"Still I am likely to be more interested than any one else in the way I am to earn my living. What trade are you going to learn?"
"What trade am I going to learn?" repeated Ralph, with the assumption of insulted dignity. "None at all. I shall be a merchant or a professional man."
"And why should not I be the same?" asked Kit.
"Because you're a poor boy. Didn't my father tell you this afternoon that you had no money coming to you?"
"Yes; but that needn't prevent me from becoming a merchant, or studying a profession."
"So you think. You can't expect my father to pay for sending you to college, or support you while you are qualifying yourself to be a merchant."
"I don't know yet what I am entitled to expect."
"You will soon know."
"How soon?"
"To-morrow. There's a blacksmith in the next town, Aaron Bickford, who has agreed to take you as an apprentice."