Page:Dave Porter at Oak Hall.djvu/54

40 "No, sir."

"I am glad to hear it, Dave. Well now, to get to business, as we business men say. I've got a proposition to lay before both of you, and I wish you to consider it carefully."

"I am willing to listen to anything you have to say, Mr. Wadsworth," answered the old professor, promptly.

"And so am I," added Dave.

There was a pause, during which Oliver Wadsworth looked keenly at Dave.

"This proposition concerns Dave more than it does you, professor," he said, at length. "I am afraid it will involve a sacrifice on your part, for Dave's benefit."

"I am willing to do what I can for the boy. He has been very good to me—and so have you been good."

"Dave did a great deal for my daughter the other day, and I want to do something for him in return. Now don't interrupt," went on the gentleman as the boy started to speak. "He did a great deal, and it was very noble in him. But that isn't all. Some years ago I had a son, but he was drowned in the river. I thought the world of my boy. Dave reminds me strongly of him,—his general manner is much the same. I should like to do something for Dave for the sake of my son's memory,—since I now have no boy of my own."