“Can I take Tip with me?”
“Oh, that’s your dog, is it? He hain’t a very handsome one; but I suppose you can find a chance for him somewhere on the boat—yes, you can take him.”
“Then I’ll go with you.”
“All right. I shall start from this store to-morrow morning at ten o’clock. Will you be here?”
“Yes, sir,” replied Tim, and then he beckoned Sam to go out. He had made up his mind suddenly, and now that it was too late to draw back he wanted to talk the matter over, and hear what Sam had to say about it.
There was no need for him to have feared that Sam did not look with favor upon the plan, for before they were out of sight of the loungers in the store that young man burst out in an envious tone:
“Well, you are the awfullest luckiest feller I ever heard of! Here you’ve gone an’ got a chance to run a steamboat, where you won’t have anything to do but jest sail ’round wherever you want to. I wish it was me that was going.”
If Tim had been in doubt before as to the wisdom of the step he was about to take, he was perfectly satisfied now that Sam was so delighted with it, and he began to think that perhaps he had been fortunate.
Mr. Simpson did not seem to think the opening in life which had been so suddenly discovered for Tim was so very brilliant, and Mrs. Simpson actually looked as if she felt sorry. But, as neither of them made any objection to it, or offered the boy a home with them, there was nothing to prevent him from carrying out the agreement he had made.