“Things! What things?”
“O, such things as a fellow needs when he’s traveling. I’m going to seek my fortune.”
“Where are you going to seek it?” said I.
“I can’t tell exactly—anywhere and everywhere. I’m going till I find it.”
“But,” said I, “do you really expect to turn over a stone, or pull up a bush, or get to the end of a rainbow, and find a crock full of five-dollar gold pieces?”
“O, no!” said Fred. “Such things are gone by long ago. You can’t do that nowadays, if you ever could. But people do get rich nowadays, and there must be some way to do it.”
“Don’t they get rich mostly by staying at home, and minding their business,” said I, “instead of going off tramping about the world?”
“Maybe some of them do,” said Fred; “but my father has always staid at home, and minded his business, and he hasn’t got rich; and I don’t believe he ever will. But there’s uncle Silas, he’s always on the go, so you never know where to direct a letter to him; and he has lots of money. Sometimes mother tells him he ought to settle down; but he always says, if he did he’s afraid he wouldn’t be able to settle up by and by.”
I thought of my own father, and my mother’s brother. They both staid at home and minded their own business, yet neither of them was rich. This seemed to confirm Fred’s theory, and I was inclined to think he was more than half right.
“I don’t know but I’d like to go with you,” said I.