"It was too soon."
"You must miss him a good deal—all of you."
"I am thinking of him all the time," said Mrs. Nelson.
"To be sure, that is natural in a mother. But if the boy does well, that will repay you hereafter."
"If I only felt sure he would do well."
"Oh, he is young and industrious. He will be sure to make his way. He'll like it too. Why, my Sinclair envies him the chance of leaving home. He wanted to go with him."
"Sinclair would not like to go in the same way as Tom, with the prospect of having to work hard after he got there," said Mark Nelson.
"To be sure not, neighbor Nelson. My boy has never been brought up to work. My circumstances—ahem!—have not made it necessary."
"Sinclair is fortunate in having a rich father," said the farmer.
"So I tell him," said the squire, complacently. "His fortune is already made."