"I think," remarked Mr. Danforth in a self complacent tone, as they sat around the neatly arranged board, "that when I am fairly established in my new situation I shall take you there, Harrison, as waiter. You would do the work charmingly, and be quite an ornament to the place."
"Oh, no!" exclaimed the mother earnestly, "I can never give my consent."
"I had much rather go to school," responded the boy; "I have so little time now to learn."
"If God prospers us, I mean to have you go next fall and winter," said his mother. "Now that you," turning to her husband, "are to have such great wages, you will be able to get him a good suit of clothes."
"I don't calculate on being able to do much in that way at present," replied the father in some confusion. "It'll cost me a good deal for my own dress; and then, it's better for the boy to depend on himself. He might learn to be idle you know, and that's against your principles, wife. Besides, Bub, you can read and write now, and keep accounts nigh about as well as I can."
"You're not going out again, I hope," said Mrs. Danforth, anxiously, as he arose and took his hat.
"I told Mr. Lamson I'd be down there, and kinder get used to things to be ready for tomorrow, that's all. I'll be back again in an hour or so."
"There's wood to cut," she urged, "and it will be very lonely without you."
"Harrison will cut some till I come."
"I'll clear away the tea things, mother, and then read to you," cried the boy, in a cheerful tone, as he saw how difficult it was for her to keep from shedding tears. "And I haven't told you yet what a fine chance I had this afternoon. A gentleman at the tailor's shop asked me to go 'way up town for him to carry a note. He paid me well, too; but the best of it was, that the lady to whom I carried it gave me a book and an omnibus ticket, so I rode all the way back. But I forgot to tell you that the tailor would have some work ready this evening: perhaps I had better run and get it now."