Tom Cooper reached San Francisco two weeks after his letter. “I stopped at Sacramento to see father,” he said. “I found the old gentleman doing well, and fully¹ persuaded that I had made a mistake in not staying with him. He offered me four dollars a day to work in the shop. When I told him that I owned ten lots in San Francisco, was entitled to two thousand five hundred dollars for my share of the claim, and had considerable loose money besides, you ought to have seen him open his eyes. He was speechless for a minute; then he said: ‘You’re smarter than I thought, Tom. I guess you’d better go your own way, and I will look after the shop. I’m too old to dig for gold, but I am making a good living at my trade.’”

333Tom cashed a check for five thousand dollars, and made over half to Grant.

“There’s some more money due you, Grant,” he said, “from the gold-dust I have brought with me.”

“Keep it all, Tom,” rejoined Grant. “I am rich enough without it, and you deserve some commission for selling the claim.”

Tom objected to this at first, but Grant insisted upon it. Tom took possession of his lots, and sold three on very advantageous² terms within a month.

“I think you brought me luck, Grant,” he said. “Till you joined me I was plodding³ along comfortably, but making little more than I could have done at my trade. But after you and I began to work together in double harness, everything has prospered⁴ with me.”

“Not just at first, Tom. You remember our small earnings⁵ at Howe’s Gulch⁶.”

“That’s true, but prosperity came afterward⁷. It was your meeting old Mr. Gilbert that set us on our feet.”

“How is he? Did you call on him?”

334“Yes. He is pretty well for him, but what a forlorn life he leads! Do you know he thinks a great deal of you?”

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