In front of the wharf lay a beautiful steam yacht, painted pure white and flying a United States flag. The boat was of good size and capable of making many knots an hour, but she looked like a little toy ship alongside the immense ocean-going steamers that were entering and leaving the New York harbor, or waiting their sailing day at their docks. One of the girls, dressed in a white serge frock and wearing a white felt hat, was walking up and down at the back of the crowd, talking to a young man. "David, more than almost anything, I believe I appreciate your coming to New York to see me off. It would have been dreadful to go away for a whole year, or maybe longer, without having had a glimpse of you. Who knows what may happen before I am back again?" The girl's eyes looked wistfully about among her friends, although her lips smiled happily. For a few seconds the young man made no answer. He had never been able to talk very readily, now he seemed to wish to think before he spoke. "I shall be a man, Madge, before you are back again," he replied slowly. "I am twenty now, so I shall be ready to vote. But, best of all, I shall be through college and ready to go to work." The young man threw back his square shoulders. His black eyes looked serious and steadfast. "I am going to make you proud of me, Madge. You remember I told you so, that day in the Virginia field, when you helped me out of a scrape and started me on the right road." The little captain nodded emphatically. "I am proud of you already, David," she declared warmly. "I think it is perfectly wonderful that you have been able to take two years' work in college instead of one, beside helping Mr. Preston on the farm. You are going to make me dreadfully ashamed when I come back, by knowing so much more than I. Phil enters Vassar this fall and Tom will graduate at Columbia in another year. I am going to try to study on the yacht, but I shall be so busy seeing things that I know I won't accomplish very much. Just think, David, I am going around the world in our own boat with my father and Captain Jules! Isn't it wonderful how one's dreams come true and things turn out even better than you expect them to? I believe, if it weren't for leaving my beloved houseboat chums and Mrs. Curtis and Tom, and Miss Jenny Ann and you, I should be the happiest girl in the world." "I don't suppose I count for much, Madge," answered David honestly, "but I am more grateful to you than you can know for putting me on that list. Some day----" The young man hesitated, then his sober face relaxed and a brilliant smile lighted it. "It's pretty early for a fellow like me to be talking about some day, isn't it, Madge?" Madge laughed, though she blushed a little and answered nothing. Just then Phyllis Alden and a young man in a lieutenant's uniform joined Madge and David Brewster.