' That was a poser,
and so the matter dropped."
Ten days later, when the boys met, John said:
"This is the last time we shall meet for some time, Walter, for I am
going up to Derry to stay with a cousin of my father, who is settled
there and exercises the trade of a currier. I said, some months ago, that
I should like to learn a trade, but everyone was against it, then. They
seemed to think that, as I should some day have the land, it was flying
in the face of Providence to think of anything else. But I suppose the
fact that everything is so unsettled now, and that there is no saying
what may come of these events in England, may have made them think
differently.
"At any rate, my father said to me yesterday: 'We have been talking over
what you said, about wishing to learn a trade. If all goes on well, there
is no occasion for you to learn any business save that of farming; but
none can say what the Lord may not have in store for us, or what troubles
may come upon us. In any case, it will do you no harm to see a little of
the world outside our farm; and, therefore, your grandfather and I have
settled that you shall go for a few months to my cousin, who, as you
know, is a currier in Derry. He has often written, asking you to go and
stay with him, seeing that he has no children of his own.
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