“How much do you think I am earning?”
“I can’t guess. I am a stranger in this city.”
“Twenty dollars a day.”
“Capital! I don’t feel as much surprised as I did. Are you a college graduate?”
“Yes, sir. I was graduated at Yale. Then I studied law and three months since I came out here. It takes time to get into practise at home and I had no resources to fall back upon. I raised money enough to bring me to California and came near starving the first week I was here. I couldn’t wait to get professional work, but I had an offer to drive a dray. I am a farmer’s son and was accustomed to hard work as a boy. I accepted the offer and here I am. I can lay up half my earnings and am quite satisfied.”
“But you won’t be a drayman all your life?”
“Oh, no, sir. But I may as well keep at it till I can get into something more to my taste.”
And the young lawyer drove off.
“It’s a queer country,” said Morgan. “It’s hard to gauge a man by his occupation here, I see.”
“I wish I could get a dray to drive,” said Joe.