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Take this for your trouble, but don't spend it all on ginger bread." "Oh, thank you, sir, I shan't spend any. I'm going to Ironboro'." "But that is a hundred miles off, at least. Why are you going so far?" asked the lady. "To find my uncle and learn to be an engineer." "H'm, a large order for a small man," said the gentleman kindly.
Trade was specially good in Ironboro', and his honest face carried its own recommendation. That summer Teddy persuaded Dick to join the boys' cricket club in connection with the Sunday School the Daintons attended. On Sundays he and Paddy always sat together in the game church.
Garth had a good tea all ready, and Pat, who had been disconsolate all day, nearly wagged off his short tail for joy when he got home. And then he wrote a letter. "We got to Ironboro' quite safely, after a lot of ups and downs on the road. Pat was nearly lost, so many people wanted to steal, or beg, or buy him, and no wonder.
Sometimes the way lay through narrow lanes, where the branches almost met overhead, and the tangled hedgerows swept the canvas roof; and sometimes the road wound upwards, and Boxer plodded from side to side taking a zigzag course to ease the climbing, while Dick rested luxuriously and dreamed of Ironboro'. Gradually the way became less lonely, carts and waggons and droves of sheep were passed and houses were more frequently seen by the wayside, and from these groups of children came, talking joyously about the fair and counting their pennies as they went along.
"And have ye railly left the wretches entirely and going off to Ironboro' to seek your fortin? Shure, and its could weather for the job. And of course ye want Pat. But ye can't have him to-night. Come and have a bite and a sup and share me cot, and ye can be off in the mornin' before anybody's astir, if ye like.
I was well acquainted with your father and your uncle, years agone, but he had got work at Ironboro' long before your father died." "And which is the way to Ironboro', and what is a fitter?" "Ironboro'? Oh that's a hundred and fifty miles off, way up in the north, and you couldn't walk it yet, all alone.
He said we could all be Lionhearts, and that God wouldn't like to go into them places with me. And he says again here that God does answer when we pray. Maybe if I went round to Dick's teacher and signed the pledge the Almighty would help me to keep it, and then I could save a bit of money and go to Ironboro' too."
The Irishman's quick eyes saw and understood, and he said easily, "You can pay me back when you're Lord Mayor of Ironboro', with a gold chain round your neck and Pat with a leather collar and a brass plate to tell his name and nation." "I'll pay long before that, if I live," cried Dick earnestly. "I don't mean to beg my way, either, if I can only get work going along."
Perhaps nobody will be surprised to hear that he married pretty Nellie Dainton, his first little friend in Ironboro', and in their home beyond the marshes, all sorts of schemes for the help of friendless children are brought to pass.
But shure, ye won't be there for ever. They've no claim on ye at all, at all. The bit of money your father left, and the insurance, have paid for your keep over and over, to say nothing of the work you're doing for that lazybones all the while. If you could only get to Ironboro' now, and find your Uncle Richard, he'd see you righted.
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