Jackson. "We must have been very stupid. Why, I don"t see how we could have helped guessing the truth long ago. As I look back on it all it seems as if a score of incidents might have told us. Either you kept your secret marvelously well or Nat and I are not very keen."
"And even though you fooled every one else, Peter, I can"t quite understand how you fooled me," murmured Nat.
"Peter certainly carried his scheme through well," declared Mrs.
Coddington. "Yet for our part we are very glad that the time for dissembling is past."
"Indeed we are," Mr. Coddington echoed. "This game of Peter"s has complicated our plans to no small extent."
"Why, Father, I did not know it made any difference to anybody except myself," Peter answered, looking at his parents in surprise.
"Nevertheless it has made a difference, my son," returned the president of the company kindly. "Strong was a.s.suredly a good fellow; indeed he was a lad to whom I always shall feel grateful, for he has taught me several lessons that I needed to learn."
Peter opened his eyes very wide.
To think of his father"s learning lessons!
"Still," continued Mr. Coddington, "so long as Peter Strong and not Peter Coddington formed a part of our household many plans which we had hoped to make realities had to be abandoned. Now, however, we shall try to carry through some of them; one in particular we are eager to see fulfilled, and that is why Mrs. Coddington and I have come here to-day."
Peter wondered what was coming.
His mother answered the question that trembled on his lips.
"Your father and I thought best not to tell you beforehand, Peter," she said softly.
"I"ll do it, whatever it is, Father," cried Peter. "Only please do not say that you want me to go back to school. I"d even do that, though, if you really thought I had better," he added bravely.
Mr. Coddington dropped his hand on the boy"s shoulder and smiled down into the anxious face.
"There will be no more school for you, son," he answered slowly. "At least not the sort of school that you dread so much. No, in future you must find your books in the great world about you--in men, and in the things they are doing; and this education of yours is precisely the subject I came here to talk about."
Leaning forward the president began slowly:
"Mrs. Jackson, on the fifteenth of next month, Mrs. Coddington and I are to sail for England."
"What!" gasped Peter, forgetting for the moment that he should not interrupt.
"We are to take Peter with us," went on Mr. Coddington ignoring the interruption and proceeding in the same earnest, deliberate tone. "He has worked hard and faithfully, and needs a good rest. The trip, however, is not to be an entirely profitless one, for while in England I shall take him to visit some of the finest tanneries, that he may observe other methods for doing the same things that we are doing here."
An exclamation of pleasure escaped Peter"s lips.
His father smiled.
"After we have collected in England all the information possible and have seen something of the sheep country there, and the great houses from which hides are shipped, we shall go to Paris and place orders for several large consignments of skins. I want my son to see for himself, Mrs. Jackson, just how this end of the business is conducted, for I hope and expect that some day these duties will be his, and I want him equipped to meet them with wisdom and intelligence."
"You mean that you are going to fit Peter to manage the tanneries,"
nodded Mrs. Jackson.
"Precisely."
There was a pause.
No one spoke.
It was evident that Mr. Coddington had more to say, and that he was finding it a little difficult to continue.
"In this great business, however," he went on at last, "Peter will need help. He will not be able to carry so much care all alone."
"But you will----" burst out Peter.
"Oh, I shall be around here for some time yet, G.o.d willing," replied his father cheerily. "Still we old fellows cannot expect to stay here forever. We must consider the future, dear boy. Therefore I wish to train up another lad to share Peter"s burdens with him--a fellow with good stuff in him; some one whom Peter likes and can trust. It is with this end in view, Mrs. Jackson, that when we sail for England we wish to take your son with us."
"Me!"
Nat sprang from his chair.
"Would you like to go, Nat?" asked Mrs. Coddington, watching the light leap into the boy"s eyes.
"Would I like to go! Why, it is the thing I have dreamed of all my life--dreamed of, and never expected to be able to do. To go to Europe!
To see all those places I"ve read about and seen pictures of! Think of it! Do you really mean it, Mr. Coddington?"
"I certainly do, my boy," answered the president, heartily enjoying his delight. "I cannot promise to take you to all your dream-countries but you shall see some of them. It all rests with your mother. If she gives her consent you shall go."
Mrs. Jackson"s answer was ready. While Mr. Coddington had been speaking she, with woman"s intuition, had leaped forward to the coming question and had decided upon her reply. Her one thought was for her boy. She did not permit a consideration of self to bar his way.
"I am only too glad to give my consent, Mr. Coddington," she said firmly. "It is a great opportunity for Nat, and his mother would be the last person to allow him to refuse it. Of course he shall go."
Then the significance of her words broke upon Nat.
He flushed.
He was mortified to realize that in his enthusiasm his thought had been only for himself and his own pleasure. For an instant his face fell.
Then he sprang to his mother"s side and throwing his arms about her exclaimed:
"Of course I shall not go, mother. Go, and leave you here all by yourself! I guess not! I did not think at first that my going would mean that. It was very good of you, Mr. Coddington, to ask me, but nothing would hire me, sir, to leave my mother."
"Oh, you would not be leaving me for long, dear," argued his mother, crushing the boy"s cheek against her own and hurriedly dashing away a tear. "Why, people go back and forth across the ocean every day. It is not--not far--very far. You could write to me often and before you or I knew it you would be back at home again." The trembling voice gained steadiness. "Why, it would be nothing at all, Nat! And think of all the stories you would have to tell me! While you were away I could get books and read about the places you were seeing and----"
"I never shall leave you here alone, mother, never!" repeated Nat.
"But we do not mean to have you leave your mother, Nat dear," Mrs.
Coddington said. "You have not waited to hear the end of our plan. Your mother is to go too. She is to be my guest on the trip. Oh, yes, Mrs.
Jackson. That is the other part of our plan. I shall be very forlorn while these three leather makers are rushing about among the tanneries and warehouses. They won"t want to take me with them--nor am I at all sure I should care to go if they did. So I am depending for my pleasure on your companionship, you see."
With charming grace she bent forward and put her hand pleadingly on Mrs.
Jackson"s.
"You won"t refuse Peter"s mother this favor, will you?" she begged.
Mrs. Jackson covered the hand with her own slender one and when she answered her voice quivered with emotion.