HOME AGAIN
THE next morning Mary Frances was awakened early by a ring of the door
bell.
“I’ll run down to the door,” called Billy. “I am up and dressed. I
wonder who it can be?”
“All right!” called Mary Frances, slipping into her kimono.
“It’s a telegram from mother,” said Billy, coming upstairs.
“Oh, good! Do read it!” Mary Frances could scarcely wait to have it
opened.
[Illustration: Ring of the door bell.]
[Illustration: A telegram from Mother.]
_Will be home Tuesday. Meet the 10 o’clock train. All
well._
_Mother._
read Billy. “Hurrah! That means that father is better than they even
hoped and that they can all come sooner than they expected.”
“Why!” he exclaimed suddenly, “to-day is Tuesday! Isn’t it fine that
the telegram came in good time!”
“Yes, indeed!” said Mary Frances. “And how happy I am.”
They hurried with their breakfast, and then went out to gather some
flowers to decorate the house.
They were at the station half an hour too early for the train, and
when at length it did pull in, you can imagine what a delightful time
everyone had.
“It seems a thousand years since I last saw you, Father dear,” said
Mary Frances, kissing him, “and a hundred since Mother and Aunt Maria
left; doesn’t it, Billy?”
“Well,” laughed Billy, “it seems an awfully long time, if not a
thousand years.”
“Do not talk too much to your father, children; he cannot bear too much
excitement,” warned Aunt Maria, as Billy led the way to the taxicab
which was to take them home.
[Illustration: “How happy I am!”]
[Illustration: Father dear.]
“You can tell the driver to stop at my house, Billy,” said the old
lady, who was quite nervous when riding in an automobile.
“Horseless carriages are so unnatural. It always seems to me like
riding behind a headless horse to ride in an automobile,” she added.
Of course the children had hard work to keep from laughing.
[Illustration: Billy carried her bags.]
When they came to her house, Billy carried her bags to the door and
rang the bell for her.
[Illustration: “Don’t sit in a draft.”]
“Tell your father to remember not to sit in a draft,” she called to
Billy as he ran down the path, “and tell Mary Frances to be ready for a
lesson in knitting next Thursday evening.”
“We heard, Billy,” said his father, as Billy jumped into the taxicab,
“didn’t we, daughter?”
“What have you done all the time, dear?” asked her mother.
“I’ll tell you some time, Mother,” said Mary Frances.
“Another secret?” asked her mother.
“I guess it is,” remarked Billy. “She has been as good and quiet as a
mouse most of the time up in the sewing room. She says she has been
practicing knitting. If she has been practicing all this while, she
must know a lot by now.”
[Illustration: Mother smiled.]
Her mother smiled and patted her hand, and by that time they were at
their own home.
[Illustration: Katie was at the door.]
Katie was at the door and was almost as glad as the children to see
their father and mother.
“It seems so good to have you all home,” she said, “that now life will
be worth the living of it.”
All tried to help make the invalid comfortable, and the children left
him to take a little nap before lunch.