Here was something that was
different from anything that I had ever seen before.
We did not stay so long. On the way home I was to stay over and give
a performance in Honolulu, but not now. Our time was given up to
sight seeing, and to meeting some of the folk of the islands. They
ken hospitality! We made many new friends there, short as the time
was. And, man! The lassies! You want to cuddle the first lassie
you meet when you step ashore at Honolulu. But you don't--if the
wife is there!
It was only because I knew that we were to stop longer on the way
back that I was willing to leave Honolulu at all. So we sailed on,
toward Australia. And now I knew that my boy was about setting out on
his great voyage around the world. Day by day I would get out the map,
and try to prick the spot where he'd be.
And I'd think: "Aye! When I'm here John'll be there! Will he be
nearer to me than now?"
Thinking of the braw laddie, setting out, so proud and happy, made me
think of my ain young days. My father couldna' give me such a chance
as my boy was to have. I'd worked in the mines before I was John's
age. There'd been no Cambridge for me--no trip around the world as a
part of my education. And I thanked God that he was letting me do so
much for my boy.
Aye, and he deserved it, did John! He'd done well at Cambridge; he
had taken honors there. And soon he was to go up to London to read
for the Bar.
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