“But you would have a better and more honorable——”
“Hold right on, Deacon Cornhill! I reckon honesty is honorable anywhere. I should be like a fish out of water up there in the wilderness.”
“But out of this wilderness of wickedness. There you could go to Sunday school, and be up in society. You have got the making of a smart boy in you. You have done me a great help, and I have taken a fancy to you. I’ll get you a new suit of clothes, and you’ll look slick as a mouse. Then, as soon as I can finish my bizness, we’ll go hum and s’prise Mandy. Hum! How does that sound to you, Rob?”
If at first Little Hickory had thought that Deacon Cornhill was not in earnest, he could see now that he was intensely determined in what he said. But he had no idea of accepting an offer made with so much abruptness, so he said:
“If I could leave my bizness, which I ain’t owned up to yet, I couldn’t leave my mother.”
Deacon Cornhill showed by his looks that this was a contingency he had not taken into account.
“So your mother is living, Rob?”
“She was when I left home this morning.”
“She can come along, too. She will be help for Mandy. I vow, it’ll be all the better for you to have her with us.”
“And my friends?” asked Rob, showing by his manner that he was becoming interested.