"I can't say very much more," replied the young man, "than that I am very sorry. There have been times," he added, "as you may understand, when I have been restless and discouraged for a while, particularly at first; but I can see now that, on the whole, I have been far from unhappy here. Your house has grown to be more a real home than any I have ever known, and you and your sister are like my own people. What you say, that I ought not to look forward to spending my life behind the counter of a village bank on a salary, may be true; but I am not, at present at least, a very ambitious person, nor, I am afraid, a very clever one in the way of getting on in the world; and the idea of breaking out for myself, even if that were all to be considered, is not a cheerful one. I am afraid all this sounds rather selfish to you, when, as I can see, you have deferred your plans for my sake, and after all else that you have done for me."
"I guess I sha'n't lay it up agin ye," said David quietly.
They drove along in silence for a while.
"May I ask," said John, at length, "when you intend to 'take down your sign,' as you put it?"
"Whenever you say the word," declared David, with a chuckle and a side glance at his companion. John turned in bewilderment.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"Wa'al," said David with another short laugh, "fur 's the sign 's concerned, I s'pose we could stick a new one over it, but I guess it might 's well come down; but we'll settle that matter later on."
John still looked at the speaker in utter perplexity, until the latter broke out into a laugh.
"Got any idee what's goin' onto the new sign?" he asked.
"You don't mean——"