Read "Haste and Waste" by Oliver Optic online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Lawry was no lawyer, and was therefore unable to form an opinion in regard to the legality of the steps by which the _Woodville_ had been taken from him. It was an accomplished fact, and he was as disconsolate as though he had lost his best friend. He went on shore, and until the peremptory order of the sheriff was given, he expected to see the steamer shoot out from the wharf and disappear beyond the point, in charge of another person than himself.
He had refused to pilot the steamer under the new order of things, not because he wished to be spiteful to his brother, but because he was smarting under a sense of injustice, which unfitted him for the duty. Though he did not comprehend the legal measures which had been taken, he felt that there was something wrong. The _Woodville_ belonged to him, not to his father; and though he was willing to give all his earnings for the support of the family, and even to pay off the mortgage on the place, he felt that it was not right to take the steamer from him.