At last, the tin dishes and cups had all been washed up in thorough fashion, Elmer and Wee Willie insisting on doing that unpleasant part of the dining program; though Perk protested that he always did like to “splash things around,” and had even fetched a new dish mop along to try out; but they elbowed him aside unceremoniously, the tall chum saying commandingly:
“Here, you clear out, Perk! Think we’re going to let you have a monopoly of this business? Guess the rest of us want to keep our hands in, don’t we? You’ll be boasting, when we get home, you just ran the whole camp; and we don’t want to get the laugh on us. Now forget it, and talk with Mr. Codling. You know all his folks down home, and can tell him Amos doesn’t overshoot the mark when he says little Peter is a darling, ditto—Louise, and—yes, Kitty in the bargain.”
At that Amos had to smile, because the said Kitty was a big girl for her years, and Wee Willie had been known to fetch her flowers, even a box of candy on one occasion, when she passed her twelfth birthday; he also had a tacit understanding with Kitty to “beau” her to the first barn dance the next Winter, if her mother considered her old enough to attend such jolly gatherings.
Mr. Codling waited until they were all gathered together later on, with the “chores” completed, and the decks cleared. Then he spoke up, just as Elmer had been anticipating would be the case.
“I’ve got something to say to you, Amos,” he remarked first of all; and though his voice trembled, Elmer made sure that it was only through joy, and not because there was any further cause for lingering regrets.
“All right, father,” the boy immediately said, coming to the side of the speaker, and bending over; “I’m ready to tell you anything you want to know, so don’t hold back. I haven’t got a thing to keep from you, remember.”
“But this is something that concerns me, first of all, my boy,” continued the other. “Listen then. You know I vowed never to come back unless I found myself able to take up that terrible debt of mine, and face the world again as an honest man. Yes, and I told you how twice I slipped back after I believed myself on the road to fortune. Well, three turned out to be the magical number with me, Amos; in Alaska I struck rich pay dirt, and I’ve come back with all the money we shall ever need again in this world!”
CHAPTER XXVI
LOOKING FORWARD—CONCLUSION
No one said a word for a full minute, though Wee Willie and Elmer and big-hearted Perk exchanged glowing looks, and happy nods, as if the great news pleased them beyond measure.
Amos, with swimming eyes, bent over, and laid a hand on his father’s shoulder. There was simple affection in the act, and nothing more.