Each was so concentrated on his own ruling purpose that nothing external was of moment. Honey was to give, and Tom was to receive, an education. That the recipient's heart should be fixed on it, Tom found natural enough; but that the giver's should be equally intense seemed to have nothing to account for it.
He glanced at the quiet figure, upright and muscular, his hands on his knees, like a stone Pharaoh on the Nile.
"Why don't you smoke?"
"I don't want to drop no ashes on this 'ere suit."
"Have you got any tobacco?"
"I didn't think to lay in none when I come 'ome yesterday."
"Is that because there was so much to be spent on me?"
"Oh, I dunno about that."
Tom gathered all his ambitions together and offered them up. "Well, I guess this can be the last year. After I've got through it I'll be ready to go to work."
"And not go to college!" The tone was one of consternation. "Lord love yer, Kiddy, what's bitin' yer now?"