But I am in real
earnest, Bennie, and will try and tell you, as soberly as I can, how I
happen to be here.
You remember, the day that Uncle Bob brought the horse home for me to
ride to Benevenue, he said something about Master Clarendon's not being
able to ride Charlie much of late, so that I would find him rather gay.
When I got to the place, I found every thing in confusion, and Dr.
Medway talking very earnestly with brother Clarendon, who was looking
quite thin, and not at all pleased.
"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.
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