Tom shook his head emphatically: "Nay," he said, "I will never make my living by giving my brother strong drink to his hurt." Redfearn laughed, "they'll call yo' 'Parson Tom' in a bit, lad. But happen yo'r i'th' reight on it. For one gooid word yo' can find to say for drink yo' can find a hundred to say agen it, an' then start afresh an' tack another hundred to it. Folk will have it, but them as get's th' leeast has th' best share, an' I'll nivver be one to set a young lad i' th' way o' temptation. But has ta thowt o' onything thi sen?" Tom shook his head. "I've thought till I'm almost stalled of the thought of the money." "Well, there's no hurry, that's one comfort. Th' brass 'll nooan get less so long as it's ith' bank, that's a sure thing. An' yo're not be out o' your indentures yet. Tak' yo'r time i' makin' up your mind, an' remember 'at it's th' easiest thing i' th' world to put good money into business, but it's quite another thing getting it back after yo'n once let go yo'r how'd." On one point Tom was quite resolved. So soon as his apprenticeship should be at an end, and sooner if might be, he would be his own master. He would not live and die a weaver, nor yet be content even to live and die a slubber. Other men had conquered Fate and he was resolved that by God's help, he, too could and would. Why, the whole valley in which he did his daily task abounded with men who could tell of early privations, of years of patient unremitting toil, of Spartan endurance, of privations self-imposed and cheerfully borne, and of a notable success crowning and rewarding in middle life, the efforts of their youth and manhood's prime. And Tom felt that he had him the makings of a man and though he had, as yet, unbosomed the inner workings of his soul to man nor woman, being, indeed more given to seek commune with himself rather than another, yet was his mind firmly fixed either to make a spoon or spoil a horn, as the saying goes. But how? He had said nothing at home, as he now considered Ben Garside's, about his little fortune, and as for the furniture which he had placed in the little cottage, Hannah declared, and meant it, that though it was "gooid on 'im to think o' old fr'en's, an' like 'im, 'oo wer' nooan so greedy as to do owt but store th' thin's for 'im, till such times as he wer' wed, and warst wish 'at 'oo could wish 'im wer' 'at he'd wed a lass 'at 'ud put as gooid a shine on th' owd table, an' cheers, an' th' oak-chest an' linen-press and charney-cupboard as 'oo'd done, but that wer' past prayin' for now-a-days."