"Oh! thank you, sir!" I cried. "I shall always be grateful to you for
this, and--"
"Gently, gently," he said, interrupting me. "Never promise too much.
Acts are better than words, my boy. There!--good-bye! See you soon, I
suppose?"
I would have gone with him then, but he told me to take things coolly
and get what I wanted packed up.
"Why, Grant, my boy," he said, laughing, "you'll have to look over the
loading of some of my carts when I'm not there; and if you do them in
that hurried fashion how will it be done?"
I felt the rebuke and hung my head.
"There!--I'm not finding fault," he said kindly; "I only want you to be
business-like, for I have to teach you to be a business man."
He then went away and left me to settle up matters with Mrs Beeton, who
began to cry when I told her I was going, and where.
"It seems too dreadful," she sobbed, "and you so nicely brought up.
What am I to say to your friends when they come?"
"Tell them where I am," I said, smiling.
"Ah, my dear! you may laugh," she cried; "but it's a very dreadful life
you are going to, and I expect I shall see you back before the week's
out."
My clothes did not fill the small school-box, but I had a good many
odds, and ends and books that weighed up and made it too heavy to carry,
as I had intended; so I had to go over to the garden, meaning to ask for
help.
I fully expected to meet Shock about the sheds or in one of the carts or
wagons, but the first person I set eyes on was Old Brownsmith himself--I
say Old Brownsmith, for everybody called him so.
He was wearing a long blue serge apron, as he came towards me with his
open knife in his teeth and a quantity of Russia matting in his hands,
tearing and cutting it into narrow lengths.
"Well, young fellow?" he said as coolly as if no conversation had passed
between us.
"I've come, sir, for good," I said sharply.
"I hope you have," he replied drily; "but is that all of you? Where's
your tooth-brush and comb, and clean stockings?"
"I wanted to bring my box, sir," I said, "but it was too heavy. Would
any of the men come and fetch it?"
"Ask 'em," he said abruptly, and he turned away. This seemed cold and
strange; but I knew him to be rather curious and eccentric in his ways,
so I walked to one of the cart-sheds and looked about for a man to help
me.
I thought I saw some one enter the shed; but when I got inside no one
was there, as far as I could see--only piles of great baskets reaching
from floor to ceiling.