“Have you need of a hand around the barn?” he asked the man after a while. “If you have I should like a job.”
“No, I can manage all there is to do very well,” was the discouraging reply.
“Do you know of any work around here I could get?”
“Not a thing. You are most too young to stand the work in the oil-fields, and that is about all there is to do this time of year. I shall go over to the house now for my breakfast, and you look after things while I am gone and then you may go get yours,” said the man, who felt genuine pity for the boy.
Austin enjoyed the warm breakfast and the kindness of the housewife who gave it to him. Before he left, the man handed him almost a dollar in change, another act of kindness.
Taking his suitcase again in his hand Austin proceeded on his uncertain journey. The money the stableman had given him would be sufficient to carry him to the village where his grandparents lived, and as he had heard that Wilbur was there, he decided to cease looking for his friend and go on to his grandparents’ home and get assistance from his brother. He thought this would be only fair, for Wilbur had borne no responsibility, while he himself had given all his wages for the support of the family.
“Why, Austin!” exclaimed his grandmother when he came to her door. “Can this be you! I did not know you intended coming. How did you leave the children!”
“Everybody is well, thank you,” primly replied Austin; for he was always a little afraid of his sharp-spoken grandmother. “Papa thought he could get along without me for a while, so I am looking for work. Do you know where I could find Wilbur? Perhaps he could help me get something right away.”
“Will is in town somewhere; I see little of him. You come in and spend the night with us, and hunt him in the morning.”
Austin spent a pleasant evening with the old folks; but he told them nothing of the trouble between him and his father, lest they might detain him and send word to his father where to find him. The next morning he found his brother, who was as surprized to see him as the grandparents had been.