"But, uncle," said Tom, earnestly, "I don't see why the Latin need hinder me from getting on in business.I shall soon forget it all; it makes no difference to me.I had to do my lessons at school, but I always thought they'd never be of any use to me afterward; I didn't care about them."
"Ay, ay, that's all very well," said Mr. Deane; "but it doesn't alter what I was going to say. Your Latin and rigmarole may soon dry off you, but you'll be but a bare stick after that. Besides, it's whitened your hands and taken the rough work out of you. And what do you know? Why, you know nothing about bookkeeping, to begin with, and not so much of reckoning as a common shopman. You'll have to begin at a low round of the ladder, let me tell you, if you mean to get on in life. It's no use forgetting the education your father's been paying for, if you don't give yourself a new un."