CHAPTER VII.
MAPS AND FAREWELLS It was wonderful what a change our new plan wrought in our spirits.
Our melancholy was immediately dispersed, and its place taken by active anticipations of our journey.

The North wind in the trees, instead of blustering dismissal, sounded to our ears like the fluttering of the blue-peter at the masthead of our voyage.

Strange heart of man! A day back we were in tears at the thought of going.

Now we are all smiles to think of it, all impatience to be gone.

We quote Whitman a dozen times in the hour, and it is all "afoot and light-hearted" with us, and "the open road." But there were some farewells to make to people as well as to trees.
There were friends at Elim to bid adieu, and also there were maps to be consulted, and knapsacks to be packed--exhilarating preparations.
Our friends looked at us, when we had unfolded our project, with a mixture of surprise and pity.