“No,” I said.
“What do you call it then, a chase—wild-goose chase?”
“I don’t see that it’s a wild-goose chase for two lads to come to a new country to try and get on,” I said.
“Not a bit, my lad, but a very worthy thing to do. I meant it was rather a wild-goose chase for this friend of yours to send you in the hope of his brother-in-law helping you. Isn’t he rather an inconsistent sort of a gentleman?”
“Mr John Dempster is one of the best of men,” I said warmly.
“Perhaps so; but the best of men make mistakes sometimes, and it looks like one to me for him to be taking a sick wife right across the country to this new home. Tried it before, perhaps?”
“No,” I said; “Mr John was never out of England. He told me so.”
“Then he will have rather a startling experience, and I wish him well through with it.”
“I say, don’t talk like that,” said Esau, suddenly, “because my mother’s there.”
“Then I wish her well out of it too.”