e with them a
great deal. The few carpenters among Mr. Bull's relations did not like
this very well, but the old man said to them squarely, "Look you here,
now, d'ye think I'm going to let fifty of my relatives stand still
because two or three of you, who can't build boats as well as Sam's
people, are growling about it? That's not my way; I work for the good
of my family at large. Go to work, now, and see if you can invent a
better boat than they build; if you can, I will employ you, and so
will Sam." They took the old man's advice, for they saw the sense of
it, and in a short time they studied out a craft superior in every
respect to anything they had before, or that Sam had now. "That's
right, boys," exclaimed old Bull, rubbing his hands with glee, "now
build some of them, and I'll buy them of you, and so will Sam if he
isn't a fool." They did build some excellent boats, to which the
public took at once; and everybody who wanted to cross the river, or
to send any goods over immediately, gave Mr. Bull their custom. He
grew rich suddenly, not so much from _building_ boats as from _using_
them. Nobody patronized Sam's now old-fashioned craft. Uncle Sam,
generally supposed to be a "smart old cuss," couldn't understand it at
all. "It's one of those things that no fellow can find out," he said,
"but next time we have a family meeting we'll appoint a committee to
get at what this here 'decadence' comes from." So he appointed a
committee, and they ran around six months among the carpenters of the
family, and came back with a report that "Whereas, a few years ago,
during a family row, a lot of old ferry boats had been stolen by or
sold to Mr. Bull, this had killed boat building ever since and it
always would be dead until every one of the family put their hands in
their pockets and supported the carpenters till they had learned to
build just such boats as Bull was using." In the meantime it may be
remarked that the Dutchman had got Bull's boys to build some new boats
for him, and he was now doing a better business than he had ever done
before. Uncle Sam looked on and observed, "By jingo, this here's a
fix; I've asked my family to hand over the cash to support these
carpenters of mine, and they say they'll see me----; well, never mind
what, and now that whole raft of boys, who were earning money for me
on the ferry, are digging clams or gone to farming, and when I want to
go across the river I have to go with Bull or the Dutchma