--I could be some account if I
knowed a little and could go somewheres to be account."

Keith was listening earnestly, and the boy went on:

"When you told us that word about that man Hannibal tellin' his soldiers
how everything lay t'other side the mountains, I begin to see what you
meant. I thought before that I knowed a lot; then I found out how durned
little I did know, and since then I have tried to learn, and I mean to
learn; and that's the reason I want to go with you. You know and I
don't, and you're the only one as ever made me want to know."

Keith was conscious of a flush of warm blood about his heart. It was the
first-fruit of his work.

The boy broke in on his pleasant revery.

"You'll let me go?" he asked. "Cause I'm a-goin' certain sure. I ain't
a-goin' to stay here in this country no longer. See here." He pulled out
an old bag and poked it into Keith's hand. "I've got sixteen dollars and
twenty-three cents there. I made it, and while the other boys were
spendin' theirn, I saved mine. You can pour it out and count it."

Keith said he would go and see his father about it the next day.

This did not appear to satisfy Dave.

"I'm a-goin' whether he says so or not," he burst forth. "I want to see
the worl'. Don't nobody keer nothin' about me, an' I want to git out."

"Oh, yes! Why, I care about you," said Keith.

To his surprise, the boy began to whimper.

"Thankee. I'm obliged to you. I--want to go away--where Phrony ner
nobody--ner anybody won't never see me no more--any more."

The truth dawned on Keith. Little Dave, too, had his troubles, his
sorrows, his unrequited affections. Keith warmed to the boy.

"Phrony is a lot older than you," he said consolingly.

"No, she ain't; we are just of an age; and if she was I wouldn't keer.
I'm goin' away."

Keith had to interpose his refusal to take him in such a case. He said,
however, that if he could obtain his father's consent, as soon as he got
settled he would send for him. On the basis of this compromise the boy
went home.

CHAPTER XI

GUMBOLT

With the savings of his two years of school-teaching Keith found that he
had enough, by practising rigid economy, to give himself another year at
college, and he practised rigid economy.

He worked under the spur of ambition to show Alice Yorke and those who
surrounded her that he was not a mere country clod.

With his face set steadily in the direction where stood the luminous
form of the y