THE DOLL AND HER FRIENDS. 67

his health ; and she finally left him, not less hope-
ful, but more calm and contented with whatever
might befall him.

And now beg‘an the preparations for the voyage.
There was no time to spare, considering all that had
to be done. Every body was at work; and though
poor Willy himself could not do much to help, he
thought of nothing else. His common books and
drawings were changed for maps and voyages ;
the track to Madeira was looked up by him and
Rose every day, and sometimes two or three times
in the day, and every book consulted that contained
the least reference to the Madeira Isles.

Edward was an indefatigable packer. He was
not to be one of the travellers, as his father did not
choose to interrupt his school-education; but no
one was more active than he in forwarding the pre-
parations for the voyage, and no one more sanguine
about its results.

“We shall have Willy back,’ he would say,
“turned into a fine strong fellow, as good a
cricketer as Geoffrey or I, and a better scholar
than either of us.”

Margaret and Rose were to go; and Rose’s
young friends all came to take leave of her, and
talk over the plan, and find Madeira in the map,
and look at views of the island, which had been