I could see when mother spoke of the island her heart was drawn to it. I
said to her, "Would you leave Traverse City and go to Beaver Island?" It
was dark and I could not see her face, but I knew by her voice there
were tears in her eyes as she said, "Well, I don't know Elizabeth, but
it seemed to me while I was there I was nearer to my boys, Charley and
Anthony, and now as both are sailing they might sometime come into the
harbor in a storm." I spoke with father about it. He said he knew mother
wanted to go back, but he did not want to take me from school. Frank,
too, said mother was anxious to go to the island, telling him there she
might see her two boys who were sailing and have her oldest son with her
all the time. There was nothing said to me again about it. I had
forgotten all about my talk with my mother.
One morning the latter part of August Frank came and said to me,
"Elizabeth you must come home. We are going to move to Beaver Island."
At first I said. "No, this can't be so. I can't leave my school which
will soon now begin." But I hurried home to find it was true. Packing
was going on and all preparations were made to move. Mother was happy.
She was going to be near her boys as she so many times said when her
neighbors urged her not to go. My heart was heavy. How could I go and
leave all my dear companions and my dear school, which was my greatest
sorrow. Mr. Therian Bostwick had been our teacher the winter before and
would be again the coming winter. He was a highly educated man and he
and his wife wanted me to remain with them all winter and go to school.
Father said I might if I wanted to and then I could go to the island the
next spring, but I felt I could not do it. My winter in Ohio, where I
had been homesick, made me timid about being separated from my parents.
Dearly as I loved my young companions and Traverse City, I felt I was
needed by my parents. Father's health was failing, that I could plainly
see, and Frank not old enough to be much help.