“Sit still a minute,” said the old man, decisively. “I wish to have some further conversation with you. I owe you a debt which is not yet repaid.”
“Oh, drop that!” cried Will, impatiently.
“I have taken a fancy to you aside from that. You are living in squalor and ignorance. I am wealthy and alone. What hinders me from taking you into my house, and giving you the advantages of which fortune has deprived you? I know you will amply repay my care.”
“There’s one thing hinders,” said Will, dryly.
“I see no hindrance. What is it?”
“It’s only that I ain’t in the notion of being took in and done for. I’ve hoed my own row so fur, and guess I’ll keep it up.”
“But this is an idle scruple. You would feel no dependence here.”
“I’d feel it in my own muscles and in my own nerves,” said Will, decisively. “I wouldn’t marry no gal that was richer than me, and I ain’t going to adopt a rich stepfather. I went into Mr. Leonard’s store with a notion to learn bizness, and I’m not the feller to stand at the bottom of the ladder. If I haven’t made my pile before ten years I’ll sell out. Much obliged to you all the same, but can’t see it in your light.”
Mr. Somers did his best to overcome this scruple, but Will was not to be shaken. He would not eat the bread of dependence.