"It'll be a lucky miss," said Ben, emphatically. "But John's rather stubborn. How did you get him to go?"
"He doesn't know he is to stay. I told him I wanted him to go back with your uncle, in order to attend to a little business for me. When he gets there he'll find out what it is."
"Won't he rave, though?" exclaimed Ben, laughing heartily. "He'll find it a healthy old boarding-house."
"I wish you wouldn't use such language, Ben," said his mother. "It is my great ambition to see you act and talk like a gentleman."
"So I do, mother. That's just the way they talk."
Mrs. Oakley looked rather incredulous.
"I say, mother, is Uncle Huxter going to prepare John for college?"
Mrs. Oakley laughed—heartily for her.
"Your uncle's shoe-shop will be the only college John will enter," she said.
"Do you mean that he is to peg shoes?"