Silas Tripp held up his hands as if astounded.
“’Tain’t so,” he said, sharply. “If I gave up business, I’d soon be in the poorhouse. Well, what do you say? Will you stay along and work for two dollars and a half a week?”
“I couldn’t do it,” said Chester, troubled.
“All right! It’s jest as you say. Your week ends to-morrow night. If you see Abel Wood, you can tell him I want to see him.”
“I will,” answered Chester, bitterly.
As he walked home he felt very despondent. Wouldn’t it have been better, he asked himself, to accept reduced wages than to give up his job? It would have been hard enough to attempt living on two dollars and a half a week, but that was better than no income at all. And yet, it looked so mean in Silas Tripp to present such an alternative, when he was abundantly able to give him the increase he asked for.
“I must tell mother and see what she thinks about it,” he said to himself.
CHAPTER II.
OUT OF WORK.