"Glad, undoubtedly," replied Hamilton, "but sorry to part from our old
companions there. I had no idea, Harry, that I loved them all so much.
I feel as if I should be glad were the order for us to leave them
countermanded even now."

"That's the very thought," said Harry, "that was passing through my own
brain when I spoke to you. Yet, somehow, I think I should be uncommonly
sorry after all if we were really sent back. There's a queer
contradiction, Hammy: we're sorry and happy at the same time! If I were
the skipper now, I would found a philosophical argument upon it."

"Which the skipper would carry on with untiring vigour," said Hamilton,
smiling, "and afterwards make an entry of in his log. But I think,
Harry, that to feel the emotion of sorrow and joy at the same time is
not such a contradiction as it at first appears."

"Perhaps not," replied Harry, "but it seems very contradictory to _me_;
and yet it's an evident fact, for I'm _very_ sorry to leave _them_, and
I'm _very_ happy to have you for my companion here."

"So am I, so am I," said the other heartily. "I would rather travel
with you, Harry, than with any of our late companions, although I like
them all very much."

The two friends had grown, almost imperceptibly, in each other's esteem
during their residence under the same roof, more than either of them
would have believed possible. The gay, reckless hilarity of the one did
not at first accord with the quiet gravity and, as his comrades styled
it, _softness_ of the other. But character is frequently misjudged at
first sight, and sometimes men who on a first acquaintance have felt
repelled from each other have, on coming to know each other better,
discovered traits and good qualities that ere long formed enduring bonds
of sympathy, and have learned to love those whom at first they felt
disposed to dislike or despise. Thus Harry soon came to know that what
he at first thought and, along with his companions, called softness in
Hamilton was in reality gentleness of disposition and thorough
good-nature, united in one who happened to be utterly unacquainted with
the _knowing_ ways of this peculiarly sharp and clever world, while in
the course of time new qualities showed themselves in a quiet,
unobtrusive way that won upon his affections and raised his esteem. On
the other hand, Hamilton found that, although Harry was volatile, and
possessed of an irresistible tendency to fun and mischief, he ne