" Charley was thoroughly frightened, and he followed the
Farmer's advice at once by "making tracks" out of the field, and he
never attempted to repeat his visit. I returned home in the month of
June. Dr. Gray intended sending Charley to a distant school, the coming
autumn; and we both keenly felt the coming separation. He was to be
absent a year before visiting his home, and that time seemed an age
to our boyish minds. The long midsummer vacation soon arrived, and now,
memory often turns fondly to that happy period. My companion and I
certainly made the most of the time allowed before the coming separation.
Together we visited all our favorite haunts, we angled for fish, we
roamed over the fields and through the woods in the vicinity of Elmwood,
and no day seemed long enough for our varied amusements. I often wished
to invite other of our companions to join our sports, but somehow or
other, if this was the case, Charley's enjoyment at once fled. When (as
was often the case) I would mention some of our schoolmates, with a
view to inviting them to accompany us on some excursion of pleasure, a
cloud would instantly come over Charley's countenance, and he would say
in a petulant tone: "What do you want with them, we can surely enjoy
ourselves without their company," and this reply would at once remind me
of his exclusive and peculiar temperament, (which for the moment I had
forgotten) and to please him I would say no more about it.
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