"A few cents a day?" gaped the clerk.
"Yes."
Jimmie whistled and walked away. Contemptuously he said:
"He ought to have joined the Carvers' Union."
Stafford laughed.
"There was none in those days," he said. "Even if there had been he wouldn't have joined. He was an artist; he worked for the joy of working."
Jimmie snickered. Sneeringly he said:
"He knew his own business best, I suppose, but I've never seen a man who could raise a family on that."
Replacing the ivory back in the cabinet where it belonged, Stafford turned to the mantel and pointed to the Peach Blow vase, which only a few moments before had met with disaster. But the damage was not visible from a distance, and with the natural pride of a collector showing one of his most valued possessions, the railroad man said:
"I have one or two Peach Blows that I think are rather good. There is one up there which I am particularly fond of."