"Your boys will be well cared for, and you shall come often to see us. We expect you to enjoy a little with them."
"Oh! mother, will you come over and bring the children?" said Willie.
"And you, too, mother," echoed Burton.
Weary Mrs. Moore said:
"I would like to breathe again in the woods and on the mountains, but I have five little ones left here to care for;" and Mrs. Brown added:
"I could only come on Saturday, and the mill lets out an hour earlier, and your father needs me on that day more than any other."
Her sad face and tearful eyes told my woman's heart that this was the day he was tempted more than all others, and I afterward gathered as much from Burton.
"Well, we must turn toward home," said Louis, and the boys kissed their mothers and their little brothers and sisters, and said "good-bye," and each with his bundles turned to the carriage. Louis untied Gipsy, and I said to the mothers:
"Were they ever away over night?"
"No, never," said both at once.