Austin's chin dropped, and he looked at his father in blank amazement.
Surely he had heard wrong. He started to protest, but another suggestion
stopped him. "If I refuse, he will take all the children away, and we shall
have no home; that would grieve Mother," mused the boy. Because Austin
hesitated in answering, his father continued to explain his plan. "If I
find a good job I shall get a house and send for the rest of you children
and we shall live near your grandmother and uncles. I believe we can do
better there than here." And having said this, he waited for Austin to
speak.

"Yes, I suppose we could manage to get along a while," the boy said,
choking a little. How lonely and bare his path looked before him he could
not explain, and intuition told him it would be useless for him to try to
do so. His father seemed to forget that he was lonely too, and missed the
gentle mother.

Little more was said on the subject, but Mr. Hill arranged his affairs and,
taking the two younger children with him, went to a distant State, leaving
Austin and his two sisters and younger brother to look out for themselves
for an indefinite period.

John Moore and his wife were shocked beyond measure when they learned Mr.
Hill's plans, but knowing that it would be useless for them to remonstrate,
they said nothing. However, they vowed in their hearts to look after the
orphans in their father's absence. But there was one feature of his
father's absence that Austin had not told any one. Had his uncle John known
this, he would have been more than angry with his brother-in-law. Henry
Hill had not left sufficient means with Austin for the care of the
children. He had needed a neat sum for his fare and had taken almost all
from the family purse, promising to send something back to Austin soon. One