But they consulted, and thought it wiser to continue the surer method; and so a little tube was neatly inserted into Dick's windpipe, and his throat bandaged; and by this aperture he did his breathing for some little time.
Phoebe nursed him like a mother; and the terror and the joy did her good, and made her less desolate.
Dick was only just well when both of them were summoned to the farm, and arrived only just in time to receive their father's blessing and his last sigh.
Their elder brother, a married man, inherited the farm, and was executor.

Phoebe and Dick were left fifteen hundred pounds apiece, on condition of their leaving England and going to Natal.
They knew directly what that meant.

Phoebe was to be parted from a bad man, and Dick was to comfort her for the loss.
When this part of the will was read to Phoebe, she turned faint, and only her health and bodily vigor kept her from swooning right away.
But she yielded.

"It is the will of the dead," said she, "and I will obey it; for, oh, if I had but listened to him more when he was alive to advise me, I should not sit here now, sick at heart and dry-eyed, when I ought to be thinking only of the good friend that is gone." When she had come to this she became feverishly anxious to be gone.

She busied herself in purchasing agricultural machines, and stores, and even stock; and to see her pinching the beasts' ribs to find their condition, and parrying all attempts to cheat her, you would never have believed she could be a love-sick woman.
Dick kept her up to the mark.