"That is sensible enough, if it satisfies you, that you will not again be hurt by the same fool."
"That's it? Whoever it was knows he is a fool now," said Brown, "and he won't be likely to repeat it. I shall be all right when I once get back to my work, and so I hope you'll let me go as usual to-morrow."
"Let you? I shall only be too glad to have you, if you can come. But it must be on the understanding that you give up if you are not well, and take things easily if you are. Everything is straightforward now, and you like your work, I know."
"Like it? I should think I do, and I should like my Jack to have the chance of learning this branch of it."
"Well now, that will be the very thing for us. I suspect the boy you have had has let his tongue run away with him as to what happened down there, and so I will arrange that he stays here for a time, and your boy can go in his place if he is a steady reliable lad, and he can keep an eye upon you and make things comfortable if you are not quite the thing."
Brown himself hardly liked to accept this kind offer; but Mrs. Brown said eagerly—
"If you could manage this without being unfair to the other boy I should be very thankful, for Jack could let me know at once if his father was not well, and my mind would be at rest about him."
"Well, then, let Jack come with his father to-morrow morning. It will be a lesson, perhaps, to the other chap not to let his tongue run so fast about what does not concern him, so that it will be quite fair to make the change, Mrs. Brown."
Then the foreman went away, and husband and wife could talk over this piece of good fortune—for it was an opportunity of learning the more highly skilled portion of the work, if a lad was careful, steady, and observant.
Jack had to prove whether he would use the opportunity thus given to him; but he was delighted and astonished when he came in to learn that he was to go with his father the next morning. "My boy, it will be the making of you, if you only take care and learn all you can," said his father.