Your house has grown to be more a real home than any I have ever known, and you and your sister are like my own people.

What you say, that I ought not to look forward to spending my life behind the counter of a village bank on a salary, may be true; but I am not, at present at least, a very ambitious person, nor, I am afraid, a very clever one in the way of getting on in the world; and the idea of breaking out for myself, even if that were all to be considered, is not a cheerful one.

I am afraid all this sounds rather selfish to you, when, as I can see, you have deferred your plans for my sake, and after all else that you have done for me." "I guess I sha'n't lay it up agin ye," said David quietly.
They drove along in silence for a while.
"May I ask," said John, at length, "when you intend to 'take down your sign,' as you put it ?" "Whenever you say the word," declared David, with a chuckle and a side glance at his companion.

John turned in bewilderment.
"What do you mean ?" he asked.
"Wa'al," said David with another short laugh, "fur 's the sign 's concerned, I s'pose we _could_ stick a new one over it, but I guess it might 's well come down; but we'll settle that matter later on." John still looked at the speaker in utter perplexity, until the latter broke out into a laugh.
"Got any idee what's goin' onto the new sign ?" he asked.
"You don't mean----" "Yes, I do," declared Mr.Harum, "an' my notion 's this, an' don't you say aye, yes, nor no till I git through," and he laid his left hand restrainingly on John's knee.
"The new sign 'll read 'Harum & Comp'ny,' or 'Harum & Lenox,' jest as you elect.

You c'n put in what money you got an' I'll put in as much more, which 'll make cap'tal enough in gen'ral, an' any extry money that's needed--wa'al, up to a certain point, I guess I c'n manage.