"I need not ask you why you did not come in at once," she said,
gently. "Seeing your old home after so long an absence is like meeting
some dear friend. One naturally wishes to be alone for a time. But now
I hope you will go home with me."

He was surprised at her delicate appreciation of his feelings, and
gave her a quick pleased look, saying: "Nature has taught you to be a
good interpreter, Miss Walton. You are right. The memories of the old
place were a little too much for me at first, and I did not know that
those whom I met would appreciate my feelings so delicately."

The two children now appeared, running around the brow of the hill,
the boy calling in great excitement: "Aunt Annie, oh! Aunt Annie,
we've found a squirrel-hole. We chased him into it. Can't Susie sit by
the hole and keep him in, while I go for a spade to dig him out?"

Then they saw the unlooked-for stranger, who at once rivalled the
squirrel-hole in interest, and with slower steps, and curious glances,
they approached.

"These are my sister's children," said Miss Walton, simply.

Gregory kindly took the boy by the hand, and kissed the little girl,
who looked half-frightened and half-pleased, as a very little maiden
should, while she rubbed the cheek that his mustache had tickled.

"Do you think we can get the squirrel, Aunt Annie?" again asked the
boy.