“What!” exclaimed the tramp, in surprise. “Did you reach New York so soon?”
“Yes. I lost my situation at the inn, for they did not believe my story about having been thrown down the well by a Quaker.” Rudolph laughed.
It was a good disguise,” he said. “So they discharged you? That was good.”
“I did not think so at the time, but it proved to be the luckiest thing that could happen to me.”
“How was that?”
“It led me to go to New York. There I found a rich and generous friend. I have been with him ever since.”
“As a servant?”
“No; as his adopted brother. He supplied me with teachers, and in little more than six months I have acquired as much as most boys do in two or three years.”
“So you have gone in for education, have you?” said Rudolph, sneering.
Yes. Could I go in for anything better?”