David nodded assent.
“They will be in Gourlay long ago,” said he. “I wonder how it will seem to mamma to go back again.”
Jem looked grave.
“It won’t be all pleasure to her, I am afraid.”
“No; she will have many things to remember; but I think she would rather have gone to Gourlay than anywhere else. I wish I could have gone with her.”
“Yes; but she has Violet and the children; and mamma is not one to fret or be unhappy.”
“She will not be unhappy; but all the same it will be a sorrowful thing for her to go there now.”
“Yes; but I am glad she is there; and I hope I may be there, too, before the summer is over.”
Jem’s examinations passed off with great credit to himself; but he did not have the pleasure of telling his triumph, or showing his prizes to his mother and the children till after their return to Singleton; for Jem did not go to Gourlay, but in quite another direction.
When an offer was made to him, through one of his friends at the great engine-house, to accompany a skillful machinist to a distant part of the country where he was to superintend the setting up of some valuable machinery in a manufacturing establishment, he gave a few regretful thoughts to his mother and Gourlay, and the long anticipated delights of boating and fishing; but it did not take him long to decide to go. Indeed, by the time his mother’s consent reached him, his preparations were far advanced, and he was as eager to be gone as though the sole object of the trip had been pleasure, and not the hard work which had been offered him. But, besides the work, there was the wages, which, to Jem seemed magnificent, and there was the prospect of seeing new sights far from home; so he went away in great spirits, and David was left alone.