kind of
took to youngster there, and I'll see him through. Good night."

The captain went clumping down the stairs, and we could hear him
clearing his throat very loudly down the street. Then the doctor, with
great delicacy, rose and left us alone, and I tried to look cheerful as
I sat for an hour with my mother before going to bed.

Did any of you who tried to look cheerful when you were going to leave
home for the first time ever succeed, especially with those wistful,
longing eyes watching you so earnestly all the time? I'm not ashamed to
say that I did not, and that I almost repented of my decision, seeing as
I did what pain I was causing.

But I knew directly after that it was pain mingled with pleasure, and
that I was about to do my duty as a son.

Twice over, as I lay half sleeping, I fancied I saw, or really did see,
somebody gliding away from my bedside, and then all at once I found that
it was morning, and I got up, had a miserable breakfast, which seemed to
choke me, and soon after--how I don't know, for it all seemed very
dream-like--found myself on the wharf with my mother, waiting for the
boat that was to take us three travellers to the ship.

Jimmy was there, looking rather uncomfortable in his sailor's suit,
which was not constructed for the use of a man who always sat down upon
his heels. The doctor was there, too, quiet and cheerful as could be,
and I made an effort to swallow something that troubled me, and which I
thought must be somehow connected with my breakfast. But it would not
go down, and I could do nothing but gaze hard as through a mist at the
little delicate woman who was holding so tightly to my hands. There was
a dimness and an unreality about everything. Things seemed to be going
on in a way I did not understand, and I quite started at last as
somebody seemed to say, "Good-bye," and I found myself in the little
boat and on the way to the schooner.

Then all in the same dim, misty way I found myself aboard, watching the
wharf where my mother was standing with a lady friend, both waving their
handkerchiefs. Then the wharf seemed to be slowly gliding away and
getting more and more distant, and then mixed up with it all came the
sound of the bluff captain's voice, shouting orders to the men, who were
hurrying about the deck.

Suddenly I started, for the doctor had laid his hand upon my shoulder.

"We're off, Joe," he said heartily; "the campaign has begun. Now, then,
how d