Joes Luck | Page 4

a tone of annoyance. "I
did not expect to find you so unreasonable. If you do not choose to take
what I offer you, you will have to go without."
"Very well, sir."
Joe left the room, his face flushed and his heart full of indignation at
the slight which had been attempted on him.
"It is Oscar's doings, I have no doubt," he said to himself. "It is like his
meanness. He meant to mortify me."
If there had been any doubt in Joe's mind, it would soon have been
cleared up. Oscar had been lying in wait for his appearance, and
managed to meet him as he went out into the yard.
"Where are your new clothes?" he asked mockingly.
"I have none," answered Joe.
"Didn't my father give you a suit of mine?"
"He offered me the suit which you stained so badly with acid."
"Well, it's pretty good," said Oscar patronizingly. "I only wore it about
a month."
"Why don't you wear it longer?"
"Because it isn't fit for me to wear," returned Oscar.
"Nor for me," said Joe.
"You don't mean to say you've declined?" exclaimed Oscar, in surprise.
"That is exactly what I have done."

"Why?"
"You ought to know why."
"It is better than the one you have on."
"It is too small for me. Besides, it would attract general attention."
"Seems to me somebody is getting proud," sneered Oscar. "Perhaps you
think Annie Raymond wouldn't walk with you in that suit?"
"I think it would make ho difference to her," said Joe. "She was willing
to walk with me in this ragged suit."
"I don't admire her taste."
"She didn't walk with my clothes; she walked with me."
"A hired boy!"
"Yes, I am a hired boy; but I don't get very good pay."
"You feel above your business, that's what's the matter with you."
"I hope some time to get higher than my business," said Joe. "I mean to
rise in the world, if I can."
Oscar shrugged his shoulders.
"Perhaps you would like to be a wealthy merchant, or a member of
Congress," he said.
"I certainly should."
Oscar burst into a sneering laugh, and left Joe alone.
Joe's work was done, and, being left free to do as he liked, he strolled
over to the village store.

CHAPTER III
THE RETURNED CALIFORNIAN
The village store, in the evening, was a sort of village club-house,
where not only the loungers, but a better class, who desired to pass the
evening socially, were wont to congregate. About the center of the open
space was a large box-stove, which in winter was kept full of wood,
ofttimes getting red-hot, and around this sat the villagers. Some on
wooden chairs, some on a wooden settee, with a broken back, which
was ranged on one side.
Joe frequently came here in the evening to pass a social hour and kill
time. At the house of Major Norton he had no company. Oscar felt
above him, and did not deign to hold any intercourse with his father's
drudge, while the housekeeper--Major Norton being a widower--was
busy about her own special work, and would have wondered at Joe if
he had sought her company. I make this explanation because I do not
wish it to be understood that Joe was a common village lounger, or
loafer.
When Joe entered the store he found the usual company present, but
with one addition.
This was Seth Larkin, who had just returned from California, whither
he had gone eighteen months before, and was, of course, an object of
great attention, and plied with numerous questions by his old
acquaintances in regard to the land of promise in the far West, of which
all had heard so much.
It was in the fall of the year 1851, and so in the early days of
California.
Seth was speaking as Joe entered.
"Is there gold in California?" repeated Seth, apparently in answer to a
question. "I should say there was. Why, it's chock full of it. People
haven't begun to find out the richness of the country. It's the place for a

poor man to go if he wants to become rich. What's the prospects here? I
ask any one of you. A man may go working and plodding from one
year's end to another and not have ten dollars at the end of it. There's
some here that know that I speak the truth."
"How much better can a man do in California?" asked Daniel
Tompkins.
"Well, Dan," said Seth, "it depends on the kind of man he is. If he's a
man like you, that spends his money for rum as fast as he gets it, I
should say it's just as well to stay here. But if he's willing to work