[a]THE SHIP SAILS AWAY]
Summer was passing quickly now, and it would soon be time for the "long vacation" to come to an end.
Before they had to go the Sachem—that was the name of the new ship—was ready to put to sea. The children had admired her "figure-head," an Indian chief, gilded and painted in bright colors. The ship had taken on her whole cargo, the hatches were closed, and everything made tight and taut for her long voyage. She was bound for the Far East, the Captain told them. First she would touch at some South American ports, then go across the ocean to Africa, stopping at Cape Town, and other less important ports, then around the Cape and up the Indian Ocean to India; then to China and Japan. With the goods she had taken aboard she would trade with the different ports, either selling or exchanging what she had for the things made or raised in those far-away countries, which she would bring back home to sell in our markets. This was the way, Captain Hawes explained, that we got many good things that we couldn't raise in our own country.
The day the ship sailed, everybody turned out to wish her a good voyage.
