Page:Ralph Paine--The Steam-Shovel Man.djvu/218

 "Goodness gracious, father! Is it you or somebody else?"

With this he made a violent assault on his parent, swung him clear of the floor in a bear-like hug, and set him down in a rumpled condition.

"Are you really all right, Walter?" gasped Mr. Goodwin.

"Of course I'm all right. Can't you see it for yourself? You can't lose me," Walter kept repeating as if he were firing minute-guns. "And what brought you way down here from Wolverton?"

Mr. Goodwin tried to explain, but both were too excited to weave a coherent narrative, and after waving his hands helplessly the father cried:

"We can tell all this later. I have come to take you home with me. A steamer sails for New York to-morrow." "To take me home with you?" Walter's face was dismal beyond words. This was a worse catastrophe than the landslide. "Why, father, you don't understand. Everything is coming my way. I am on the gold roll at seventy-five per month, and I intend to send