"I guess they don't understand why I'm _bound_ to study."

"_I_ understand, my boy, just why you are working so hard, and I'm
proud of you! Come, and tell _me_ about the weeks like this, when
things go smoothly, and come just as quickly if things, instead, go
roughly. Let me help you over the hard places, Gyp, for when you are
out of school _I'll_ employ you. Now, work hard at school, knowing
that when you have completed the course you're to be employed by _me_."

"Oh, sir, I'll work for you with all my strength," cried the grateful
boy. "You _believe_ in me, you _trust_ me, and I'll be _true_!"

"I know you will, Gyp," said Captain Atherton, almost as greatly moved
as Gyp himself.

When he reached the cottage, he was almost breathless, so swiftly had
he run.

He dropped upon a chair near the door, and told first of the week's
work at school, and then of the promise that Captain Atherton had made.

Neither Aunt Judith nor the genial captain knew how close was the tie
that bound Gyp to be faithful to them. They had befriended him, and
for that he was grateful. They believed in him, and that gave him
courage to make persistent effort, but deep in his heart lay the memory
of the first kind, caressing words that had ever been said to him.

"She sometimes says 'Dear boy' to me, and _he_ said, 'My boy,'" he
would often whisper to himself.