CHAPTER XIX.
TOM STARTS ON HIS JOURNEY.
TOM CALLED at the office of Samuel Perkins, in Pearl Street, as requested by that gentleman.
“Well, my young friend, are you ready to go to California?” asked the merchant.
“Yes, sir.”
“You would rather go than enter my employment?”
“Just at present, sir, I have a particular reason for wishing to go to California. Whenever I return I will call on you, and if you should then have a vacancy I should like to fill it.”
“Good! Have you a watch?”
“No, sir.”
“I thought not.”