I'm going to leave you now--leave you for longer, far
longer than I've ever left you before."
"Leave me?"
"Yes. I shan't always be with you; indeed, later on you won't want me.
Then you'll forget me, and at last you won't even believe that I ever
existed--until, at the end of it all, I come to take you away. _Then_ it
will all come back to you."
"Oh, but that's absurd!" Ernest Henry said confidently. Nevertheless, in
his heart he knew that, during the day-time, other things did more and
more compel his attention. There were long stretches during the day-time
now when he forgot his friend.
"After your second birthday I always leave you more to yourselves. I
shall go now for quite a time, and you'll see that when the old feeling
comes, and you know that I'm coming back, you'll be quite startled and
surprised that you'd got on so well without me. Of course, some of you
want me more than others do, and with some of you I stay quite late in
life. There are one or two I never leave at all. But you're not like
that; you'll get on quite well without me."
"Oh, no, I shan't," said Ernest Henry, and he clung very tightly and
was most affectionate.
Pages:
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72