“I’ll wait until I have some better proof, before I say anything,” he thought. “Maybe I’m making a mountain out of a mole-hill.”
For a week or more events went along smoothly at the law office where Tom was employed. He was getting to be quite expert at the switchboard, and seldom made a mistake.
Try as he did, however, he could not seem to please Mr. Cutler. That lawyer was continually finding fault, even when Tom got for him the required connections in almost record-breaking time.
“You’re worse than the other boy we had!” exclaimed the junior member one day, when Tom had cut him off a second or two before he was through. Then Mr. Cutler strode into the room occupied by Mr. Boise. As he left the door partly open Tom could not help hearing part of what was said.
“Why don’t you discharge that boy and hire a good one?” asked the junior partner, wrathfully.
“What boy?” asked Mr. Boise, who had a habit of becoming so deeply immersed in thinking of a case, that often questions had to be repeated several times.
“That telephone boy—Tom Baldwin. He’s more bother than he’s worth.”
“Why, I thought he was doing good work. I have no trouble getting my connections. What seems to be the difficulty?”
“Well—er—I don’t know exactly—but he doesn’t seem to be up to the mark. I think we ought to have another boy.”
“I am sorry I can’t agree with you, Mr. Cutler,” Tom heard Mr. Boise say. “Mr. Keen engaged Tom, and he spoke well of his qualifications. The boy has a mother and an aged aunt partly dependent on him, and he was out of work for some time before coming to us. He learned how to work a switchboard, hoping to get a place, and now he has one I don’t feel we should discharge him—especially when there is no good cause for it.”