“How do you happen to be off work at this hour?” asked Mr. Cooper.
“I’m a gentleman of leisure, Mr. Cooper.”
“How is that, Grant? You haven’t been discharged, have you?”
“Well, I’ve lost my place. Mr. Smithson has sold out his restaurant, and the new man has a friend of his whom he is going to put in my place.”
“I’m sorry, Grant,” said the blacksmith in a tone of concern. “It doesn’t seem hardly fair.”
“Oh, it’s all right, Mr. Cooper. I am going out to the mines, as I always intended to do. I shall start to-morrow morning.”
“I wish you luck. I don’t know how Tom is getting along.”
“Then I can tell you, for I’ve had a letter from him. He writes that he is doing fairly well.”
Jerry Cooper shook his head.
“I guess he ain’t doing as well as he did on the old farm at home,” he said.