He would take the boy, and treat him, up to the time of his majority, as his own.

If Mr.Benedict could ever return the money expended for him, he could have the privilege of doing so, but it would never be regarded as a debt.
Once every year the lawyer would bring the lad to the woods, so that he should not forget his father, and if the time should ever come when it seemed practicable to do so, a suit would be instituted that would give him the rights so cruelly withheld from his natural protector.
The proposition was one which taxed to its utmost Mr.Benedict's power of self-control.

He loved his boy better than he loved himself.

He hoped that, in some way, life would be pleasanter and more successful to the lad than it had been to him.

He did not wish him to grow up illiterate and in the woods; but how he was to live without him he could not tell.
The plucking out of an eye would have given him less pain than the parting with his boy, though he felt from the first that the lad would go.
Nothing could be determined without consulting Jim, and as the conversation had destroyed the desire for further sport, they packed their fishing-tackle and returned to camp.
"The boy was'n't got up for my 'commodation," said Jim, when the proposition was placed before him.