When Cory secured a place as dish-wiper at a new boarding-house near,
and Gus realized that he and Iry alone were dependent upon the others
for their keep, shame seared his young soul. He had vainly tried to
secure steady employment, but had succeeded only in getting occasional
odd jobs. He had a distinct leaning towards an agricultural life and
coveted the care of cows.
"The grocer has sold his'n," he lugubriously lamented; "thar ain't no
one else as wants a caretaker for their critters around here."
After a long rumination on the discouraging problem of his future, he
sought his confessor, the corner grocer.
"I'm too big to peddle papers or be runnin' about with telergrafs," he
declared. "I'd orter be goin' into business on my own account. I ain't
goin' ter be allers workin' fer other folks."
"Well, you'll have to wait a while before you can work for yourself,"
counselled his confidant. "You are young yet."
"This is a hurry-up age," was the sagacious assertion, "and ef you air
agoin' to git any-whar, you've got ter go by wire instead of by mail,
and you can't start too soon."
"You can't start nothing without capital," argued the grocer
conservatively.
"Oh," admitted the young financier, "a little capital mebby. I've got a
dollar I've saved up from odd jobs."
"What line was you thinking of taking up?"
"I'm going into the dairy business. Thar's money in milk and butter, and
it's nice, clean work."
"The dairy business on one dollar! How many cows and wagons and horses
was you figuring on buying with your dollar?"
"Don't git funny," warned Gus impatiently. "Some day I'll hev a farm of
my own and a city office, but I'll begin on one cow in our back lot and
peddle milk to the neighbors."
"That wouldn't be a bad beginning, but I reckon you'll find the start
will cost you more than a dollar. You can't get a cow at that figure."
"Then I'll start with a calf."
"Well, I guess calves cost more than a dollar."
"Say, you've got that dollar on the brain, I guess," retorted the lad
with the easy familiarity that betokened long acquaintance with the
lounging barrels and boxes of the corner grocery. "I bet it'll build a
shed in our back yard. Thar's the lumber out of our shed that blowed
down, and the Boarder can build purty near anything."