“Will you let us go over the stock sheet with you?”
This was done, and at the end of an hour the insurance men said they would recommend that the company pay Mr. Hardy nineteen hundred dollars in full for his claims. As this was not such a big cut as he had feared, Frank’s father said he would accept the amount if the sum was forthcoming inside of thirty days.
“I am sure I have made a good bargain with the insurance people,” said Mr. Hardy to his wife, when they were alone. “I have done much better than if I had sold out to any of my rivals.”
“Yes, and the best of it is, you are now under no obligations to your rivals,” returned Mrs. Hardy.
“I did not get exactly what I think the stock was worth, but one cannot expect to get that when one is burnt out.”
“What will you do, Thomas, when they pay the money?”
“Settle the Garrison matter first of all, and then put the balance of the money in the bank.”
“I’ll have to get well before I make up my mind. I can do nothing so long as I am tied down to the house.”
With the store burnt out, Frank scarcely knew what to do with himself. When the débris was cleared away by the owner of the property, he went around to hunt for anything of value, but nothing was forthcoming.
Frank was very thoughtful when he came home the following Saturday. He chopped a big pile of wood, and cleaned up the garden and the cellar.
“I’m going to find something to do next week,” he told his mother. “With father laid up and the store gone, it won’t do for me to remain idle.”
“I am afraid you’ll not find it easy to get a position in Claster,” answered Mrs. Hardy, as she placed an affectionate hand on his shoulder.
“I was thinking of looking for a place in Philadelphia, mother.”
“I’ve got to strike out for myself some day.”
“But I hadn’t thought of your leaving home yet, Frank,” his mother went on, in dismay.
“Well, I’ll look around in Claster first.”
“I wish you would, and in Porthaven, too.”
Frank was enthusiastic about doing something, and that very Saturday night he asked half a dozen persons he knew for a situation.
But as his mother had intimated, it was next to impossible to find an opening. Only at one store was anything offered, and the pay there was but two dollars a week.