"He has forgotten all that," said Mrs. Nelson. "I am no longer young and pretty."
"I think you more attractive than ever," said the husband.
"Because you are foolish," said his wife; but she was well pleased, nevertheless. Poor as her husband was, she had never dreamed of regretting her choice.
"Be it so; but about this affair of Tom—what shall I say to him in the morning?"
Mrs. Nelson recovered her gravity instantly.
"Decide as you think right, Mark," she said. "If you judge that Tom had better go I will do my best to become reconciled to his absence, and set about getting him ready."
"It is a great responsibility, Mary," said Mark slowly; "but I accept it. Let the boy go, if he wishes. He will leave our care, but we can trust him to the care of his heavenly Father, who will be as near to him in California as at home."
Thus Tom's future was decided. His father and mother retired to bed, but not to sleep. They were parting already in imagination with their first-born, and the thought of that parting was sad indeed.