“Tell me all about it.”
“I was walking in the fields one day,” said Larry, “when Guy came out and began to order me round, and call me a clodhopper and other unlikely names, which I didn’t enjoy. Finally he pulled off my hat, and when I put it back on my head, he pulled it off again. Finally I found the only way to do was to give him as good as he sent. So I pulled off his hat and threw it up in a tree. He became very angry, and ordered me to go up after it. I wouldn’t do it, but walked away. The next day my father was summoned to the house, where Mr. Allan Roscoe complained of me for insulting his son. He asked my father to thrash me, and when father refused, he discharged him from his employment. A day or two afterward a new gardener came to Roscoe Castle, and father understood that there was no chance of his being taken back.”
“That was very mean in Mr. Roscoe,” said Hector, indignantly.
“Yes, so it was; but father couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t get a new place, for it wasn’t the right time of year, and Mr. Roscoe said he wouldn’t give him a recommendation. Well, we had very little money in the house, for mother has been sick of late years, and all father’s extra earnings went to pay for medicines and the doctor’s bill. So one day I told father I would come to New York and see if I couldn’t find something to do.”
“I think you did the right thing, Larry,” said Hector, approvingly. “It was your duty to help your father if you could.”
“I can’t help him much,” answered Larry.
“What made you take up this business, Larry?”
“I couldn’t get anything else to do, besides, this pays better than working in a store or office.”
“How—much can you earn at it?”
“Six or seven dollars a week.”