"Oh," said he, "is that you, father?" It is an innocent way of his when he has anything in particular to conceal.
"At any rate," I replied, "you are my son."
He smiled amiably and I cranked the wheel, making room for him beside me.
"Columbine," I remarked.
"Yes."
"Let.i.tia will be pleased," I said.
Now I knew it was for the Parker girl--Rita Parker, who blushes so when I chance to meet her that I know now how it feels to be an ogre, a much-maligned being, too, for whom I never had any sympathy before.
"I just saw a redstart," remarked my son.
"So?" I replied. "Did you notice any bobolinks?"
"_Did_ I?" he answered. "I saw a million of them."
"You did?"
"Down in the meadows there."
"A million of them?"
"Almost a million," he replied. "Every gra.s.s-stalk had one on it, teetering and singing away like anything."
"Why, I didn"t know Rita was with you."
"Rita!" he exclaimed, reddening.
"Why, yes," I said. "You saw so many birds, you know."
It was a little hard upon the boy, but I broke the ensuing silence with some comments on the weather, and having him wholly at my mercy then, I chose a subject which so long had charmed me, I had been on the point of telling him time and again, yet had refrained.
"Robin," said I, "you will be a graduate in a day or two. What do you say to a summer in England, boy?"
He caught my hand--so violently that the rein was drawn and Pegasus turned obediently into the ditch and stopped.
"England, father!"
"If we are spared," I said, getting the buggy into the road again.
"All of us!" he cried.
"No."
"But you"ll come, father?" He said it so anxiously that I was touched.
It isn"t always that a boy cares to lug his father.
"I should like to," I said, "but--no."
"Why not?"
"I cannot leave," I replied. "Jamieson"s going. We can"t both go."
"Oh, bother Jamieson!" Robin exclaimed. "What does he want to choose _our_ year for? Why can"t he wait till next?"
"It"s his wife," I explained. "She"s ill again. But you go, Robin, and take Let.i.tia."
"When do we start?"
"In June."
"_This_ June?"
"Next month. I"ve laid out the journey for you on a map, and I"ve got the names of the inns to stop at, and what it will cost you, and everything else."
"But when did you think of it?" asked my son.
"Last fall."
"Last fall! Does Aunt Letty know?"
"Partly," I said. "She knows you"re going, but not herself. It"s a little surprise for her. You may tell her yourself, now, while I stop at the office."
He scrambled out and hitched my horse for me, so I held the flowers. He flushed a little as he took them.
"Father, you"re a trump," he said.
I bowed slightly: it is wise to be courteous even to a son. I had stopped at the office to get the map, and an hour later Let.i.tia met me in our doorway.
"Bertram!" she said, taking my hand.
"Robin told you?"
"Yes. Oh, it"s beautiful, Bertram, but I cannot go."
"Nonsense," I said.
"But you?"
"I shall do very nicely."
"But the cost?"
"Will be nothing," I said. "The boy must not go alone."
"That"s not the reason you are sending me, Bertram."