A few more days were spent by our friends in and about Philadelphia,
during which brief visits were paid to places interesting to them
because the scenes of historical events of the Revolution--Whitemarsh,
Germantown, Barren Hill, Valley Forge, beside those within the city
itself.

But the summer heats were over and the hearts of one and all began to
yearn for the sweets of home; all the more when word reached them
through the mails that the members of their party left in the Newport
cottages had already succumbed to the same sort of sickness, and were on
their homeward way by land. A day or two later the _Dolphin_, with her
full complement of passengers, was moving rapidly southward.




CHAPTER VIII.


Max had a most pleasant surprise when the mail was distributed on that
first morning after his arrival at the Naval Academy. Till his name was
called, he had hardly hoped there would be anything for him, and then as
a letter was handed him, and he recognized upon it his father's
well-known writing, his cheek flushed and his eyes shone.

A hasty glance at his mates showed him that each seemed intent upon his
own affairs,--no one watching him,--so he broke the seal and read with
swelling heart the few sentences of fatherly advice and affection the
captain had found time to pen before the _Dolphin_ weighed anchor the