For two or three weeks Carden & Co. shipped a crate of mushrooms daily to the city. Then something went wrong; the crop failed suddenly, and the spawn was discovered to be dead and useless. The doctor helped Will to investigate the cause of the trouble, and afterward to overcome it; and then fresh spawn was planted and the mushrooms began to grow again.
The wholesale grocer wrote that he was much annoyed by this delay. The demand for mushrooms in the city was much greater than the supply, and his customers were disappointed when they didn’t get them.
“We’ve been selling too cheap,” declared the doctor. “This is a good time to raise the price. We’ll get fifty cents a pound, hereafter.”
It seemed a large price to Will, for now the mushrooms grew with scarcely any care, and he found he was able to attend school and also look after the work very easily. It was not until cold weather crept on that the task became at all arduous; but the frosty nights obliged the two boys to watch the fires carefully, and finally Will and Egbert moved their bed to the little room at the end of the barn, and slept there comfortably during the remainder of the winter, so they could “attend to business properly.”
The wholesale grocer’s son-in-law sent all the money received for the sale of the mushrooms to the doctor, so Will did not know exactly how the business was coming along, for he had no idea how much money the doctor had spent in preparation. But the monthly wages were paid to the boys with great regularity, and on the first day of January the doctor declared the first dividend, paying Will forty-three dollars as his share of the profits up to date.
There was no prouder boy in Bingham than Will Carden when he realized he was engaged in a successful business venture. He had already started a bank account, for the family needs did not require all the money the two boys earned as wages, and Will declared that this forty-three dollars should never be touched unless absolutely necessary, as it was to remain in the bank as the foundation of his fortune. We will know later who it was that suggested this idea to him.
“Better than working in the mills, isn’t it?” said the doctor, triumphantly, while for once he allowed a smile to spread over his round, whiskered face.
“Indeed it is,” answered the grateful boy. “And I owe everything to you, Doctor.”
“Nonsense!” returned the doctor, beginning to frown; “you owe it all to your own industry, and to the fact that my poor grandchildren need looking after.”