Therefore his heart was very light when, with valise in hand, he entered the stuffy kitchen of Mrs. Bartlett’s home for the last time.
After the meal came to an end, Bob said laughingly, as he went toward the window:—
“Look out here.”
Josiah obeyed, and saw ranged either side of the court, in true military precision, ten boys headed by Master Foss, all of them standing with their eyes fixed upon the door of the building.
“What are they doin’ here?” Josiah asked in surprise. “Bill don’t think that we’ve got time to go anywhere with him, does he?”
“Oh, no, he’s only come to ’scort you down to the ferry in style.”
Josiah looked distressed.
Since his experience in the station-house he did not wish to attract any more attention than was absolutely necessary, and was eager only to meet his father in the quietest possible manner.
“I think it would be a good deal better if we should go alone,” he said after a long pause.
“So do I; but there don’t seem to be any way out of it. Bill is reckonin’ on doin’ this thing in great shape, an’ I s’pose we’ll have to let him run it, ’less you’re willin’ to tell him right up an’ up that we oughter go alone.”