Page:Ballinger Price--Fortune of the Indies.djvu/111

 aërial of his own. As for Mark, he passed all his spare time in the engine-rooms of the loading freighters across the bay, and came home late, talking eagerly of crossheads and guides, eccentric sheaves and thrust-blocks.

And so presently it came to seem as though it were the most natural thing in the world for the boys to go to China, and as if they had always been going, China came much nearer than it had ever seemed to be when thought of in terms of slow-sailing ships, and even the aunts began talking, in Resthaven, of how the boys were going to "run over to Shanghai to attend to some business."

"A very good thing, I should say," said Mrs. Titcomb, over the tea-cups. "A Mark Ingram who didn't go to China in his teens would be an odd chick in that family."

So that when the day really did arrive, late in June, it seemed like something that was only the outcome of long expectation. Mark and Alan left late in the afternoon, for they were going by train to Fall River, there to take the boat for New York. Mr. Bolliver went with them; he said he had business in New York. Mr. Bolliver's affairs always agreed most