“I should think a voyage to Europe would be quite as beneficial,” he said, turning to the Doctor, with his proudest air, as soon as he had greeted me.

“No,” replied Dr. Medway, smiling at his displeased manner; “you must have work, Sir,—­hard work, and hard fare.  It would do you no more good to take a luxurious trip in a steamer, than to remain quietly in your fashionable lodgings at Baltimore.  Your dyspepsia, Sir, can be best cured by your taking a cruise in a Yankee fishing-smack, bound for the Banks of Newfoundland.”

“Then I shall die,” said Clarendon; “and I had almost as lief, as to be cooped up in a dirty fishing-smack with vulgar sailors, half-starved with their miserable fare.”

“It will do you good in more ways than one,” observed Dr. Medway; and he gave mother a significant look.  “We poor Virginians think it impossible to exist except in a certain way; but you are a young man of sense, in spite of your prejudices, and will be very much benefited by a little more familiar intercourse with your fellow-men.”

As I stood by, listening to this conversation, I was not surprised at Clarendon’s reluctance to follow Dr. Medway’s advice, but much more astonished when, after arguing the point half an hour longer, he called for Sukey,—­his old mammy, you know,—­and told her to have every thing in readiness for him to leave the next day.

As soon as the Doctor was gone, Clarendon began to see more plainly than ever the disagreeabilities of the scheme to which he had consented; but he was too proud to give it up after his word had been pledged.

“I wish I could find somebody to accompany me on this horrid excursion,” he exclaimed.  “Miss Sukey! there’s no use putting in my guitar-music.  A pretty figure I should cut, strumming away on that, upon the dirty deck of a Down East schooner!  I can’t have the face to ask any friend to accompany me.  O ho! it’s a desperate case!”

All at once, as if a sudden idea had struck him, while pacing the room impatiently, he turned to me:—­“What say you, Pidgie, to spending the holidays on this fishing excursion?”

You may be sure that I was ready enough to accept the proposal, for you know I have always been crazy to go on the water, and like seeing new places above every thing.

“Indeed, and double indeed, brother, I would rather go to the Banks with you, than to see Queen Victoria herself.  I’ll run and ask ’ma directly if she can spare me, and if she will, I won’t even unpack my valise, but shall be all ready to start in the morning.”

So saying, I darted into ’ma’s chamber, and she declares that my eyes were almost dancing out of my head for joy, when I told her of the proposal.  At first she hesitated, for it was a trial to her to part with me so soon again; but you know Clarendon is the pride of her heart, and for his sake she at last gave her consent.  Sister Nannie was grieved at having both her brothers taken from her, but she is a little woman, and always ready to make sacrifices for others; so she sat down very quietly to looking over some of Clarendon’s clothes, and though a tear now and then rolled down her cheek, she would look up from her work with quite a pleasant smile.