It isn't mine," he said.
"He's give it to ye." Simeon Holly shook his head.
"David is nothing but a child, Perry.

He doesn't realize at all what he is doing, nor how valuable his gift is." "I know, sir, but you DID take him in, when there wouldn't nobody else do it," argued Larson.

"An', anyhow, couldn't you make a kind of an I O U of it, even if he is a kid?
Then, some day you could pay him back.
Meanwhile you'd be a-keepin' him, an' a-schoolin' him; an' that's somethin'." "I know, I know," nodded Simeon Holly thoughtfully, his eyes going from the gold to David's face.

Then, aloud, yet as if to himself, he breathed: "Boy, boy, who was your father?
How came he by all that gold--and he--a tramp!" David drew himself suddenly erect.

His eyes flashed.
"I don't know, sir.