Page:Morley roberts--Painted Rock.djvu/214

 I'm glad to see you, my son, for I'm off this day for London!"

He sat upright in the saddle, and smiled bravely at me. Certainly he was a fine handsome boy. But I had not heard of old Dick's "pulling his freight" for another world. I said so.

"Oh," said Dick, "you didn't hear of it! Poor old Paw went off ten days ago. He went out with all his load very easy: smiled at me, he did, and said he'd hed a good life of it, takin' it all round; and he said, moreover, that I'd bin a good son to him (which ain't in the least trew, but it pleased me to hev him let on thataway), and that he was goin' home to Maw, who died when I was a year old. And so he died."

There was a tear in his eye as he spoke, but he brushed it away, pretending that it was a fly.

"But you ain't in any sort of mourning, Dick," I ventured to say.

"Oh," he replied blankly enough, "ain't I? I tho't the black spots on the neckerchief was mournin'. I wanted to sport one without