dimpled with pleasure, as she said affably:

"I hope you'll stay. We have such good times here; don't we,
Demi?"

"Of course, we do: that's what Aunt Jo has Plumfield for."

"It seems a very nice place indeed," observed Nat, feeling that he
must respond to these amiable young persons.

"It's the nicest place in the world, isn't it, Demi?" said Daisy, who
evidently regarded her brother as authority on all subjects.

"No, I think Greenland, where the icebergs and seals are, is more
interesting. But I'm fond of Plumfield, and it is a very nice place to
be in," returned Demi, who was interested just now in a book on
Greenland. He was about to offer to show Nat the pictures and
explain them, when the servant returned, saying with a nod toward
the parlor-door:

"All right; you are to stop."

"I'm glad; now come to Aunt Jo." And Daisy took him by the hand
with a pretty protecting air, which made Nat feel at home at once.

Demi returned to his beloved book, while his sister led the
new-comer into a back room, where a stout gentleman was
frolicking with two little boys on the sofa, and a thin lady was just
finishing the letter which she seemed to have been re-reading.