“Why, yes. You see I want to go to school this winter and learn shorthand. The term is eighteen dollars, and I’ve only saved up seven dollars and eighty-three cents.”
“I’ll do better than that for you, Silas,” said Andy, “and I’m glad to find you so ambitious. How is your father?”
“All right, I guess, though I haven’t seen him for nigh onto a month.”
“Why, how’s that?”
“I’ve been staying at the Collins farm.”
“You have?” exclaimed Andy, at once interested.
“Yes. Just came up from there yesterday. There hasn’t been much doing, and won’t be until the folks get their new house built. I was on their hands, though, and I’m staying around visiting relatives.”
“How do you mean you was on their hands, Silas?” inquired Andy.
“Why, dad got talking with Mr. Collins after we’d got rid of the geese. There’s a good academy at Wade, and Mr. Collins was going into sheep in a big way. He offered me quite a good job and the chance to go to school in the winter, and I took it.”
“But Mr. Collins’ house burned down,” said Andy.