“But not as a favor. I think I earn more money.”
“What gives you that idea?” demanded his employer displeased.
“In Tompkins peggers are paid seventy cents a day.”
“Then you are at liberty to go there and find work,” said Simpson, roughly.
“I can’t do that, sir, as you know I cannot leave my mother. Besides, if I had my board to pay, I should be worse off than I am now.”
“That is a very sensible conclusion. You will find that you are well off in my employment, but if at any time you become dissatisfied, don’t trouble yourself to stay on my account. I can easily fill your place.”
“Yes, sir, I suppose you can,” answered Tom, slowly.
“Have you any further business with me?” asked Mr. Simpson, impatiently.
“I have just a few words to say, Mr. Simpson,” said Tom, looking steadily at the man before him.
“You were my father’s friend and companion for years,” Tom began. “You worked together, and went to California together. You came home rich, while he was unfortunate enough to lose his money and his life. To-day you are a rich manufacturer, while his widow and children are compelled to live chiefly on a boy’s small wages. You know all this, and it has never come into your mind to help them, or to pay the boy as good wages as he could get elsewhere. If you had died, and my father had come home prosperous, he would not have treated your family so.”
It was surprising that Mr. Simpson should have allowed Tom to finish this speech without interruption, but he did so. Then he burst forth in a fury.
“Boy, if you came here to insult me, you did the worst thing you could have done for your family. You complain, do you, that I don’t support you and your family in luxury?”
“Such is the plain inference from your words. You are not at all grateful for my supporting you all these years.”
“I have given you the employment without which you and your family would have starved. You can’t deny that.”
“I don’t think we should have starved, sir.”
“I will give you a chance to try the experiment. You complain that you can’t live on the wages I pay you. I will give you the chance to work for more somewhere else. To-morrow morning you may go to my foreman and ask for the wages that are due you. You needn’t trouble yourself to return to work in my shop.”