall, a school-house, and a library, accompanied by the money to build and equip them.

Then the people crowded about Arthur, and wanted to shake hands with him, and thank him, and tell him how sorry they were that he was going away, and he tried to answer every one who spoke to him. He could not remember afterwards what he said to anybody, it was all so confusing; but it must have been just what they wanted him to say, for everybody seemed pleased, and somebody said he was such a fine little fellow that he should have been a Prince. Then somebody else took this up, and said he was a Prince, a young oil Prince; which so pleased the fancy of the people that they at once accepted the title, and cheered again and again for their oil Prince.

The next morning, when Arthur walked with his grandfather down to the station of the new railroad, where they were to take the train, he found a crowd of people gathered about and admiring one of the most beautiful private cars that ever was seen. It was attached to the rear end of the passenger train, which was to be the first ever run over that road, and was so new and fresh-looking that it could evidently never have been used. All of its outside metalwork was of gleaming brass, and in a central panel, encircled by a wreath of roses and butterflies, was inscribed, in golden letters, the name “Cynthia.”

“Just look at that car, grandpapa!” cried Arthur excitedly. “Isn’t it a beauty? and how queer that its name should be Cynthia.”

“It is strange,” answered Colonel Dale with a smile. “Suppose we step aboard and see what the inside looks like.”

They entered by the rear door and found themselves in a beautiful saloon that was furnished with a lounge, table, and easy chairs, and had large plate-glass windows at the end and on both sides. Beyond this was an exquisitely appointed bath-room, and opening from it was a large stateroom, furnished with a low French bedstead, a dressing-table, writing desk, and easy chair. A smaller stateroom opened beyond this one. Still further on they saw a dining-room, at the sides of which were four berths like those in sleeping-cars. Then came a pantry, linen closet, ice chest, and various other conveniences. Last of all was the tiny kitchen, looking like a yacht’s galley, and hung all around with the brightest of cooking utensils.

Arthur was charmed with all that he saw and kept wondering who was to ride in this wonderful palace on wheels. As he peeped into the kitchen he hesitated for a moment and then sprang forward with a cry of joy.

There, with a white cap on his head and a snowy apron tied about his waist, was his own dear old Uncle Phin, his face beaming with delighted anticipation.

“Yes, Honey!” he cried, after the tumult of Arthur’s greeting had somewhat subsided. “I jes had ter come. Ole Unc Phin couldn’ trust you fer ter trabbel wifout him no longer. So I kum to take de charge ob de cookin ob yo kyar.”

“My car!” cried Arthur in amazement. “What does he mean by my car, grandpapa?”

“He means,” replied Colonel Dale, “that this car, the ‘Cynthia,’ and all that it contains is my present to the dearest and best of grandsons, as a slight acknowledgment of what he has done and is doing for me.”

“Do you mean that this is my very own car, to travel in, and live in, and do as I please with, grandpapa?” asked the boy, in a slightly awed tone, as the full import of what he had just heard began to dawn upon him.

“Precisely that,” was the answer. “And in it, if you choose, we will travel together over all the important railways of the country, while you are taking a course of object lessons in the study of how to become a railroad man. How do you like that for a plan?”

“Why, I never dreamed of one half so splendid!” cried the happy boy. “It is more like a real fairy tale than anything I ever heard of.”

Just then a young man, in a handsome blue uniform with shining brass buttons, stepped into the car, and touching his cap to Colonel Dale announced that it was time for the train to start.

Arthur stared at him for a moment and then exclaimed: “Brakeman Joe! Is it Brakeman Joe?”

“Conductor Joe, if you please, sir,” said the young man, looking immensely proud and pleased. “Conductor of this car, and at your orders to take her wherever you may choose to have her go.”

Then, amid the firing of guns, the cheering of the assembled people, and a great chorus of “good-bye” and “come back again soon,” the train moved slowly off, and Arthur had begun his second journey toward Dalecourt. But under what different circumstances from the other was this journey undertaken.

As Arthur sat for a while, perfectly still and thinking it all over, his heart was too full of happiness and gratitude for expression in words. At length he said:

“Grandpapa, I do believe that I am the very happiest boy in the world, and I do wish that all other boys could be as happy as I am.”

“I am afraid that all boys do not deserve to be,” replied his grandfather, smiling; “though, of course, a great many of them do. At any rate, you now have it in your power to add very greatly to the happiness of all the deserving and unhappy boys whom you may meet. I do not know of any better use to which you can put the great wealth that has been so wonderfully given you; and I am willing you should expend just as much money as you see fit in that way. The very best use we can put money to, is to make others happy with it.”

“I think so, too,” exclaimed the boy, with flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes; “and I would rather spend all the money you can spare in making people happy, than to do anything else in the world with it. Can’t we begin with the people who were good and kind to me, when I was trying to get to you, last year?”

“Of course, we can,” answered Colonel Dale. “I had thought of them, and have planned this journey so as to follow as nearly as possible the same route that you and Uncle Phin took, and find all the people we can who were kind to you.”

They began to carry out this delightful plan of making people happy that very day, by having the “Cynthia” side-tracked at the station nearest to where the Chapmans lived, and driving to their house.

Nothing could exceed the astonishment of this kind-hearted family at again seeing Arthur, and hearing of all the marvellous things that had happened to him since they last met. Mr. Chapman hitched up his team, and with his wife, and Bert, and Sue, drove over to the railway station, to take dinner with Arthur and his grandfather in the beautiful car.

There they renewed their acquaintance with Uncle Phin, and made him feel very proud, by praising his cooking, and eating heartily of all the good things that he had provided.

After dinner, Arthur said he wanted to tell them a fairy story, instead of reading one to them, as he had done before. It was all about a pretty cottage, near a large city, that had been bought in their name, and was waiting for them. There was also employment waiting for Mr. Chapman in that city, and schools to which Mrs. Chapman could send the children. In the cottage waited the biggest doll that was ever seen for little Sue, while in the cottage stable waited a pony for Bert. The best part of this fairy story was, that it was every word true.

The next stop of the “Cynthia” was in Pittsburgh, where Colonel Dale, and Arthur, and Uncle Phin, all went to see good Aunt Charity, and left the dear old soul staring in tearful amazement at a check for a larger amount of money than she had ever seen in all her life. It was given her for the education of the twins, who were to be brought up to “de whitewash an de kalsomine bizness.”

Then they went to Harrisburg, where Conductor Tobin’s little house, not far from the railroad, was bought and presented to him, to be his very own for always, and where Kitty Tobin was given the handsomest copy of “Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales” that could be procured.

As they were walking back to the car from Conductor Tobin’s house, a boy with a bundle of papers under his arm, stared intently at Arthur for a moment, and then sprang directly in front of him exclaiming:

“Don’t yer know me? I’m de kid what you licked one time.”

“Why, of course I know you!” cried Arthur, holding out his hand, “and I am very glad to see you. How do you do, Kid?”

Then the Kid said his name was Billy Grimes, and that ever since he heard Arthur read that story he had been trying to be something better than an ugly duck. He had run away from his father in Pittsburgh, soon after meeting Arthur, because the big tramp wanted to make him steal for a living, and had gradually worked his way to Harrisburg, where he was trying to be an honest newsboy.

The result of this fortunate second meeting with Arthur was that, in less than a month from that time, Master William Grimes was entered as a pupil in one of the best military schools of the country. There he is working so hard and doing so well that, before long nobody will remember that he ever was an “ugly duckling.”

In Washington Colonel Dale went to call on an old friend, and took Arthur with him. To the boy’s surprise and delight, this friend proved to be the very gentleman to whom he had sold his dog Rusty. The dog was still there, and manifested such extravagant joy at again seeing his former master that the gentleman laughingly said it would be cruel to part such loving friends any longer. So the dear dog, now more handsome and knowing than ever, was again presented to the boy who had once fought to save him from a beating, and Arthur said this was the happiest thing of the whole journey.

The next day they were once more at Dalecourt, and the very first person Arthur saw, standing in the doorway as he and Rusty sprang from the carriage, was Cynthia. Colonel Dale had invited her to come to Dalecourt to be educated and to live as his daughter, and her father had consented that she should.

Miss Hatty had been engaged all summer in restoring Dalecourt to even more than its former glory, so that now it was one of the most beautiful places in Virginia.

Here we must leave the boy whose wanderings and fortunes we have followed for a year. Although he is no longer poor, he studies and works just as hard as though he were, and is all the happier for so doing. He is still determined to be a railroad man when he grows up, and he still finds his chief pleasure in turning other people’s sorrow into happiness.

On that first evening at Dalecourt Miss Hatty went up to his room to take away the light after he had gone to bed. He was just dropping to sleep as she bent over him, and kissing his forehead said softly: “Good-night and pleasant dreams to you, my dear little Prince Dusty!”