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.

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.

“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.

When they came to her house, Billy carried her bags to the door and rang the bell for her.

“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.”

Her mother smiled and patted her hand, and by that time they were at their own home.

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.