to bid the
Chippertons good-bye. We intended to walk to the depot, and so wanted to
start early. I was now cutting down all extra expenses.

"Ready so soon!" cried Uncle Chipperton, appearing at the door of his
room. "Why, we haven't had our breakfast yet."

"We have to make an early start, if we go by the morning train," said I,
"and we wanted to see you all before we started."

"Glad to see you at any hour of the night or day,--always very glad to
see you; but I think we had better be getting our breakfast, if the
train goes so early."

"Are you going to start to-day?" I asked, in surprise.

"Certainly," said he. "Why shouldn't we? I bought a new suit of clothes
yesterday, and my wife and Corny look well enough for travelling
purposes. We can start as well as not, and I'd go in my green trousers
if I hadn't any others. My dear," he said, looking into the room, "you
and Corny must come right down to breakfast."

"But perhaps you need not hurry," I said. "I don't know when the train
for Mobile starts."

"Mobile!" he cried. "Who's going to Mobile? Do you suppose that _we_
are? Not a bit of it. When I proposed that trip, I didn't propose it for
Mrs. Chipperton, or Corny, or myself, or you, or Rectus, or Tom, or
Dick, or Harry. I proposed it for all of us. If all of us cannot go,
none of us can. If you must go north this morning, so must we. We've
nothing to pack, and that's a comfort. Nine o'clock, did you say? You
may go on to the depot, if you like, and we'll eat our breakfasts, take
a carriage, and be there in time."

They were there in time, and we all went north together.

We had a jolly trip. We saw Charleston, and Richmond, and Washington,
and Baltimore, and Philadelphia; and at last we saw Jersey City, and our
folks waiting for us in the great depot of the Pennsylvania railroad.

When I saw my father and mother and my sister Helen standing there on
the stone foot-walk, as the cars rolled in, I was amazed. I hadn't
expected them. It was all right enough for Rectus to expect his father
and mother, for they lived in New York, but I had supposed that I should
meet my folks at the station in Willisville. But it was a capital idea
in them to come to New York. They said they couldn't wait at home, and
besides, they wanted to see and know the Chippertons, for we all seemed
so bound together, now.

Well, it wasn't hard to know the Chippertons. Before we reached the
hotel where my folks were staying, and where