"Uncle Adin, I want to help you pay the mortgage, and for that reason I want you to let me leave home."
"What have you got in your head, Dean? What good will it do to leave home?"
"I can earn some money. Here in Waterford there is no chance for a boy like me to get hold of any."
"It's a risky thing for a boy as young as you to start for himself, Dean. Besides there's John Roberts, the shoemaker, will take you into his shop and teach you the business. He told me last week he'd give you three dollars a week."
"I want to earn money faster than that, uncle. It would take all that to pay my expenses."
"What do you want me to do, Dean?"
"To let me leave home if a good chance offers."
"I'll see about it, Dean; but I'm afraid you're miscalculatin' your strength."
"Thank you, uncle, other boys have succeeded, and I think I can."
A day or two afterwards, Brandon said to his father, "What do you think Dean Dunham says?"