Page:Steadfast Heart.djvu/70

 “I dunno.”

“Come to think,” mused Dave, “I don’t calc’late school would be eager to have you come to it…. Now you listen and see how much of this you can get through your head. As you stand, nobody’s got a claim on you. Nobody can stop your doing what you want to—if you do it quick enough. You can clear out and be an immature tramp if you hanker for it, or you can stay with me, and Browning and I will see you have a bed and three square meals. But you don’t have to stay…. Understand?”

Angus nodded.

“As a parent,” said Dave, “I’m a little shy of experience. But I guess I can do darn near as well as the last ones you had. If you want to learn, I’ll teach you. You can work down in the shop as much as is good for you, and we’ll see if that and shufflin’ around with humans won’t make your wheels go ’round some faster.”

Angus continued to hold his eyes steadily on Wilkins’s face. The expression seemed to Dave a trifle less vacant, and he tried to make himself believe that Angus was endeavoring to consider the situation. After a sufficient wait Wilkins stretched out a long, bony hand, and laid it gently on the boy’s arm. “Well,” he asked, “will you stay with me?” Somehow Dave seemed to