88 
THE QUESTION. 
blame a boy like me for wanting to be a 
sailor.” 
“I don’t blame you at all, my dear, for 
wanting to go. I sympathize with you 
entirely. But you know the question is 
not always so much what we want to do as 
what we ought to do. I have no doubt at 
all that, if it is best for you to go, the way 
will be opened; and, in the mean time, 
the more you learn, especially of Natural 
Science, the more you will be able to enjoy 
your travels yourself and make them useful 
and interesting to others.” 
Any talk about Sidney’s going to sea 
was always the signal for Annie to put on 
her dark face, as the children called it. 
She never could bear to hear it talked of, 
and had once made Sidney very angry by 
telling him that she knew he had not much 
love for them or he would not be so anxious 
to run away from all his friends. She now 
hastened to bring the conversation back to 
its former channel. 
“We have wandered a long way from 
our cats,” said she, in a tone which she 
meant should sound just as usual, but which 
was a little constrained in spite of her. 
