"
Mr. and Mrs. Hardy watched their children from the window. They
went out in a group to the summer-house in the corner of the
garden, all talking excitedly. Then Maud ran back again to the
house, and in a minute or two returned with the schoolroom atlas,
and opening it upon the table, they all clustered over it in eager
consultation.
Mrs. Hardy turned to her husband with a smile. "You will have to
get up the subject, Frank, so as to be able to answer the
innumerable questions you will be asked."
"I shall always refer them to you."
There was quite a talk in B--- when it was known that Mr. Hardy was
going to emigrate with his wife and family. He, and his father
before him, had been so long established in the town that there
were few people who did not know him, more or less.
Emigration in the year 1851 was far less common than it is now, and
the interest was proportionately greater. Charley and Hubert became
quite popular characters among their late schoolfellows, who,
whenever they met them, would always stop to have a talk about the
distant country to which they were going. The boys, however, had
now but little time for talking; for upon the week after their
father had first told them of his intention, they had set-to
regularly at the work he had laid down for them.
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