“I’m in dead ’arnest. Mandy and I have talked this all over time and again. We ain’t got chick nor child, and she was saying only yesterday how cheering it would be to have a boy in the house. I ain’t rich as some, but I’m comfortably fixed, and what I’ve got shall be yours, as soon as I’m through with it. You shall have my name, too, and be Elihu Cornhill, Jr.” Rob still was too much surprised to speak, which allowed Deacon Cornhill to continue: “It would be the making of you, Rob. It would get you away from the wickedness of this sinful city, and----” “And away from my bizness.” “Luddy me, you don’t call this blackin’ folks’ shoes and boots bizness!” “By it I get my living, sir,” said the youthful speaker, with a pride one in better circumstances might have failed to display. “But you would have a better and more honorable----” “Hold right on, Deacon Cornhill! I reckon honesty is honorable anywhere. I should be like a fish out of water up there in the wilderness.” “But out of this wilderness of wickedness. There you could go to Sunday school, and be up in society. You have got the making of a smart boy in you. You have done me a great help, and I have taken a fancy to you. I’ll get you a new suit of clothes, and you’ll look slick as a mouse. Then, as soon as I can finish my bizness, we’ll go hum and s’prise Mandy. Hum! How does that sound to you, Rob?” If at first Little Hickory had thought that Deacon Cornhill was not in earnest, he could see now that he was intensely determined in what he said. But he had no idea of accepting an offer made with so much abruptness, so he said: “If I could leave my bizness, which I ain’t owned up to yet, I couldn’t leave my mother.” Deacon Cornhill showed by his looks that this was a contingency he had not taken into account. “So your mother is living, Rob?” “She was when I left home this morning.” “She can come along, too. She will be help for Mandy. I vow, it’ll be all the better for you to have her with us.” “And my friends?” asked Rob, showing by his manner that he was becoming interested. Before Deacon Cornhill could reply, the sound of many feet was heard entering the place, and a body of men quickly appeared on the scene. The foremost was a burly, bewhiskered fellow, who at sight of our couple cried exultantly: “Here he is, boys! Nab him!” CHAPTER IV. A BOLD STAND. At sight of the mob crowding into the place, Deacon Cornhill gave a cry of fear and turned pale, as he looked hurriedly about for some way of escape. The room seemed to have but one door opening on the street, and that was now blocked with the incoming men, the leader of whom showed a bright button on his coat, while he flourished a club in his right hand as he uttered the words given in my last chapter.