"You are old enough to think for yourself, Philip; but in my opinion, one voyage will satisfy you."
"If it does, that's the end of the idea."
"Do you expect to go to work in a ship just as you would in a store, and leave her when it suits your own convenience?" asked my father, with a smile.
"I can ship to some port on the Mediterranean, and leave the vessel when she reaches her destination."
"I think not. I believe sailors ship for the voyage out and home, though you may be able to make such an arrangement as you propose. I don't like your plan, Philip. You are going to find your mother. It is now the middle of March. If you get off by the first of April, you may make a long passage, and perhaps not reach Nice till your mother has gone from there."
"I shall follow her, if I go all over Europe," I replied.
"But don't you think it is absurd to subject yourself and me to all this uncertainty?"
"Perhaps it is; but I wanted to kill two birds with one stone."
"When you throw one stone at two birds, you are pretty sure to hit neither of them. Be sensible, Philip. Go to New York, take a steamer to Liverpool or Havre, and then proceed to Nice by railroad. You will be there in a fortnight after you start."
My father was very earnest in his protest against my plan, and finally reasoned me out of it. I believed that fathers were almost always right, and I was unwilling to take the responsibility of disregarding his advice, even while he permitted me to do as I pleased. I had been idle long enough to desire to be again engaged in some active pursuit or some stirring recreation. I abandoned my plan; but circumstances afterwards left me no alternative but to adopt it again.