Haliburton said he had not laid in his coal. They
all said the same. "Now," said he, "the coal of this
crowd for this winter will cost a thousand dollars, if
you add in the kindling and the matches, and patching the
furnace pots and sweeping the chimneys."
To this they agreed.
"It is now Wednesday. Let us start Saturday for
Memphis, take a cheap boat to New Orleans, go thence to
Vera Cruz by steamer, explore the ground, buy the houses
if we like, and return by the time we can do without
fires next spring. Our board will cost less than it
would here, for it is there the beef comes from. And the
thousand dollars will pay the fares both ways."
The women, with one voice, cried, "And the children?"
"Oh yes," cried the eager adventurer. "I had
forgotten the children. Well, they are all well, are
they not?"
Yes; all were well.
"Then we will take them with us as far as Yellow
Springs, in Ohio, and leave them for the fall and winter
terms at Antioch College. They will be enough better
taught than they are at the Kydd School, and they will
get no scarlet fever. Nobody is ever sick there. They
will be better cared for than my children are when they
are left to me, and they will be seven hundred miles
nearer to us than if they were here. The little ones can
go to the Model School, the middling ones to the Academy,
and the oldest can go to college.
Pages:
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295