"Yes."
"I judge from your appearance that you have not suffered from poverty."
"I have been fortunate at Oreville. At Oak Forks I lived very humbly with Peter Brant, an old servant of my father."
"Yes, I remember Peter. Is he alive still?"
"No, he died a little less than a year since. Till his death I thought him my uncle, and knew no other relatives. Before he died he told me who I was."
"How did he live?"
"On a small sum left by my father. When he died it was all exhausted except a hundred dollars. I took that and went to California with a man named Luke Robbins, who has proved my faithful friend."
"What were you doing in California? Were you working at the mines?"
"No. I was keeping a store where I sold miners supplies."
"Did it pay you well?"