“Does your father carry on a farm?”
“Yes, sir: he has always been a farmer.”
“I should think you could find enough to do at home. Don’t your father need any help on his place?”
“He hires all the help he wants. I never did any thing on the farm.”
“You look like a stout fellow; and I should think you could do a man’s work for him,” added the captain, surprised in his turn.
“Perhaps I could, if I had been brought up to it,” replied Bolingbroke rather sheepishly.
“Have you any brothers and sisters?”
“One brother and two sisters.”
“I should not think your father ought to be very poor, if he has a farm, and two stout boys to help him. What does your brother do?”
“He has been looking for a place in a store for the last three years. He has tried in Burlington, Rutland, and Brattleboro’; and he thinks of going to New York or Boston.”