"I think," Barbara said, "that it's going to be just wonderful!"
Joe turned to look at her, startled because there was a quality in her
voice that had never been present before. She spoke like an adult, but
her eyes were wide with excitement and her cheeks were flushed. Joe
shook his head. He had thought that, of all the family, Barbara might
shrink from such a trip and all it involved. Joe said,
"Bobby, you really want to go!"
But Barbara was already lost in a dream and Emma answered for her
daughter, "Of course she wants to go."
Joe glanced at his wife, sensing another feminine puzzle here which no
man would ever figure out. He understood Tad's bubbling excitement at
the prospect of new horizons and new adventure, but Tad was a boy and
such a reaction was natural. He did not completely grasp, as Emma did,
that Barbara was youth too. Youth was for daring, and exploring, and the
farthest point on the horizon would always be alluring. Joe grinned at
his youngest children.
"Any of you got anything to say?"