“That would be part of your work. I should expect you to devote some of your time to your books. My plans are not all made yet, and I may have something to say to you, later, on this point. But the more you can study, the better machinist you will make, and, in time, you may become a mechanical engineer, which, I believe, you told me you would like to be.”
“Indeed I would.”
“Very well then, now we’ll close up this shop. It seems strange to do so, for I have made my living out of it for a number of years, and I feel attached to it.”
“You are not going to move out of the house, are you?”
“Not at present. It is rather small, but, if you do not complain about the cramped quarters, I’m sure I shall not.”
“I am only too glad to live there with you,” said Dan. “It is very good of you to keep me.”
“I am not going to lose sight of you after this,” remarked Mr. Harrison with a smile. “I may want you to save my life again,” and, though he smiled, there was a serious note in his voice, for his escape had been a narrow one.
“I am going to build a house near my machine shop,” the blacksmith went on, “but it will be some time before it is done. Meanwhile we will continue to live in the cottage. Now, Dan, come on, we will lock up the old shop, and I do not expect to enter it again until I bring a purchaser for it.”
The door was locked, not without a feeling of regret on the part of the old soldier, for in spite of his hard work, there were many pleasant associations connected with the forge that now lay in ruins.
As the two were closing up the blacksmith shop, Silas Martin, the hired man of Dr. Maxwell’s, drove past.