That night there was a long consultation held between the anxious mother and the ambitious, hopeful son, but we will not stop to repeat it, nor will we dwell upon the arrangements that were made for the boy's departure from America.
It will be enough to say that before Oscar went to bed that night it had been settled that the committee's order should be obeyed; that he took the first train for Yarmouth on Monday morning; that he had an interview with the committee, who gave him minute instructions in writing and promised him letters that would assist in smoothing the way for him; that he dined with Mr. Adrian, who received him as an honored guest; and that when he came home on Tuesday night he began packing his trunk, in readiness for the start.
The committee had given him a week in which to prepare for his long journey, and he took it, because he wanted to spend one more Saturday with Sam Hynes, whom he might never see again.
We will say nothing about the parting which took place on the next Wednesday morning. There were a good many boys and not a few men at the depot to see him off, but Sam Hynes was not among them.
He rode down in the omnibus with Oscar, and then cleared out abruptly, just as he had done on a former occasion.
Oscar reached Yarmouth in due time, listened to more instructions, received letters of introduction and bills of credit for a larger amount of money than he had ever handled before in all his life; and three days more found him on the broad bosom of the Atlantic.
Of course he was sea-sick, and that was about the only thing that happened to relieve the monotony of the voyage, which, on the whole, was a very pleasant as well as a remarkably quick one.
There was some delay in getting his trunk through the custom-house in Liverpool on account of the weapons it contained; but everything was satisfactorily arranged at last, and shortly afterward Oscar was snugly housed in the hotel to which he had been directed by Mr. Adrian.