ipations, Harry and Alfred Higginson, two of
our most intimate friends, were to go with us--to be with us all the
summer, join our studies and our fun. But we were to separate from our
father and mother, and from our dear sister Aggie and the little
Charley--from all those dear ones from whom we had never been parted for
a day and night before. We were to leave for half a year. All this,
covered at first by the hopes and fancies we had built, and by the noise
and activity of preparation, appeared then, when everything was packed,
and we, the evening before the journey, drew our chairs about the
tea-table. The prospect of such a magnificent time as we expected to
have on the cape lost some of its brilliancy. Indeed, I positively
regretted that we were to go. We boys were as hushed as frightened
mice.

After tea, Drake and I got very close to our mother on the sofa, but
Walter lounged nervously about, trying to appear, I think, as if such an
affair--a parting for six months--were nothing to such a big fellow as
he. Aggie came and held my hand. When our father had taken his usual
seat, he and our mother commenced to give us careful instructions how we
were to regulate our time and conduct during our separation from them;
we were directed about our lessons, clothes, language, and play; to be
kind and patient with Clump and Juno; and very particular were our
orders about the new tutor, Mr Clare, to whom we had been formally
introduced a few days before, and we were required to promise solemnly
that we would obey him implicitly in every respect. Besides which our
father delighted us very much by the information that he had engaged an
old seaman, Mugford by name, once boatswain of an Indiaman, who had
taken up his abode at the fishing town across the bay from our cape, to
be with us often through the summer in our out-of-school hours; that he
would be, as it were, our skipper--perhaps reside with us--and that he
was to have full command in all our water amusements; he would teach us
to swim, to row, and to sail. That last subject cheered us up a bit,
and when I saw Walter, who was still walking up and down the room, going
through a pantomimic swim, striking out his arms in big circles, right
and left, I commenced to smile, and Drake to laugh outright. So our
conference ended in good spirits. And then we all kneeled in family
prayer, and that evening before the parting, as we kneeled and heard my
father's earnest wo