"You and I are much alike, Dave.

In the woods, if all that I hear be true, you dwell continually in the very shadow of danger, while I incur it only at times.

Moreover, I am come to the age of fifty years, the head is still on my shoulders, the breath is still in my body, and Master Jonathan, to whom figures are Biblical, says the balance on my books is excellent." "You talk o'er much, Ben, old friend, but since it's the way of seafaring men and 'tis cheerful it does not vex my ears.

You behold with me, Tayoga, a youth of the best blood of the Onondaga nation, one to whom you will be polite if you wish to please me, Benjamin, and Master Robert Lennox, grown perhaps beyond your expectations." Master Benjamin turned to Robert, and, as Master Jonathan had done, measured him from head to foot with those intensely bright blue eyes of his that missed nothing.
"Grown greatly and grown well," he said, "but not beyond my expectations.

In truth, one could predict a noble bough upon such a stem.