'Except Sam,' said his father, 'the only boy who has received any good instruction! When you go to a school, my son, you will find many boys, who know more than yourself, and some that are more capable; but I hope you will not find any, more amiable or honest. I think you are a dutiful, good boy, Frank; if I did not, I should not be willing to trust you so far away from your mother and myself.'
'Why, am I to go alone! go without mother!' said Frank.
'Yes:—for neither your mother nor myself wish to go to school: we must stay at home, and take care of little Ann, and the house, and the farm.'
'I don't believe I shall be contented there, without any of my friends; if it is Boston, or the most delightful place in the world.'
'If you are not contented, I shall bring you home; for you could not learn to advantage, unless you were happy; and I should not willingly place you where you were not so.'
'Then I may come home if I don't like it.'
'Yes.'
'I think then, I shall be willing to go.'
'I expect, Frank,' said Mr. Courtland, 'that you will feel a little strange at first, and even homesick; but you will not yield to this, but wait till you have become acquainted with your teachers, and schoolfellows; and see if your studies and amusements do not enable you to get through the day very pleasantly; and then, although you may not like it as well as home, I think you are such a sensible child, that you will content yourself to remain, if it is important to your education that you should do so. But Frank, it is not in Boston, after all, that you are to live, though very near there. I did at first think of letting you reside with your Aunt Willard, and go to some one of the excellent day schools which are kept in Boston; but I heard of a situation a few miles out of the city, which pleased me better. Mr. and Mrs. Reed, who keep it, are delightful people; I went to see them myself. They have a charming house, garden and play ground. Twenty or thirty boys live with them. They have no children of their own; but they love these children, and treat them exactly as if they were really their own. I never saw a school, which appeared to me to possess so many of the pleasures and advantages of home, as this does. Mrs. Reed is particularly lovely in her person, manners, and kind and attentive to the scholars. I expect you will love her next to your mother, before you have been there six weeks.'