which I now for the first time felt. All this gave
a degree of sadness to the feelings of the whole party as we watched the
English coast fading from our sight. I sat on the deck until a late hour
recalling the happy and cheerful "God speed you" that my mother gave us,
the more grave and solemn farewell of my father, whose foreboding mind
looked farther than ours did. And then I recalled the parents of those
with me; the hearty and oft-expressed wish of Gatty's father, high in
honours and public esteem, to accompany us, the tearful farewell of her
mother, dear Winny's merry and light-hearted mother, while her father
bid her remember, during her long absence, the lessons of goodness and
high principle he was always so anxious to inculcate in her. My brother
and sister-in-law had been prevented coming to wish Zoe farewell, on
account of the illness of one of her brothers. I could not but think
this as well, for her mother's delicate nerves could never have borne
the parting from a child so beloved, and Zoe's leave to come would have
been rescinded at the last moment. Poor child! I know not whether to
wish it better to have been so or not. Dear uncle P. came to wish his
daughter, my cousin, good bye, and to promise once more a father's and
mother's care over her two little children during her absence. I could
not help being amused at his sometimes expressing a wish to go with us,
and the next minute scolding us for doing anything so mad. Well, we were
off! the last adieus were said, the last looks given, the last words
spoken. We were off! The die is cast, and it seemed strange to me that
now and only now did fearful doubts, and vain regrets, and sad
forebodings oppress my heart, and take possession of my mind. With
striking vividness I recalled how, mainly to please myself and amuse my
mind, I had projected and finally carried out this expedition; how I had
covered my own private wishes and thoughts under the plea of the good it
would do my little boy, the benefit it was to all young people to
enlarge their minds by travelling and experience, the novelty of the
adventure, and the sort of certain uncertainty which was to attend our
steps and ways during the next eight months, thus giving the charm of
novelty and singularity to the whole scheme. I know not how long I
should have dwelt on these circumstances, had not the children come to
wish me their wonted good night. Schillie declared I had moped enough,
the girls were eag