“Sam is going back.  I am going to help Dick, and stay with him.  Now, don’t say anything against it, Dad, for it is all settled,” went on Tom, as his father tried to speak again.  “I don’t care to go back.  I think Dick and I were cut out for business men.  Sam is the learned member of this family.”

“Well, boys, have your own way; you are old enough to know what you are doing.”  And now Mr. Rover sank back in the chair, for even this brief conversation had almost exhausted him.

CHAPTER XIV

 A startling scene

“Dear old dad!  Isn’t it awful to see him propped up in that chair, unable to leave his room!”

“You are right, Sam.  And yet it might be worse—­ he might be confined to his bed.  I hope we didn’t excite him too much.”

“He was very much surprised at your determination to give up Brill, and join Dick.  I guess he was afraid Dick would have to shoulder the business alone.  And by the way, Tom,” went on the youngest Rover, earnestly, “somehow it doesn’t seem just right to me that I should put all this work off on you and Dick.”

“Now, don’t let that bother you, Sam.  You can go to New York with me this Summer, and then you go back to college, and come out at the head of the class.  That will surely please us all.”

This conversation took place while the two boys were retiring for the night.  They had not remained very long with their father, fearing to excite him too much.  Aunt Martha had, as usual, had a very fine repast prepared for them, and to this, it is perhaps needless to state, the youths did full justice.

“It’s a grand good thing that we have Aleck Pop with us,” went on Sam, referring to the colored man, who, in years gone by, had been a waiter at Putnam Hall, but who was now firmly established as a member of the Rover household.  “Aunt Martha says he waits on dad, hand and foot; morning, noon and night.”

“Well, Aleck ought to be willing to do something for this family in return for all we have done for him,” answered Tom.

Despite the excitement of the day, the two boys slept soundly.  But they were up at an early hour, and, after breakfast, took a walk around the farm in company with their Uncle Randolph, who wished to show them the various improvements he had made.

“We have a new corncrib and a new root hovel,” said their uncle, as they walked around.  “And next week we are going to start on a new pigsty.”

“Going to have one of those new up-to-date, clean ones, I suppose?” returned Sam.

“Yes.  I do not think that it is at all necessary to keep pigs as dirty as they are usually kept,” returned Uncle Randolph.

“Say, Uncle,” put in Tom, with a sudden twinkle in his eye, “are you going to sell pork by the yard after this?”

“By the yard?” queried Uncle Randolph, and then a faint smile flickered over his face.  “Oh, I see!  You mean sausage lengths, eh?”