Leena was more anxious than ever that he should marry Vrow Schmidt's niece, and be taken good care of.
But it was not to be: Peter Paul went back to his ship and into the wide world again.
Uncle Jacob would have given him an off-set of his new tulip—a real novelty, and named—if he had had any place to plant it in.
"I've a bed of breeders that will be worth looking at next time you come home," said he.
Leena walked far over the pastures with Peter Paul. She was very fond of him, and she had a woman's perception that they would miss him more than he could miss them.
"I am very sorry you could not settle down with us," she said, and her eyes brimmed over.
Peter Paul kissed the tears tenderly from her cheeks.
"Perhaps I shall when I am older, and have shaken off a few more of my whims into the sea. I'll come back yet, Leena, and live very near to you and grow tulips, and be as good an old bachelor-uncle to your boy as Uncle Jacob was to me."
"And if a foreign wife would suit you better than one of the Schmidts," said Leena, re-arranging his bundle for him, "don't think we sha'n't like her. Any one you love will be welcome to us, Peter Paul—as welcome as you have been."
When they got to the hillock where Mother used to sit, Peter Paul took her once more into his arms.