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Chapter 8: “Lock, Stock, and Bookkeeper”
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Hard Work, Perseverance, and Success
Safety and Responsibility
Risk and Reward
The Growth and Development of America
Courage and Grief
Summary
Analysis
After his conversation with Mr. Ward, Nat closes the chandlery and returns to his room in Mr. Hodges’ home. Suddenly, he realizes that he’s about to lose this, too; an apprentice lives with his master. He will have to move in with Mr. Ward. But while he struggles to accept this fact, Mr. Hodges knocks on the door. He knows Mr. Ward already spoke to Nat, but he has one other piece of business with the young man: he invites Nat to continue living in his home. Nat readily accepts, grateful to keep his view of the harbor.
The title of this chapter, “Anchor to Windward” evokes Father’s shipwreck and describes how he tried to keep himself from disaster by dropping anchor to hold the ship in place. Likewise, Mr. Hodges’s generous offer allows Nat to find some solid ground on which to stand as he faces his disappointment over his lost dream of returning to school.
Themes
One day in late July, Lizza stops by the chandlery to visit Nat. He tells her that she’s gotten twice as pretty each year since she was eight and they moved back to Salem. She laughs over his arithmetical compliment, calculating that she’s 22 times as pretty. But Nat corrects her figuring, explaining that it doubles exponentially, so now she’s 2,048 times as beautiful. But despite her beauty, Nat notes, she looks concerned. She explains that she’s worried about Mary, who loves David Martin but refuses to marry him because he’s a sailor. Nat concedes that a life at sea is hard and dangerous; the newspaper recently reported that in nearby Marblehead, 1,234 of 6,000 residents are widows and orphans thanks to the sea. Lizza wants Nat to talk sense into Mary; despite the dangers, she loves David and Lizza wants them to marry.
Nat’s oddly expressed compliment to Lizza proves that he’s continued to learn, even outside of the formal school system. And, despite her comparative lack of education (unlike Hab and Nat, she seems to have received little if any formal education), Nat easily teaches his sister how to work an exponential figure, showing his innate ability to understand and clearly explain even complex subjects. Lizza worries about Mary, who drags her feet over marrying David, worried that she will face too much uncertainty and potential loss as a sailor’s wife. But, as Lizza and Nat seem to intuitively understand, facing the dangers of life with courage leads to happiness.
Themes
Nat goes to see Mary that night. She insists she won’t marry a sailor, and Nat agrees with her, then promises to get David Martin to leave her alone by interesting him in another girl. When Mary reacts with jealousy, Nat points out how deeply she cares for David and pointedly suggests that she knows what she really wants to do. Soon after, Mary and David get married. Afterwards, as their friends and family celebrate with them in their new home, Lizza introduces Nat to Elizabeth Boardman, a bright, mop-headed girl of 11. Elizabeth tells Nat he seems older than his years because of his brains. When she runs off to talk to other guests, Lizza tells Nat that Elizabeth has “eyes in the back of her heart” that make her wiser than her years.
Nat’s intervention with Mary demonstrates his ongoing concern and care for the physical and emotional wellbeing of his family. And he knows that nothing will keep Mary (or anyone else) entirely safe from pain. Avoiding the potential loss of David at some undetermined point in the future means suffering through the immediate and guaranteed pain of turning her back on the man she loves. As Nat suggests, she should embrace happiness where she can find it, accepting the likelihood that it could be temporary. The juxtaposition of this lesson with Nat's introduction to Elizabeth Boardman suggests that he will need to remember his own advice in the future.
Themes
Nat’s room seems especially empty that night after he leaves his family and although he tries to study, he can’t make sense of the words on the page. He goes to the window and looks up at the stars, remembering his mother’s long-ago words. He considers the heavens until he feels that he can get back to his work.
Returning to his own room, Nat feels the separation from his family all the more keenly for having celebrated Mary’s wedding with them. But he takes his mother’s advice and reflects on how his troubles, no matter their size, remain finite. And, as he’s been doing for years, he channels his disappointment and sadness into the hard work that will bring him a brighter future.
Themes
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The months pass and summer turns to fall and winter. Reverend Dr. Prince stops by the chandlery regularly to check in on Nat’s progress through Newton. During one of his visits, Elizabeth brings Nat an invitation from Lizza for a surprise party. Dr. Prince asks Elizabeth why Nat reads Latin, and she seriously considers the question before answering that he works so hard at his studies to keep his active brain quiet. Her answer so surprises the clergyman that he nearly forgets the reason he came. As he leaves, he distractedly asks Nat to visit him the next day after the chandlery closes.
Although Nat feels like he’s making his way in the world primarily through his own efforts, the educated men in Salem repeatedly support him with books, lessons, and companionship. And he receives emotional support from Elizabeth Boardman, who may not have his same educational acumen, but who teaches him important insights into the human character—she understands intuitively that people need to reach their full potential to feel satisfied in their lives.
Themes
When Nat visits Reverend Dr. Prince, the clergyman explains that he and the other members of the private Salem Philosophical Library have agreed to extend him a free membership. They started the collection with a bounty of books seized many years ago from a British ship by the Pilgrim and rescued from Dr. Stearns by the library’s members. Nat selects a book to check out, then hurries home to write a note to Lizza. He’s collecting on his expectation after all, he tells her. He plans to pass it to her secretly at the party.
Many years earlier, Nat risked his one and only shilling on a privateer’s expectation; that investment seemed to have failed when Tom Perry died, and Nat couldn’t collect. But now he discovers that his risk has brought a reward. In many ways, the bounty of the library means more to Nat now than the money might have back then, because it—and the recognition of Salem’s most educated men—validates the hard work he’s put into educating himself over the previous years.
Themes
But suddenly, Nat hears a commotion below. David has come to fetch him to tend to Lizza, who fell on some stairs and gravely injured herself. She dies several days later with Nat holding her hand. The night after her funeral, Nat walks to the wharf and tears his note into tiny pieces which he scatters on the water. Tears blur his vision as he turns his eyes towards the sky. Nat cries out that he sees no help in the stars. Then he hears David calling out his name—Mary sent her husband to check on her brother. Nat bitterly tells David to report that he’s gone home to study Latin, and he does, although it costs him a lot of time and much effort to concentrate on it.
Mary worried about the potential of losing her husband tragically at sea; Lizza’s tragic death reminds the family that death lurks on land too, and grief and suffering can enter a person’s life unexpectedly at any time. Because of their closeness, this loss hits Nat very hard, and he struggles for a while to shrink his problems back down to size. But when he feels that he can’t go on, working hard at his studies gives him an outlet to turn his distress into momentum toward the better life he and Lizza dreamed about.
Themes
Early the next morning after a long and sleepless night, Elizabeth Boardman bursts through the chandlery door while Nat tries to coax its fire back to life. He worries that she wants to talk about Lizza, a topic he’s not yet ready to touch. Instead, she hands him a slightly dusty package that she smuggled out of her home. She leaves before Nat collects his wits enough to open it. It’s a book—in Latin.
Elizabeth brings Nat a book because she’s intuitively understood that hard work can provide a salve for grief because of the way it helps a person keep their focus on the future. She also betrays a growing interest in Nat himself. She assumes responsibility for caring for and supporting Nat in his grief, reminding him that he’s not alone, despite Lizza’s death.
Themes
