A few days later, Morton was seated with his friend Meredith.
"Ned, this is a slow life. Do you know, I have made up my mind to change it."
"You have been so busy this year past, that I thought you would be content to stay where you are."
"On the contrary, my vocation takes me abroad."
"Where will you go?"
"To Egypt, Arabia, India, the East Indies, the South Sea Islands."
"All in the cause of science?"
"At any rate, the thing is necessary to my plans."
"The old Adam sticks to you still. Are you sure that no Pequot blood ever got into your veins?"
"I don't know as to that. My ancestors were Puritans to the backbone, witch-burners, Quaker-killers, and Indian-haters. I only know that when I am bored, my first instinct is to cut loose, and take to the woods. It comes over me like an ague-fit. There are two places where a man finds sea room enough; one is a great metropolis, the other is a wilderness. There is no freedom in a place like this. One can only be independent here by living out of the world as I have been doing."