“I don’t see how. Whose goin’ to hire you?”
“I don’t ask any one to hire me. I’ve got a business of my own that enabled me to support my mother, and to pay your interest on the very day it became due.”
“But you shan’t foller it no longer,” said Uncle Ruben, decidedly. “Boys like you don’t know what’s best for themselves. You need a guardeen, an’ I shall ask the selectmen to have you bound out to me until you are of age.”
“I don’t care if you do,” replied George, in a voice choked with indignation. “Having no property, I do not need a guardian, and I won’t have one, either. I can take care of myself.”
“I know what you want to do,” said Uncle Ruben, with a sneer. “You’re too scandalous lazy to work for a livin’, an’ you want to go back to that shanty of yours in the woods, an’ live there, trappin’ and fishin’, jest for all the world like a wild Injun. But that ain’t a respectable way to live—that way ain’t—an’ I shan’t consent to it.”
“I haven’t asked your consent. I have a right to make an honest living in any way I can, and I intend to exercise that right. I am not too lazy to work; but, as you say, there is no one about here who will give me anything to do. I am not going to starve and go ragged, however, for all that.”
“Be you goin’ to stay up there in the woods all your life?” inquired Uncle Ruben.
“No, I am not. I want to be something better than a hermit. I intend to stay up there until I can save money enough to take me to some place where I am not known, and then I shall make a new start.”
“Well, we’ll wait until we hear what the selectmen have to say about that,” answered Uncle Ruben, with a grin and a wink which seemed to indicate that he felt sure of his ground. “Mebbe they’ll think, as I do, that it’s best for you to go with me, so that you can have somebody what knows something to take care on you. You can stay here till I can have time to go an’ see ’em.”
“I don’t care to stay in this house another night,” replied George, quickly. “I was getting ready to leave it when I saw you coming. If you have got through talking, I’ll go now.”