Part 5 (1/2)

”Then you see he is likely to find friends. Were he such a boy as Sinclair Hudson, I should feel afraid that he would fare badly, if he stood in need of help from others. Sinclair is certainly a very disagreeable boy.”

”Yes, he is; and he isn't half as smart as Tom.”

”A mother's vanity,” said Mark Nelson, smiling. ”However, you are right there. I should consider it a misfortune to have such a cross-grained, selfish son as Sinclair. Squire Hudson, with all his wealth, is not fortunate in his only child. There is considerable resemblance between father and son. I often wish that some one else than the squire held the mortgage on our farm.”

”You don't think he would take advantage of you?”

”I don't think he would be very lenient to me if I failed to pay interest promptly. He has a grudge against me, you know.”

”That is nonsense,” said Mrs. Nelson, blus.h.i.+ng, for she understood the allusion.

”I am glad he doesn't ask me to give him a mortgage on you, Mary.”

”He has forgotten all that,” said Mrs. Nelson. ”I am no longer young and pretty.”

”I think you more attractive than ever,” said the husband.

”Because you are foolish,” said his wife; but she was well pleased, nevertheless. Poor as her husband was, she had never dreamed of regretting her choice.

”Be it so; but about this affair of Tom--what shall I say to him in the morning?”

Mrs. Nelson recovered her gravity instantly.

”Decide as you think right, Mark,” she said. ”If you judge that Tom had better go I will do my best to become reconciled to his absence, and set about getting him ready.”

”It is a great responsibility, Mary,” said Mark slowly; ”but I accept it. Let the boy go, if he wishes. He will leave our care, but we can trust him to the care of his heavenly Father, who will be as near to him in California as at home.”

Thus Tom's future was decided. His father and mother retired to bed, but not to sleep. They were parting already in imagination with their first-born, and the thought of that parting was sad indeed.

CHAPTER V.

TOM RAISES THE MONEY.

Tom got up early the next morning--in fact, he was up first in the house--and attended to his usual ”ch.o.r.es.” He was splitting wood when his father pa.s.sed him on the way to the barn with the milk-pail in his hand.

”You are up early, Tom,” he said.

”Yes,” answered our hero.

Tom could not help wondering whether his father had come to any decision about letting him go to California; but he did not like to ask. In due time he would learn, of course. He felt that he should like to have it decided one way or the other. While his plans were in doubt he felt unsettled and nervous.

At an early hour the family gathered about the breakfast table. Tom noticed that his father and mother looked grave, and spoke in a subdued tone, as if they had something on their minds; but he did not know what to infer from this, except that they had his prospects still in consideration.

When breakfast was over, Mark Nelson pushed back his chair, and said: ”How soon can you get Tom ready to start, Mary?”

”Am I going, father?” asked Tom, his heart giving an eager bound.

”Is Tom really going?” asked the younger children, with scarcely less eagerness.