“Yes, I’ve known that, too. I told him to show what there was in him; and,” his tone became bitter, “he has shown it!”
Lucy refused to become offended.
“Of course we can’t marry unless you help him along. Justin has been wanting to go to Denver. He thinks he could do well there by and by, after he became acquainted and had a start. Doctor Clayton knows a man there to whom he will give him a letter. But expenses are something terrific in a city, and we should have to wait a long time before Justin could work up to a salary that would justify us in getting married.”
“So it’s you that wants to get married, is it?”
“I am one who wants to get married; Justin is the other.”
Davison laughed in changing mood.
“What do you demand that I shall do?”
“I don’t demand anything, I simply suggest.”
“Then what do you suggest? He had the nerve to say that he thinks he is capable of managing the new ditch.”
“I simply suggest that you help him in some way, as a father who is able to should. He has worked for you a long time for very small wages; wages so small that he could save nothing out of them, as you know. I think that you ought to start him on one of the farms you have recently bought, or else give him some good position, with a salary that isn’t niggardly. It seems to me he is capable and worthy.”