Effie laughed at this idea.
“Don would do. Don must do,” continued Leonard, “and the carpenter would help Peter to build us a cart—no, a van, with a canvas roof. It would be no end of good fun. And really, Eff, I’m so full of the notion that I must run right away and tell father.”
Leonard burst into the room where Captain Lyle was writing.
“Father,” he said, “what can I do for you?”
“Nothing at present. Oh! yes, you can though.”
“Well, I’ll do it.”
“Leave me alone.”
Leonard’s face fell, and his father began to laugh.
“Father,” said Leonard, “when I grow a great big big man, and you are old, old, and white-haired, and crawling about on crutches like Admiral Boffin, with perhaps a wooden leg and a hook for an arm—”
“Thank you for the prospect,” said Captain Lyle.