The Thorogood Family

In regard to this matter, Jacob was wont to say to his friend at times, when he was particularly confidential, that “the catchin’ of Liz was the best bit of trappin’ he had done since he took to huntin’ in the Rocky Mountains, and that if it hadn’t bin for his chum Reuben Dale, he never would have bin able to come up to the p’int, much less git over it, though he had lived to the age of Methuselah and hunted for a wife all the time.”

“A good story,” said Dick Thorogood, as Fred folded up the manuscript; “but to return to matter of greater importance than this hunter’s wedding, curious though it be: what about emigrating?”

“I’ll go, for one!” exclaimed the blacksmith bringing his huge fist down with a heavy thud on the table.

“John, John, it’s not the anvil you’ve got before you,” said old Moll.

“No, nor yet is my fist the fore-hammer,” rejoined the smith, with sparkling eyes. “Nevertheless, I repeat that I’ll go—always supposing that you and Molly have no objections.”

It was one of the dearest wishes of the old woman’s heart to be near her crippled and favourite son, but she would not commit herself at once.

“What says Molly?” she asked, turning to her daughter.

Molly cast a sidelong glance at Fred, who gave the slightest possible nod, and then said, in her gentle voice, “The sooner we begin to pack the better!”

“Bravo, lass!” cried the young sailor, slapping his thigh; “well said, and we’ll all go together. What say you, boys?”

“Agreed—agreed!” was the hearty reply.

And this was no idle talk. That night at worship, the father of the family spread Jim’s letter, as he said, before the Lord, and asked for guidance. The end of the whole matter was that, a few months later, the Thorogood family emigrated to the backwoods of America, and began that career of useful, energetic, patient, God-directed labour which ended in the formation of a happy garden in a part of the wilderness which had formerly been the haunt of wild beasts and wilder men.

And here, kind reader, we must close our little tale, for it would take a large book, if not two books, to tell the story of that thorough-going family’s adventures while endeavouring to spread the truth in the Far West. Suffice it to say, that they all found what they went in search of—health and happiness—because they sought for these blessings in accordance with the teachings of the blessed Word of God.