This time I made his figures come out right; but I was also astonished to find that he too made mine come out correctly.
"I see it, sir," I added. "In the fourth item the five on your paper is a three on mine, and we are both right."
"Exactly so! You'll do, young man, though I should like to see you make out a bill. We sell Tobey Tinkum forty-two thousand Michigan pine boards, clear, at thirty dollars;" and he proceeded to give me several items, which I could not have written down if I had not been a carpenter, for the technical terms would have bothered and defeated me.
When my late employer, Mr. Clinch, found that I had some knowledge of arithmetic and accounts, he used to set me at work on his bills, to see if they were cast up correctly. This experience had prepared me for precisely the ordeal I was at present undergoing. I wrote the bill as handsomely as I could, though without straining over it, and figured up the prices, extending them and adding them. The examiner seemed to be very much pleased, and wanted to know where I had learned so much about the lumber business. I explained, and told him I had used about all my evenings for two years in studying.
"You'll do," said he. "Now, what wages do you expect?"
"I don't know; what do you pay?"
"Well, we pay three or four dollars a week. As you are pretty good at figures, we will give you four."
"I made more than that at my trade. I can't afford to work for four dollars a week, sir. It would only pay my board."
"What do you ask?"
"I will work eight weeks, say, at six dollars a week."