“Yes. We were young men together.”
“I am glad to meet you, then.”
“You come from California?”
“Yes.”
“I judge from your appearance that you have not suffered from poverty.”
“I have been fortunate at Oreville. At Oak Forks I lived very humbly with Peter Brant, an old servant of my father.”
“Yes, I remember Peter. Is he alive still?”
“No, he died a little less than a year since. Till his death I thought him my uncle and knew no other relatives. Before he died he told me who I was.”
“How did he live?”
“On a small sum left by my father. When he died it was all exhausted except a hundred dollars. I took that and went to California with a man named Luke Robbins, who has proved my faithful friend.”