"You! Go with me?" Keith exclaimed. Then, for fear the boy might be wounded, he said: "Why, Dave, I don't even know where I am going. I have not the least idea in the world what I am going to do. I only know I am going away, and I am going to succeed."
"That's right. That's all right," agreed the boy. "You're a-goin' somewheres, and I want to go with you. You don't know where you're a-goin', but you're a-goin'. You know all them outlandish countries like you've been a-tellin' us about, and I don't know anything, but I want to know, and I'm a-goin' with you. Leastways, I'm a-goin', and I'm a-goin' with you if you'll let me."
Keith's reply was anything but reassuring. He gave good reasons against Dave's carrying out his plan; but his tone was kind, and the youngster took it for encouragement.
"I ain't much account, I know," he pleaded. "I ain't any account in the worl'," he corrected himself, so that there could be no mistake about the matter. "They say at home I used to be some account--some little account--before I took to books--before I sorter took to books," he corrected again shamefacedly; "but since then I ain't been no manner of account. But I think--I kinder think--I could be some account if I knowed a little and could go somewheres to be account."
Keith was listening earnestly, and the boy went on:
"When you told us that word about that man Hannibal tellin' his soldiers how everything lay t'other side the mountains, I begin to see what you meant. I thought before that I knowed a lot; then I found out how durned little I did know, and since then I have tried to learn, and I mean to learn; and that's the reason I want to go with you. You know and I don't, and you're the only one as ever made me want to know."
Keith was conscious of a flush of warm blood about his heart. It was the first-fruit of his work.
The boy broke in on his pleasant revery.
"You'll let me go?" he asked. "Cause I'm a-goin' certain sure. I ain't a-goin' to stay here in this country no longer. See here." He pulled out an old bag and poked it into Keith's hand. "I've got sixteen dollars and twenty-three cents there. I made it, and while the other boys were spendin' theirn, I saved mine. You can pour it out and count it."
Keith said he would go and see his father about it the next day.