"Is your friend, Dick Marden, still up there attending to that lumber business for his uncle?"
"Yes."
"Didn't he want you to stay there with him?"
"He did, but I told him I would rather remain in the city. I like working for Mr. Gray, here in the ticket office, a great deal better than I do lumbering."
"I can see that. You are an out and out business boy, Robert. I shouldn't be surprised some day to see you have a cut-rate ticket office of your own."
"I'd rather be in a bank, or some large wholesale house, Livingston. But excuse me while I read the telegram."
"Certainly. Don't mind me."
Tearing open the envelope, Robert Frost pulled out the bit of yellow paper, upon which was written the following:
"I am called away to California and to Canada on business. May remain for three months. Will write to you later on. My uncle's case is in a bad mix-up again.
"Dick Marden."
Robert read the brief communication with much interest. Dick Marden was much older than the boy, but a warm friendship existed between the pair.