"
In due time a reply came from 'Zekiel. It was short, but to the
point. "Huldy will be delighted to have him. Our boy Quincy is nearly
fourteen years old now and he'll take good care of his little cousin.
I'll try and be a father to him until you come for him."
The important question, "How was the boy to reach America?" was
answered by one of those happy coincidences which happen often in
books and occasionally in real life, such as is being depicted. The
Rev. Mr. Gay, who had been a constant visitor to Uncle Ike during his
last days, paid a visit to Fernborough Hall on his return from a trip
to the Holy Land.
"Heaven must have sent you," said Alice, and she told him of her
desire to have her boy go to Fernborough.
Mr. Gay consented to take charge of young Quincy. In a few days the
parting came. The mother's heart was sorely tried. But mother-love is
unselfish, and Alice's only consolation came from the conviction that
her temporary loss was for her son's permanent good.
Her nights were sleepless, filled with thoughts of accidents, and
storms and collisions at sea, until a welcome letter dispelled her
imaginings, for it brought the intelligence that young Quincy was
safe with his father's friends.
CHAPTER XVII
HIS FATHER'S FRIENDS
It is the good fortune of some fatherless or motherless children to
be adopted into good families where the natural love and care that
have been denied them are supplied, as it were, by proxy.
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