"I'll buy my boy the best and largest set of tools that you can select," said the doctor.
For a moment this offer seemed an inducement to the builder, for there were many tools which he disliked to buy yet needed occasionally to use; he might borrow from the promised outfit. But as he thought further, he replied:
"You're very fair, but tools aren't everything. If I do the square thing by the boy, I must use a great deal of time in teaching him, and time is money. My time is worth a great deal more than the boy's work will be for a couple of years."
"I'll pay you cash for your time," said the doctor; "I'll give you a thousand dollars in advance, if you say so."
This offer staggered the builder, prosperous though he was, for where is the man who does not want a thousand dollars?
But still the builder hesitated, and the doctor asked:
"What else do you want?"
"Well," said the builder, prudently retiring to the doorway of a house he was building, "what I want is to tell you something that maybe you won't like, but I can't help taking it into consideration. They do say—I don't say it, mind, but I've heard it from a good many—that Jack is the worst boy in town."
"It's a lie!" roared the doctor. "He's the best—that is, he has the best stuff in him. He's never quiet; he learns his lessons as quickly as a flash; he hates work about the house, just as I'll warrant you did when you were a boy, and he must do something. He likes to handle tools, though, and wants to be a carpenter."
"Liking is all very well," said the builder, "but sticking to work don't naturally follow."