Highroads of Geography / Introductory Book: Round the World with Father

That's where Daddy is! ( From the painting by J. Snowman. )



1. Father kissed us and said, Good-bye, dears. Be good children, and help mother as much as you can. The year will soon pass away. What a merry time we will have when I come back again!
2. Father kissed mother, and then stepped into the train. The guard blew his whistle, and the train began to move. We waved good-bye until it was out of sight.
3. Then we all began to cry—even Tom, who thinks himself such a man. It was so lonely without father.
4. Tom was the first to dry his eyes. He turned to me and said, Stop that crying. You are the eldest, and you ought to know better.
5. He made mother take his arm, just as father used to do. Then he began to whistle, to show that he did not care a bit. All the way home he tried to make jokes.
6. As soon as we had taken off our coats and hats, Tom called us into the sitting-room. Look here, he said: we're going to have no glum faces in this house. We must be bright and cheerful, or mother will fret. You know father wouldn't like that.
7. We said that we would do our best. So off we went to help mother to make the beds and to dust the rooms. While we were doing this we quite forgot to be sad.