Archie shook his head.
“No,” he said, “no! I can’t go. Elspie is all very well in her way, and so is Elise, but they can’t carry Little Bill about the fields and through the bush on their backs; and Peter wouldn’t; he’s too busy about the farm. No—ever since mother died, I’ve stuck to Little Bill through thick and thin. So I won’t go.”
It was so evident that Archie Sinclair’s mind was made up and fixed, and also so obvious that a delicate little boy would be a great encumbrance on a hunting expedition that Dan thought of attempting the expedient of winning Little Bill himself over to his side. He had no difficulty in doing that, for Billie was to the full as amiable and unselfish as his brother. After a short conversation, he made Billie promise to do his very best to induce Archie to go with the hunters and leave him behind.
“For you know, Little Bill,” said Dan in conclusion, and by way of consoling him, “although nobody could take such good care of you as Archie, or make up to you for him, Elspie would take his place very well for a time—.”
“O yes, I know that well enough,” said the poor boy with some enthusiasm; “Elspie is always very good to me. You’ve no notion how nice she is, Dan.”
“Hm! well, I have got a sort of a half notion, maybe,” returned Dan with a peculiar look. “But that’s all right, then. You’ll do what you can to persuade Archie, and—there he is, evidently coming to see you, so I’ll go and leave you to talk it over with him.”
Billie did not give his brother time to begin, but accosted him on his entrance with—“I’m so glad, Archie, that you’ve been asked to go on this hunting expe—”
“O! you’ve heard of it, then?”
“Yes, and I want you to go, very very much, because—because—”
“Don’t trouble yourself with becauses, Little Bill, for I won’t go. So there’s an end of it—unless,” he added, as if a thought had suddenly occurred to him, “unless they agree to take you with them. They might do worse. I’ll see about that.”