“I don’t know what they usually pay.”
“Well, we haven’t very much for a boy to do. He will have an easy place.”
Joshua liked this. He wanted an easy place.
“But we pay only three dollars a week.”
“Three dollars a week! Why, my board costs me five dollars, and I have to pay for washing besides. Then there’s clothes.”
“Have you ever been in a place before?”
“No.”
“Then, as you have no experience, you cannot expect to make your expenses the first year.”
Joshua’s countenance fell. His father would do better by him than that. At home he got his board, such as it was, and was offered a little besides. What would Sam Crawford, who represented that he got a thousand dollars a year, say, if he should learn that he, Joshua, was working for three dollars a week!
“Can’t you give me more?”