the address, he was always
thinking, "You will be laid upon a wagon and will then go into the
ship." One day he had to write a letter to a man far over the sea. He
could stand it no longer. His father had gone out. He threw down the
pen, picked up his hat and ran out to the Hudson to see the ships, and
from that time on he spent more time loitering along the river than he
did in the store.

III

ROBINSON'S DEPARTURE

Robinson's father soon noticed that his son was no longer attending to
his work, and one morning sent for him to come to his office. When
Robinson came in his father arose from his chair and looked him long and
earnestly in the face. Then he said, "I am very sorry, Robinson, that
you seem determined to continue your evil ways. If you do not do better
you will grow up to be a beggar or worse." Robinson cast his eyes down
and said, "I do not want to be a merchant, I would rather sail in a ship
around the world." His father answered, "If you do not know anything you
cannot be of use on a ship, and no one will want you. In a strange land
you cannot live without working. If you run away from your parents you
will come to be sorry for it." Robinson wept, for he saw that his father
was right, and he promised to obey.

After two or three weeks, Robinson went to his mother and said,
"Mother, won't you go to father and tell him that if he will only let me
take one voyage and it proves to be unpleasant, I will come back to the
store and work hard?" But the mother cried. With tears in her eyes, she
said: "Robinson, your brothers are both dead. You are the only child
left to us and if you go away, we shall be entirely alone. How easy it
would be to be drowned in the sea, or torn to pieces by wild animals
away there in a foreign country. Both your father and myself are getting
along in years and who will take care of us when we are sick? Do not
cause us the grief we must suffer if you go away so far amid so many
dangers. I cannot bear to have you speak of it again."

Robinson did not speak of it again, but he did not forget it. He was
nineteen years old. It was one day in August that Robinson stood at the
wharf looking longingly after the departing ships. As he stood there,
someone touched him on the shoulder. It was a ship captain's son. He
pointed to a long ship and said, "My father sails to-day in that ship
for Africa and takes me with him."

"Oh, if I could only go with you!" cried Robinson.

"Do co