"Now that the time is come, I think that perhaps I am about to do
wrong, and that it may cost you your life. But I cannot help it, Dick.
I dream of your father almost every night, and I wake up thinking that
I hear him calling upon me to help him. I feel that I should go mad,
if this were to last much longer."
"I am ready, Mother," the boy said, earnestly. "I have been hoping,
for some time, that you would say you would start soon; and though I
have not, of course, the strength of a man, I think that will be more
than made up by the advantage I should have, as a boy, in looking for
my father; and at any rate, from what you tell me, I should think that
I am quite as strong as an average native of your country.
"Anyhow, Mother, I am sure that it will be best for us to go now. It
must have been awful for you, waiting all this time; and though you
have never said anything about it, I have noticed for a long time that
you were looking ill, and was sure that you were worrying terribly.
What would be the use of staying any longer? I should not be very much
stronger in another year than I am now, and a year would seem an age,
to Father."
And so it was settled, and Mrs. Holland at once began to make
preparations for their departure.
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