“I read in a book,” said Tom, “that if a fellow wants a thing and wants it bad enough and keeps on wanting it, in the end he’ll get it.”
“That isn’t what you read, Tommy,” said Brent. “You’re thinking of something that Stevenson said; ‘What a man wants, that thing he will get. Or he will be changed in the trying.’ That’s what you’re thinking of, Tommy. A man can have anything he wants if he’s willing to pay the price.”
“Well, I haven’t got the price,” said Tom soberly. He seemed quite simple and unsophisticated beside Brent.
“How do you know you haven’t?” Brent said.
“I know whether I’ve got two thousand dollars or not, don’t I?” Tom said sullenly.
“Yes, but how do you know two thousand dollars is the price?”
“Because the caretaker told me,” said Tom. “What are you trying to do, kid me? You can’t buy a thing if you haven’t got the price, can you? You get on my nerves.”
“I can have the gold trophy cup in the glass case in Administration Shack if I want to pay the price,” Brent drawled. “I can steal it.”
“And you’d go to jail.”
“Sure, that would be the price, Tommy,” said Brent.