"I ain't a-going to hunt up any pearl streams," returned Joe. "I was up to a stream this morning before you was up, and I couldn't see no signs of any pearls. You can go and hunt them up if you have a mind to, but I'll stay right here."
"Going to give it up, are you?" said Sam, in great disgust. "You had rather be here, dependent on your wife, than to go and hunt up some more for yourself."
"I know what I am doing, and if you don't just like my style you can go elsewhere," returned Joe, defiantly. "All the pearls you get up there you can stick in your eye."
Joe turned about and left him in the doorway, and Sam, after gazing at him a moment or two, turned and went, too, but in a different direction. There was nothing left for him now but to examine the streams for himself, and this he determined to do before he had eaten another meal at his boarding-house. He went, and in less than half an hour after he reached the first stream he wished that he was safe back in Mr. Vollar's. Of all the cluttered-up streams that he ever saw that was the worst. There was no beach at all upon which he could prosecute his search, but every foot of the way seemed obstructed by logs and drift-wood. But Sam was persevering, and when night came he was ten miles from home and as hungry as a wolf.
"Hank never found any pearls in this stream," said Sam, as he worked his way through the brush toward the road. "It must have been on some other one. Never mind. There's more than one day coming, and I'll find that stream yet. I am glad it is dark," he muttered, looking down at his shoes and clothes, "for I should be ashamed to be seen going about the streets in this way. I wouldn't feel so bad if I knew I had a stone worth two hundred dollars in my pocket."
To make a long story short, Sam Houston worked two weeks in this way, and never once found a pearl or the sight of one. His land-lady looked surprised when he came home with his clothes all spattered with mud, and a little more surprised when his week's board became due and he said not a word about paying it. In the meantime his shoes were giving out—he had but one pair—and he did not know where he was going to get any more. He was getting pretty near desperate, and he even thought of running away; but he soon concluded that that wouldn't do, for where was he going to run to? The small sum he received from the jeweller had been spent long ago, and it didn't do him any good, for it all went for cigars. Finally, after passing an almost sleepless night upon his bed, he got up at daylight and went down to the store, and there he found Mr. Vollar in the act of sweeping out. The latter had not seen him for some time, and he was astonished at his appearance.
"Halloo, Sam!" he exclaimed, as soon as he had somewhat recovered himself. "How goes the pearl business?"
"I want you to take me back," said Sam, almost ready to cry. "The pearl business don't go at all. I don't believe there is any such thing out there."
"Give it up as a bad job, have you? Well, Sam, I have been expecting this—you see I haven't got anybody to take your place—and I will take you back on one condition: That you will mind your own business in future."
"I'll do it," said Sam. "Nobody shall ever have occasion to complain of me from this time on."