CHAPTER TWELVE.
UNCLE DICK SAYS "YES!"
It was about a fortnight after this conversation, during the whole ofwhich time Uncle Dick seemed to have kept me so at arm's-length that myvery life had become wretched in the extreme, when, being in thedrawing-room one evening, my aunt, who had been talking to him about hispreparations for going away in three weeks' time, suddenly drew hisattention to me.
"Do you see how ill and white this boy has turned, Richard? Now it's ofno use you denying it; he's quite upset with your nasty birds andstuff."
"No, he is not," cried Uncle Dick suddenly; and his whole mannerchanged. "The boy is fretting."
"Fretting!" cried my aunt; "with plenty to eat and drink, and a good bedto sleep on! What has he to fret about?"
"He is fretting because he has taken it into his head that he would liketo go with me."
"Like to go with you, Dick?" cried Uncle Joe, laying hold of the arms ofhis easy-chair.
"Yes, Joe, I'm afraid I have turned his head with my descriptions ofcollecting abroad."
To my utter astonishment, as I sat there with my face burning, and myhands hot and damp, Aunt Sophy did not say a word.
"But--but you wouldn't like to go with your Uncle Richard, Nat, wouldyou?" said Uncle Joe.
"I can't help it, uncle," I said, as I went to him; "but I should liketo go. I don't want to leave you, but I'd give anything to gocollecting with Uncle Dick, anywhere, all over the world."
Uncle Joe took out his red handkerchief and sat wiping his face.
"I have turned it over in my mind a dozen times," said Uncle Dick, "andsometimes I have thought that it would be an injustice to the boy,sometimes I have concluded that with his taste for natural history, hisknowledge of treating skins and setting out butterflies and moths, itwould be a shame not to give him every encouragement."
"How?" said my aunt, drily.
"By taking him with me and letting him learn to be a naturalist."
"Humph!" said my aunt; "take him with you right away on your travels?"
"Yes," said my Uncle Dick.
"But I don't think it would be right," said Uncle Joseph softly.
"Don't be stupid, Joe," said my aunt sharply; "why shouldn't the boy go,I should like to know?"
"Oh, aunt!" I cried excitedly.
"Yes, sir, and oh, aunt, indeed!" she cried, quite mistaking my meaning."Do you suppose that you are to stay here idling away your time allyour life--and--"
"That will do," cried Uncle Dick quickly. "Nat, my boy, I have held offfrom taking you before; but if your Uncle Joseph will give his consentas your guardian, you shall come with me as my pupil, companion, andson, if you will, and as far as in me lies I will do my duty by you.What say you, Joe?" he continued, as I ran to him and took his extendedhands.
My aunt looked at me as if she were going to retract her permission; butshe was stopped, I should say, for the first and last time in her life,by Uncle Joseph, who waved his hand and said sadly:
"It will be a great grief to me, Dick, a great grief," he said, "and Ishall miss my boy Nat very, very much; but I won't stand in his light,Dick. I know that I can trust you to do well by the boy."
"I will, Joe, as well as if he were my own."
"I know it, Dick, I know it," said Uncle Joe softly; "and I can see thatwith you he will learn a very, very great deal. Nat, my boy, you arevery young yet, but you are a stout, strong boy, and your heart is inthat sort of thing, I know."
"And may I go--will you take me, Uncle Dick? Say you will."
"Indeed I will, my boy," he cried, shaking my hand warmly; "only youwill have to run the same risks as I do, and stick to me through thickand thin."
"But I don't think it would be possible for him to be ready," said myaunt, who evidently now began to repent of her ready consent.
"Nonsense, Sophy!" cried Uncle Dick; "I'll get him ready in time, with afar better outfit than you could contrive. Leave that to me. Well,Nat, it is to be then. Only think first; we may be away for years."
"I don't mind, sir; only I should like to be able to write to UncleJoe," I said.
"You may write to him once a week, Nat, and tell him all our adventures,my boy; but I don't promise you that you will always be able to postyour letters. There, time is short. You shall go out with me thismorning."
"Where to, uncle?" I said.
"To the gunsmith's, my boy. I shall have to fit you up with a lightrifle and double shot-gun; and what is more, teach you how to use them.Get your cap and let's go: there is no time to spare."