“But I have never seen my Grandpapa Dale, and he doesn’t know me, and I don’t believe he wants to,” replied Arthur; adding sadly: “There doesn’t seem to be anybody in the whole world that wants to know me, except you, and Brace Barlow, and Cynthia. Besides Dalecourt is a long way off, and it would take a great deal of money to get there, and we haven’t any at all, and I don’t believe even you could find the way to it if we should try and go there.”
“Dint I uster lib dere, Honey, and dint I come frum dere? What fo you spec I can’t go whar I come frum?”
“But coming from a place and going back to it are very different things,” replied Arthur, wisely.
“So dey is, Honey, ob cose dey is,” agreed Uncle Phin, who was not yet ready to disclose his plans.
“But we will go away somewhere and live together, won’t we?” pleaded Arthur. “I don’t suppose we could take my ‘dear Giant’ and Cynthia with us; but if we only could, wouldn’t we be happy?”
“Ob cose we’se a gwine leab dish yere place,” replied the old man. “You jes trus yo Unc Phin, an he fin a way to trabble, an a place fer to go.”
Then he told the boy that he should go away before daylight, and might remain several days making preparations for their journey. He would not say where he was going, because he wanted Arthur to be able to say honestly he did not know, if he were asked. He instructed the boy to collect all his little belongings, including his scanty wardrobe, and have them ready for a start at a moment’s notice. “Itll be in de night time, Honey, in de middle ob de night, an ole Phin ’ll creep in an wake you, same like he did erwhile ago. So don’t you be afeared when you wakes up sudden an fin’s him stan’in alongside ob you.”
“No, I won’t be afraid, and Ill be ready whenever you come for me,” replied the little fellow; “but don’t stay long away, because I shall be so lonely without you.”
Uncle Phin promised that he would not be a single minute longer than was necessary to make preparations, and Arthur was about to go back to the house, when a sudden thought flashed into his mind, and he exclaimed: “Oh, my book, my precious book that the beautiful lady gave me! I can’t leave it behind, and Im afraid Aunt Nancy won’t let me have it.”
Then, in answer to Uncle Phin’s inquiries, he had to tell him the whole story of his adventures as a Prince, which he had not heretofore found an opportunity of relating, and in which the old man was greatly interested. He was particularly pleased with the title bestowed upon his “lil Marse” by the beautiful lady, and said: “You is a shuah ’nough Prince, Honey, if dere ebber was one in dis worl, only you won’t always be Prince Dusty. Some day youll be a Prince somefin else. But you mus hab yo book, in cose you mus, an we’ll make out to git hol ob it somehow or nudder.”