Pete called God to witness that he would.
“You can do as you like; but if you don’t, I’ll be the death of you. I calculate,” said Uncle Isaac, as he picked up his fish, “he’ll keep his word this time; he’ll have about as much as he can do to take care of that leg this winter.”
John Rhines, being lonesome, after Ben went on to the island, had kept company to some extent with these boys; but it was very much like trying to mix oil and water; they played together occasionally, but there was no fusion. When he heard of the last-mentioned occurrence, he said to his mother,—
“I won’t be seen with those boys any more. O, mother, I do wish I had somebody to love besides Tige.”
“Why, John Rhines, where are your parents, your sisters, and all your friends?”
“You know what I mean; some boy of my age, that I could love clear through; that you, and father, and Ben could love, and love to have me with; and, when he come to our house, you’d give him a piece of cake, and wouldn’t look so, as you do when Fred comes. I mean somebody that wasn’t like these boys, either stupid or wicked.”
The boy’s heart, overflowing with the impulses of youth, longed for a kindred spirit of his own age.
CHAPTER XXI.
WHY THE BOYS LIKED UNCLE ISAAC.
It has been very evident, during the progress of this story, that the young men were very much attached to Uncle Isaac; yet the boys were not a whit the less so; the reasons of which will appear as we proceed.