once made up his mind. Well, and so Tommy got out at the station--I'm
sorry he came by train, but Jack's uncle paid for his ticket--I would
rather he had run the whole way."

"Why would you?" asked Sir Edward, with a smile.

"I think it would have been more proper if he had," said the child
slowly, her head a little on one side, as she gazed thoughtfully into
the fire. "I always run or walk the whole way when I play the prodigal
son. I begin rather slowly, because it looks a long way off, but when I
come near I hurry. I'm wanting to be there when I see my home. The
prodigal son didn't have a train in the Bible, and I think Tommy might
have tried to do without it."

The tone of reproach at the end of her speech was too much for her
uncle's gravity, and he laughed aloud.

"I am afraid Tommy has sadly disappointed you. Did he take a cab from
the station?"

"No, he didn't do that. He got home in the afternoon, and Maxwell was
cleaning his gun on the doorstep, when he saw a shadow, and he looked up
and there he was! Oh! I should like to have been there, but I'm sorry to
say Maxwell didn't fall on his neck and kiss him. I asked Tommy very
carefully about it, and he said he took hold of both his hands and
squeezed them tight, and he gave a shout, and Mrs. Maxwell was doing her
washing in the back yard, and she heard it, and she shook all over so
that she could hardly walk. She cried so much when she saw Tommy that
Maxwell had to pat her on the back and give her a glass of water; and
Tommy he sat down on the little seat inside the porch, and he