“No, Jack, I don’t think you would. Nothing shall ever divide us.”
“You are very kind to a poor sailor boy,” said Jack. “You know a great deal more than I, and I am not fit to be your friend.”
“Take care, Jack, I may quarrel with you if you say anything against yourself. Fit or unfit, you are my chosen friend, and I should not be willing to exchange you for any one else I have ever met.”
The boys did not set out on their journey empty handed. Lucy, by direction of her father, had packed a basket with provisions enough to last them two or three days. The shepherd wished also to lend them some money, but this Harry declined.
“We might not be able to pay it back,” he said.
“I shan’t miss it, lads, if you don’t,” urged the shepherd.
“We might be robbed of it as we were of our other money, sir. We thank you all the same.”
But they gladly accepted the basket of provisions, without which, indeed, they might have fared badly in that uninhabited wilderness.
“How far is it to Bendigo?” Harry had asked the shepherd.
“Twenty miles or thereabouts,” was the answer. “You will be fortunate, however, if you reach there in three or four days.”