“Then I am to take a man whom Wimpleton has discharged, and pay him twenty dollars more than he was having before.”
“He discharged my father in order to punish him,” I replied; and then I told him the sequel to the story I had related the day before.
“Very good! Excellent! I will help Wimpleton punish your father by giving him eighty dollars a month, which is twenty dollars more than any engineer ought to have. Go for him at once.”
I never pulled across the lake so quickly before as I did then. I found my father at home; he had just returned from his visit to Bingham.
“Back so soon, Wolf?” said he; and he looked quite sad.
“Yes, sir. Did you see Bingham?”
“I did; but it’s too late. He has heard of the quarrel, and won’t buy the house at any price. It will go hard with me, I’m afraid.”
“Never mind, father. It will come out right in the end, I know.”
“What did you come back for?”
“Major Toppleton wants you, and will engage you for a year, at eighty dollars a month,” I replied, with proper enthusiasm.