Charlie, who went away as cabin boy, returned
as first mate. He was less sunny-lipped than
Edmimd, less erect and mischievous, — but then
you see he had that still longer journey to muse
upon. Perhaps his knowledge of his father made
him thoughtful. It may seem strange, but it is
true that although Charlie did not remember



I20 A NEW ENGLAND CHILDHOOD

his father, or think at all of him when he was a
little lad, yet on the last voyage homeward he
thought of him every hour.
You may be sure that pretty Elizabeth, who
at this time was sight-seeing in Paris, was proud
of him. I could tell you much of her gay life at
the Court of Italy, and of her home in Florence,
circled by the Brownings and their brilliant co-
terie. His Unde James too was proud of him;
and so was Edmimd.
But Charlie never returned to Norwich to the
only hearth that he had known. Norwich seemed
a hopelessly long way to him now that it was so
near. Edmimd went to the ship to meet him,
and Charlie laid his head down on Edmund's
shoulder thinking to rest a little while — per-
haps through the simimer — in the house of his
mother's kin in Brooklyn, — and then go on to
Norwich Town.
Elizabeth's kinsmen wrote to her, and Ed-
mund wrote. But when the mother opened
Edmimd's letter, a lock of hair dropped from it,
and then she knew that Charlie — her baby —
had already set sail for the Undiscovered Coimtry.
1



X

Prince Florizel on ms Travels

The noise of Edmund's attempt to nm away,
and of his failure, spread through Norwich Town.
