“Let us forget the past, my son,” responded the father. “Let us look forward to a bright future!” Then, turning to Grant, he said: “In restoring my son to me, Grant, you have fully paid me for all I have done for you. You have placed me under the deepest obligations.”
“And I, too, look upon you as my guardian angel,” added young Crosmont, as he grasped the boy’s hand in his.
“It was a mere chance,” said Grant modestly.
“Say, rather, it was a providence,” corrected Giles Crosmont reverently.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
GRANT HEARS FROM HOME.
Tom Cooper reached San Francisco two weeks after his letter. “I stopped at Sacramento to see father,” he said. “I found the old gentleman doing well, and fully persuaded that I had made a mistake in not staying with him. He offered me four dollars a day to work in the shop. When I told him that I owned ten lots in San Francisco, was entitled to two thousand five hundred dollars for my share of the claim, and had considerable loose money besides, you ought to have seen him open his eyes. He was speechless for a minute; then he said: ‘You’re smarter than I thought, Tom. I guess you’d better go your own way, and I will look after the shop. I’m too old to dig for gold, but I am making a good living at my trade.’”
Tom cashed a check for five thousand dollars, and made over half to Grant.
“There’s some more money due you, Grant,” he said, “from the gold-dust I have brought with me.”
“Keep it all, Tom,” rejoined Grant. “I am rich enough without it, and you deserve some commission for selling the claim.”
Tom objected to this at first, but Grant insisted upon it. Tom took possession of his lots, and sold three on very advantageous terms within a month.