We soon reached Aunt Becky's neat trim mansion. My uncle had time to
say a few words to her before she saw me. She received me with her
usual cordiality, for I was somewhat of a pet of hers. I was
desperately hungry, and was soon seated at a table well spread with all
sorts of appetising luxuries. My uncle, after a little time, when I had
taken the edge off my hunger, began to question me as to my proposed
plans, to an account of which he and Aunt Becky listened with profound
gravity. I began to hope that he was going to approve of them, till
suddenly he burst out laughing heartily. Aunt Becky joined him. I
found that they had been hoaxing me. I was sold again. This was the
last attempt I made during that period of my existence to commence my
travels.
On arriving at manhood, and having just quitted college and had an
independence left me, the desire once more came strongly on me to see
the world--not the fashionable world, as an infinitesimal portion of the
human race delight to call themselves, but the great big round globe,
covered with our fellow-creatures of varied colours, languages, customs,
and religions.
"Good-bye, Aunt Becky! I really and truly am off this time," I
exclaimed, as I rushed into my dear, good old aunt's drawing-room at
Burton, she looking as neat and trim as ever, being the perfection of
nice old-maidenism, not a whit older than when, some thirteen years
before, I had been brought there a prisoner by my uncle.
"Where are you going to, my dear?" asked Aunt Becky, lifting up her
spectacles from her nose with a look of surprise.
"Oh, only just across the Atlantic, to take a run up and down North and
South America, as a kind of experiment before I attempt a tour, by land
and water, to China and Japan, and home again by way of Australia, New
Zealand, and Tahiti, by the Panama route, which I mean to do some of
these days."
"Well, well," said Aunt Becky, "you are a true Skipwith, and if that
Captain Grant hadn't got the start of you, I suppose you would have
discovered the source of the Nile and the snow mountains under the
equator, and, like Hercules, in that gem on my finger, which I wear for
the sake of an old friend, have come home with a lion's skin across your
shoulder, or dressed up like an ape, as Monsieur de Chaillu did sometime
ago. However, I shall wish, Harry, if you ever want an additional
hundred pounds or so, draw on me; I have always some spare cash at the
banker's. But you'll never came back if you attempt half you talk of
doing. You'll be scalped by Indians, or roasted and eaten by other
savages; or be tossed by buffaloes, or lost in the snow; or be blown up
in one of those dreadful American steamers, which seem to do nothing
else; or you'll catch a fever, or be cast away on a desolate island, and
we shall never hear anything more of you; or something else dreadful
will happen to you, I am certain."
"Never mind, Aunt Becky; I shall be embalmed in your memory, at all
events," I answered; "and besides, I am going to have a companion to
look after me."
"Who can he be who would venture to accompany such a harum-scarum fellow
as you are, Harry?" said my aunt, looking more satisfied.
"One who has ever proved faithful, aunt: his name is Ready."
"Why, he's your dog, Harry!" she exclaimed, disappointed.
"Could I have a more trustworthy and, at the same time, active and
intelligent follower?" I asked. "I had thought of taking Bunbry," (he
was my father's old butler, and remarkable for his obesity and
laziness); "but you see, aunt, in the first place, my father could not
spare him; and, in the second, he could not exactly keep up with me on a
day's march of thirty or forty miles, and would certainly be nowhere
when chasing wild buffaloes, or hunting panthers or grizzly bears. So I
gave up the idea of having a servant at all; and as for a friend, I
don't happen to be supplied with one ready to go, and I hope to find
plenty on the way."
Having at length consoled Aunt Becky, by assuring her that I would take
very good care of myself, and promising to bring her home trophies from
all the lands I should visit, I gave her a parting kiss, in return for
her blessing, and a few days afterwards I found myself, with Liverpool
astern, sailing down the Mersey on board the good ship _Liberty_, bound
for New Orleans, which the people on board pronounced New Orle-e-ens.
The striped and starry banner waved over our heads. "There, now, that's
the flag of flags," said the skipper, pointing to it. "You Britishers
talk of your flag which has `braved a thousand years the battle and the
breeze,' but I guess that flag of ours will be flying proudly in every
quarter of the globe when your old obsolete government will have come to
a consummate smash." He looked so savage at me, that Ready would have
flown at his leg, had I not held him back.