very grave, and made a great many resolutions to be a
perfect pattern of prudence from that time forth, but, alas! these good
resolutions must have flown to the moon, for he kept them but a very
short time, as (with great sorrow) I shall tell you.

The heedless boy was very fond of reading, and, as you may suppose, the
books he liked the most were "Robinson Crusoe," "Gulliver's Travels,"
and "Peter Wilkins," because they were so full of adventures.

He was so excited by Robinson Crusoe, that if he had dared, he would
have gone off to sea to look for a desolate island, and be Robinson
Crusoe number two; but he was a little too much in awe of his father for
that, and he might never have had an adventure if he had not chanced one
morning upon a party of gipsies sitting around a fire in a wood, near
his home. Their glittering eyes, swarthy complexions, and air of
careless enjoyment, fired the boy's imagination. It gave him a new idea.
Splendid! The very thing! What perfect happiness! The woods were large,
and he could run off and be a gipsy immediately. It was as plain as A B
C that he would have a first-rate time.

It was school vacation just then--lovely summer weather. The white
clouds, which the sweet south wind wafted along, deepened by contrast
the glorious blue heaven above; the sweet, tranquil, drowsy country
sounds; the grassy, daisy-spangled banks of the noisy little brook; and
the great dark, thick woods, so rich in foliage that the sun's rays made
only dimples beneath, that came and went as the leaves were stirred. All
these beautiful things made a life in the joyous, free, open air, seem
the very embodiment of happiness, and Charlie, without a thought of the
consequences, determined to be a gipsy without a moment's loss of time.

It happened--by good chance or by bad chance--that, at this very moment,
Arthur, Harry, Richard and George, (Harry's little brother,) friends and
schoolmates of Charlie's, came to ask him to go fishing with them. What
an opportunity! Five jolly fellows together! As they went along he would
invite them to be his band, and he would be the captain. Capital!

The boys shouldered their fishing rods, and started off, now darting
after a butterfly, now jumping over a boulder, as boys always do; every
one in the highest spirits, and quite ready for the first fun that
offered.

They soon arrived at the water, and, in a very short time, had caught a
dozen fish, when Charlie, with sparkling