The night was as long and dreary to Clarence as the day had been, but for a different reason. He was impatient to be up and doing, and it seemed to him that the morning would never come. He heard the little clock on the mantel strike every hour from ten to five, and then he jumped up because he could stay in bed no longer. He was not called to breakfast at six o’clock, as Marshall had predicted, but the meal was ready at seven, and after they had sat down to it Clarence, to his great disgust, found that Don and Bert had been laying out some very elaborate plans for the entertainment of himself and brother. In the first place it was their intention to spend two or three days in riding about the country, in order to give their city relatives some idea of the manner in which the people in the South lived, and also to make them acquainted with all the young people in the neighborhood who were worth knowing. Then, of course the boys would call on them, and by the time their visits had been returned, they might begin to look for brant. When they began to come down from the North, the shooting season was close at hand; and if Clarence and Marshall liked to hunt, they would get a party of good fellows together, and go down to the shooting-box and spend a week there. When they were tired of that, they would go ’coon-hunting; and when they had seen all the sport they cared to see in that way, they would trap and shoot some turkeys, or drive the ridges for deer. “Yes,” thought Clarence, while he listened, “it is all very fine, no doubt; but if you think you are going to use up my time in that way, you have reckoned without your host. Amusement indeed! What pleasure would I see in riding about the country calling on these natives? What do I care for your deer or turkeys or your shooting-box? I can’t go, at least not to-day, for I have business of my own to attend to.” And he didn’t go either; and, what was more, he gave such reasons for declining that his cousins, although somewhat surprised, readily let him off. He was much too homesick to be any company during a ride, he said, and all he wanted was to go off somewhere and be alone. He would be himself in a day or two, and when he felt more like mingling with people, he would be quite at the service of his cousins, Don and Bert. The latter expressed their regrets, but readily accepted his excuses, and Clarence, after making some inquiries of Don, calculated to draw out information on a few points on which he wished to be posted, went up to his room to prepare himself for his interview with Godfrey Evans. When he came down again he wore a neat hunting-suit, and carried a light Ballard rifle on his shoulder. Don, who met him in the hall, opened his eyes in surprise, and went into ecstacies over the handsome little breech-loader which Clarence presented for his inspection.