David learned of the loss of his money when he came home that night, and although it was a severe blow to him he bore up under it, rode his mail route regularly twice a week and spent the other four days in helping his father cut General Gordon’s wood. Dan loitered about the house doing nothing, and finally began to act a little more like himself. The feeling that he had lost all his rights to a home under his father’s roof gradually gave away to the opinion that he was of vastly more importance than anybody else. One day he said to his mother—
“Now, mam, I’ve waited just long enough for ’em. I don’t want to be treated this yere way no longer. Ye hear me?”
“You have waited long enough for what?” asked his mother.
“Fur my good clothes an’ a pair of store boots like Dave an’ pap have got.”
“You can have them just as soon as you earn them.”
“’Arn ’em!”
“Certainly. That is the way your father and David got theirs.”
“An’ how long did it take ’em?” asked Dan, who was not a little shocked and enraged to learn that he must work for his nice things before he could own them.
“About a week. You ought to earn a dollar a day by cutting wood, and the general will give you all the work you can do.”
“An’ while I am workin’ down thar must I wear these yere rags?” exclaimed Dan. “I’d look purty if Don an’ Bert should come along on them circus hosses of their’n, an’ wearin’ their shiny boots an’ nice clothes, wouldn’t I? No, sir! I must have something better fust. I’ll speak to Dave about it jest as soon as he comes home to-night.”