"Aunt Madge and I have no reason to be ashamed of them, I am sure,"
thought he, taking out his new watch every few minutes, not because he
wished to show it, but for fear it was losing time.

"How I wish we had Grace and Susey here! and then I should have all my
nieces," said Aunt Madge. "Is it possible these are the same children I
used to see at Willowbrook? Here is my only nephew, that drowned Prudy
on a log, grown tall enough to offer me his arm. (Why, Horace, your head
is higher than mine!) Here is Prudy, who tried yesterday--didn't
she?--to go up to heaven on a ladder, almost a young lady. Why, how old
it makes me feel!"

"But you don't look old," said Dotty, consolingly; "you don't look
married any more than Aunt Louise?"

Here they took an omnibus, and the children interested themselves in
watching the different people who sat near them.

"Aren't you glad to come?" said Dotty. "See that man getting out. What
is that little thing he's switching himself with?"

"That's a cane," replied Horace.

"A cane? Why, if Flyaway should lean on it, she'd break it in
two.--Prudy, look at that man in the corner; _his_ cane is funnier than
the other one."

Horace laughed.

"That is a pipe, Dotty--a meerschaum."