“That’s so.”

“You don’t want to go back, do you?”

“No, I never want to go back,” answered Joshua, thinking of the money and bond he had stolen, and rightly reflecting that the reception he would get from his father would be a disagreeably warm one.

“So I thought. Everybody likes the city. Why, in ten years you’ll be richer than the old man!”

“Will I, do you think?” asked Joshua, eagerly.

“Yes, I think so. There’s Ned Evans, a young man not thirty, who came to the city ten years ago, who is worth now--how much do you think?”

“How much?”

“Fifty thousand dollars!”

“You don’t say so!” exclaimed the gratified Joshua. “Did he have to work very hard?”

“Oh, pretty hard; but, then, it’s a good deal easier to work hard when you are well paid for it.”