"I've been thinking, Ma, I don't want the place. You have it, for Len. I don't want it. You have it, for Len an' the kids. I'd rather go away. Best if that certificate hadn't never been found, if you're going to feel you're turned out."
He dropped his head in confusion. Mr. George held up his hand.
"No more of that heroic talk," he said. "When Jacob Ellis stored up that marriage certificate at the bottom of that box, he showed what he meant. And you may feel as you say to-day, but two years hence you might repent it."
Tom looked up angrily.
"I don't believe Tom would ever regret it," put in Mrs. Ellis. "But I couldn't think of it. Len wouldn't let me, even if I wanted to."
"Of course not," said Mr. George. "We've got to be sensible, and the law's the law. You can't alter it yet, my boy, even if you want to. You're not of age yet.
"So you listen to me. My plan is for you and Jack to go out into the colony and get some experience. Sow your wild oats if you've any to sow, or else pick up a bit of good oat-seed. One or the other.
"My idea is for you and Jack to go up for a year to Lang's Well station, out Roeburne way. Lang'll give you your keep and a pound a week each, and your fare refunded if you stay a year.
"The 'Rob Roy' sails from Geraldton about a month from now; you can get passages on her. And I thought it would be just as well, Tom, if you and Jack rode up through that midland country. You've a hundred connections to; see, who'll change y'r horses for y'. And you'll see the country. And y'll be men of travel. We want men of experience, men of a wide outlook. Somebody's got to be the head-piece of this colony, when men like me and the rest of us are gone. It'll be a three hundred mile ride, but ye've nigh on a month to do it.
"Now, what do you say, my boy? Your mother will stop on here with the children. I'll see she gets a good man to run the place. And meanwhile she'll be able to fix something up for herself. Oh, we shall settle all right. I'll see your mother through all right. No fear of that. And no fear of any deterioration to the place. I'll watch that. You bet I will."