As he packed his sea chest, he thought about the difference between this departure and the last one. There had been many changes since last spring, and not all of them to the good. This time neither his mother nor his sister offered to travel south with him to see him off. This didn’t trouble him—he preferred the independence of traveling alone. He’d be happier traveling without his mother’s supervision; he was old enough and brave enough now to manage on his own without unease. That much was to the good. But he would miss his sister’s company. The change in their relationship was not to the good. He was still not sure what specific act of his had caused the rift between them, but he was sensible enough to know that it had come about because of his heedlessness. He had never before troubled himself about her feelings, her cares, her woes. It was a new experience to force himself to consider the concerns of anyone but himself. Now that he’d done it, however, he felt more adult.
