He wanted to get out into the woods by himself, and stay there, and he was already making preparations to take a final leave of the house which he could no longer call his home, when he saw his Uncle Ruben’s old clay-bank pacer coming down the road, and Uncle Ruben himself in the saddle.
George was not at all pleased to see him, for he knew pretty nearly what the man would have to say to him.
“’Taint no great shakes of a place,” said Uncle Ruben, after running his eye over the house and its surroundings. “But mebbe I can sell it for enough to save myself. Then you won’t go home with me an’ work for your board and clothes?”
“No, I won’t,” replied George promptly.
He did not thank his relative for his offer, for he knew the object he had in making it.
George was very strong for a boy of his age, and fully capable of doing a man’s work in the field; and he knew that his services there would be worth much more than his board and clothes. So did Uncle Ruben; but the latter thought it would be a good thing if he could induce his nephew to agree to his proposition, for it would be a saving to him of twenty or thirty dollars a month.
“If you will stay with me till you are twenty-one years old, I will give you a yoke of oxen an’ a good suit of clothes to begin life with,” added Uncle Ruben. “That’s customary, you know.”
“I know it is,” answered George. “But if I live to see the age of twenty-one, I shall have more than a yoke of worthless old oxen and a suit of shoddy clothes, I tell you!”
Uncle Ruben winced a little at this.
“I saw the outfit you gave to one of your bound boys, who had served you faithfully for six long years,” continued George. “The oxen were not worth the powder to blow them up, and the clothes fell to pieces in less than a month. You can’t palm any of your old trash off on me. I can do better.”