Page:Ralph Paine--The Steam-Shovel Man.djvu/201

 "Yes. The department in which he is employed should be able to locate him at once. The whereabouts of every American must be on record."

Walter's silence tortured them. Like other fathers and mothers since the beginning, they imagined all sorts of mischances which might have befallen him, just as when he had lingered after dark at the skating-pond his mother was sure he had broken through the ice. Such crosses as these the right kind of parents must bear. It is part of the price they pay. On the Isthmus of Panama Walter Goodwin might consider himself a man, but in his own home, in the hearts of his own people, he was still a boy to be watched over, to be feared for, to inspire a thousand tender anxieties of which he would never be aware.

"It will be very hard to wait for a letter from him," murmured Mrs. Goodwin. "I have tried to be brave, but"

"You have been brave and fine," and her husband kissed her. "Perhaps I should not have let him go. I find it difficult to apply myself to my day's work. I can write to the canal