“Dessay I should, Mas’r Harry,” he replied grinning.
“Well now, look here, Tom,” I continued very seriously, “I am going out to join my uncle, and if I get on, and can see that there is a good chance for you out there, why, I’ll send you word, and you can join me.”
“No, you won’t, Mas’r Harry,” he said quietly.
“But I promise you that I will.”
“No, you won’t, Mas’r Harry.”
“Don’t you believe my word, Tom?”
“I believe that you believe you mean me to believe, Mas’r Harry,” he said; “but I don’t mean you to go without me, and so I tell you. There wouldn’t be no getting on without me alongside o’ you, that there wouldn’t, and I’m going along with you.”
“What are you two quarrelling about?” said my father, coming up just then.
“We were not quarrelling, father,” I replied, snatching at the opportunity to lay bare my plans now that I was a little excited, for I had been rather nervous about how my proposals would be taken.
“Mas’r Harry’s going out foreign abroad,” said Tom sturdily; “and he said I warn’t to go with him, and I said I would, sir—that’s all.”