Her voice trembled, and I felt the pressure of her hand upon my sleeve.
"It will take all of the morrow, David, to prepare his clothing properly," she replied, with the patient resignation of the frontier. "There is much that will need seeing after."
"Then John will start the next dawn. You had best ride the brown colt, my son; he is of good breed, and speedy. Seth shall accompany you until you find suitable companionship at Hawkins's. He will bring back word of how you started, and that knowledge will greatly comfort your mother."
He paused, and held out his thin hands.
"You go upon this strange journey willingly, my son?"
"Yes, father."
"You will be both kind and thoughtful with Roger Matherson's little girl?"
"She shall be to me as my own sister."
I felt the confiding clasp of his fingers, and realized how much to him would be a successful termination of my journey.
"Kiss your mother, John," he said, a trustful look coming into his kindly eyes. "We must all be astir early on the morrow."