e I would endeavour to be doubly attentive and
respectful to this aged and feeble relative, who was evidently drawing
near the close of her life-journey.

CHAPTER XV.

Time, with his noiseless step, glided on, till but a few weeks remained
before the school would break up for the midsummer vacation. Happy as I
was at Uncle Nathan's, I looked eagerly forward to the holidays, for I
was then to pay a visit of several weeks to my home at Elmwood, having
been absent nearly a year, and, as this time drew nigh, every day seemed
like a week till I could set out on the journey. Added to the joy of
again meeting my mother and sister, I would also meet Charley Gray, who
was also to spend his vacation at home. We had kept up a regular
correspondence during the past year. I could always judge of Charley's
mood by the tone of his letters. Sometimes he would write a long and
interesting letter, in such a glowing, playful style, that I would read
it over half-a-dozen times at the least, and perhaps his very next
letter would be just the reverse, short, cold and desponding. Any one
who knew Charley as I did could easily tell the state of mind he was in
when he wrote, but so well did I know the unhappy moods to which he was
subject, that a desponding letter now and then gave me no surprise. In
fact, had the style of his letters been uniformly gay and lively, I
should have been more surprised, so well did I understand his variable
temper. But we both looked forward to our anticipated meeting with all
the eagerness and impatience of youthful expectation. For, as I said
near the opening of my story, I loved Charley as a brother, and so
agreeable and pleasant was his disposition when he was pleased, you
quite forgot for the time being the unhappy tempers to which he was
subject.

There is ever a feeling of sadness connected with the closing of school.
Owing to the excellence of the institution, there were pupils attending
Fulton Academy from many distant places. But with the coming of the
holidays this youthful band, who had daily assembled at the pleasant old
Academy would be scattered far and wide. Probably never all to meet
again on earth. Many of the youths who had studied a sufficient time to
obtain a business education were the coming autumn to go forth to make
their own way in the world. The only intimate friend I had made among
these was a youth whose home was two hundred miles distant from Fulton;
his name was Robert Dalt