"Better go up and see him this morning."
"No, I don't care to do that."
"Why not?"
"He may think that I am hanging around for a reward, and I don't want a cent," answered Dale.
Before the end of the week a letter came from John Hoover, intended for both Dale and Owen. It was a long communication, but the gist of it was that they might come on at once, and Owen's uncle would give each a trial, Owen as a foreman, at thirty dollars a month, and Dale as a gang hand, at twenty dollars a month, with board. If agreeable, they were to send a telegram of acceptance.
"That isn't so bad," said Dale.
"He might have offered you a little more," replied Owen.
"Perhaps he wants to see what we are made of first."
"Then you are willing to go at that?"
"We might as well. We haven't got to stay with him, you know, and something is better than nothing, at the start," added Dale, who was intensely practical.