I. GOOD-BYE TO FATHER.

1.  Father kissed us and said, “Good-bye, dears.  Be good children, and help mother as much as you can.  The year will soon pass away.  What a merry time we will have when I come back again!”

2.  Father kissed mother, and then stepped into the train.  The guard blew his whistle, and the train began to move.  We waved good-bye until it was out of sight.

[Illustration:  {Children waving good-bye to their father as the train pulls away}]

3.  Then we all began to cry—­even Tom, who thinks himself such a man.  It was so lonely without father.

4.  Tom was the first to dry his eyes.  He turned to me and said, “Stop that crying.  You are the eldest, and you ought to know better.”

5.  He made mother take his arm, just as father used to do.  Then he began to whistle, to show that he did not care a bit.  All the way home he tried to make jokes.

6.  As soon as we had taken off our coats and hats, Tom called us into the sitting-room.  “Look here,” he said:  “we’re going to have no glum faces in this house.  We must be bright and cheerful, or mother will fret.  You know father wouldn’t like that.”

[Illustration:  {Children in the sitting-room}]

7.  We said that we would do our best.  So off we went to help mother to make the beds and to dust the rooms.  While we were doing this we quite forgot to be sad.

8.  After tea we went into father’s room and looked at the globe.  “I’m going to follow father right round the world,” said Tom.  “Please show me which way he is going.”  Mother did so.

9.  “By this time next week,” she said, “we shall have the first of many long letters from father.  I am sure we shall enjoy reading them.  He will tell us about the far-off lands which he is going to see.”

10.  “That will be grand,” I said.  “I hope he will tell us lots about the children.  I want to know what they look like, what they wear, and what games they play.”

11.  Tom said he would rather not hear about children.  He wanted to hear about savages and tigers and shipwrecks, and things like that.

[Illustration:  {Postman delivering a letter}]

12.  A week later the postman brought us father’s first letter.  How eager we were to hear it!  Mother had to read it for us two or three times.

13.  Every week for many weeks the postman brought us letters from father.  When he handed us a letter he used to say, “I’m glad to see that your daddy is all right so far.”

14.  This book is made up of father’s letters from abroad.  I hope you will enjoy them as much as we did.

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2.  A letter from France.

1.  My dear children,—­I am writing this letter in a large seaport of the south of France.  To-morrow I shall go on board the big ship which is to take me to Egypt.