“Do you suppose Old Joe knows?”
“Of course he does!” exclaimed the boy confidently. “Old Joe taught me to call the birds and the beasts. He taught me to follow a trail and to shoot and do many things that no boy ever learns in school. He is a better teacher than all the schoolmasters in the whole world.”
“But some time you may have to do things that Old Joe does not understand, and then——”
“Never, for I’m going to live my whole life away from the big towns. You shall live with me, Felicia, and we’ll be just as happy as—as the birds. Now listen—to-night, when everything is still, I am going. Old Joe will be waiting for me over by the big Black Rock. When morning comes, and they find I am gone, we shall be so far away that no one can catch us. Then I want you to tell them that I ran away because I would not let my brother be my master. Will you tell them that, Felicia?”
“Yes, Dick—I’ll do anything for you.”
“Dear Felicia! Be brave, and I’ll come back to you. Don’t tell that I’m ever coming back, because then he might stay and watch for me. That would simply keep me away, for I shall know how long he stays and when he goes. If you wish me to return soon, don’t tell.”
She promised that she would not, though in her heart she felt that she was doing something wrong. For him, however, she would do it. He was the only playmate she had ever known, and she thought him the most wonderful boy in all the world.
Sometimes Felicia had sat quite still at a distance and watched Dick call the birds and the tiny wild things of the woods about him, delighted and amazed by his power. But when she had tried to approach they had fled; when she sought to call them they would not respond. She could not understand the mystery of it, but in her mind was the conviction that Dick was like the wild creatures that approached him without fear, and now it seemed wrong for any one to think of taking him from the scenes he loved and placing him in a school.
“I’ll think of you every day when I’m away, Felicia,” he promised.
“And I’ll think of you, Dick,” she murmured. “When I say my prayers at night I’ll pray for you.”