How eagerly I waited for his coming!  He had chosen the holidays on purpose that he might see our father's young tribe, he wrote him word. He was the very sort of person I longed to talk to; still it was with no little awe that I thought of actually breakfasting, and dining, and speaking day after day with one who had seen so much of the world, and met with so many adventures.  At last he arrived.  I was not disappointed in his appearance.  He was a tall, thin, spare man, all bone and muscle.  His hair was almost white, and his features, which were not a little weather-beaten, had, I thought, a most pleasant expression.  While, however, my brothers ran eagerly forward to meet him, I hung back, watching him at a distance, like a bashful child.  Had he been one of England's greatest heroes, I could not have looked at him with greater respect.  "And that is the man," I thought, "who has sailed over thousands and thousands of miles of water, and has seen Indians dressed in feathers and shells, and negroes running wild in their native woods, and Hottentots, and Esquimaux, and Chinese, and I do not know what other strange people!"  I saw my father look round for me, so at last I went forward in time to be presented in my turn with the rest of my brothers.  Very soon the feeling of awe wore off, and I became the most constant of his attendants wherever he wished to go.  With the greatest eagerness I used to listen to the accounts he gave our father of his various adventures in the distant countries he had visited.  My brothers listened also; but while they would at length betake themselves to other occupations, I remained his ever-attentive auditor.  The interest I exhibited in what he was saying attracted his attention, and much pleased him, so that when I ventured to ask him questions, he both answered them willingly and encouraged me to ask more.  Thus we before long became very great friends.