"She must have gone to bring in the cows for Steve," the Schoolmaster said. "Never mind, I'll tell her you left a message for her."
"Yes," said the boy, folding and re-folding his hat.
But it did not seem the same thing as seeing Deirdre and saying good-bye to her himself.
"Mind, if there's any books you're wanting, or any way I can help you, if you want to study more, you can always let me know, and I'll be glad to do anything I can for you," the Schoolmaster said. "Steve will pass a letter on to me. I don't know where we'll settle at first, or just what we're going to do, but he'll generally know our whereabouts. And there's one other thing I'd like to say, Davey, you can always be sure of a friend in the world. If you get into a scrape, or any sort of trouble, will you remember that?"
They gripped hands.
"Thank you, Mr. Farrel," Davey muttered. "But I wish you weren't going," he added, desperately.
"I wish we weren't too," Farrel said with a sigh, "but then you see people don't want to build the school again. They don't think there's the same need for one now. Most of the girls I've been teaching for the last few years can teach the children coming on well enough. And besides, there's talk of Government schools being set up everywhere."
"Yes."
Davey's countenance was one of settled gloom.
"Good-bye."