“Papa, let me stay;” and the incoming one was: “All right. Stay.”
He did not inform his mother why he was there at the office so early and she did not inquire. She attributed it to his filial affection and was accordingly touched by it. She petted him as usual, and carried him back to the hotel in her phaeton, while she thrilled with satisfaction at the knowledge she could at last get away from a benighted region where no Sunday trains were run.
The Judge’s messages were last, and the longest. His outgoing one gave Mr. Ebenezer Stark a sketchy outline of his vacation plans, announced the gentlemen who would share it with him, and added a formal invitation for Montmorency to be of the party, if agreeable to the lad’s friends. Mr. Stark’s reply was heartily grateful, expressed his appreciation of the Judge’s courtesy and good nature in “loading himself with a boy of the calf age. A calf of good enough pedigree, but needed turning out to pasture away from the mother,” and a little more to that nature.
The rub came when trunks were being packed and Montmorency announced that his “things” needn’t be put in; except the “dudish” ones which he wouldn’t want in a vacation camp.
Mrs. Stark was so astonished that she was silent and during that interval her son talked and explained with a rapidity that left her no chance for reply. “Father says so,” was the final argument that clinched the matter; and she wisely refrained from further controversy, reflecting that “Father” might alter his opinion when she had met him and reported the true state of things. Then he would, of course, promptly recall his son and heir from a region so fraught with dangers and temptations as this Province.
Therefore, the parting was effected with less friction than Monty had anticipated, and he watched the train that bore his too-solicitous mother out of sight with a delight that, for the present, knew no regret. He was fully in earnest to “make a man” of himself, and felt that he would be better able to succeed if freed from the indulgence which had surrounded him from his cradle.
After allowing himself the relief of one “pigeon-wing” on the station-platform, he sprang up to the steps at the rear of the hotel stage which had brought departing guests to the train and hugged Tommy, perched there, till the little fellow squealed.
“Good enough, Tommy boy! I’m to rough it now to my heart’s content. Ever been hunting or fishing in the woods, younker?”
“Yep. Go most every year—that is, I’ve been once—with the Boss. He’s the best hunter anywhere’s around. It was him got all those moose and caribou heads that are in the lobby. Oh! you bet it’s cracky! I’m going this fall if—if I’m let, and my mother don’t make me go to school.”
“Mothers—Well, mothers have a bad way of spoiling a fellow’s fun, eh, lad? But after all, they’re a pretty good arrangement. I hope my mother’ll have a good trip over to Boston; and see? Look there?”