HE COULD NOT HAVE IT SO! But even as he said the words, he knew that it was so--irrevocably so.
David began then to long for his mountain home.

There at least he would have his dear forest all about him, with the birds and the squirrels and the friendly little brooks.

There he would have his Silver Lake to look at, too, and all of them would speak to him of his father.

He believed, indeed, that up there it would almost seem as if his father were really with him.

And, anyway, if his father ever should come back, it would be there that he would be sure to seek him--up there in the little mountain home so dear to them both.