“You know Jabez Ainsworth, don’t you?” said Amos.
“Oh, yes; I have always known him! We are good friends.”
“He is a smart boy, isn’t he?”
“Yes, he is smart, and good, though he gets into trouble now and then. He is seventeen.”
She told them an amusing story or two about Jabez—about adventures which he had had and trouble into which he had fallen when he was a little fellow, because of a determination to get his own way. She ended with an account of his last venture in taking Eunice’s garden for the summer, so as to make some money, because he “was bound to put himself through college, and be somebody.”
Amos listened in silence.
“Do you suppose he’ll do it?” said Ned.
“I think so. Oh, yes, he is sure to succeed! His grandfather will help him, perhaps, when he sees that he is determined to be educated. But, whether he helps him or not, Jabez is bound to succeed.”
“I wonder if the hardest things aren’t the easiest after all!” said Amos. “I mean, that we don’t always care much about what we can get without much trouble.”
“He means, he don’t care about going to college,” said Ned; “but father means he shall.”