The boys returned a good deal earlier than anybody had expected, but they made no more trouble.  As Ford Foster remarked, “they were all willing to go slow for a week,” after being carried home at such a rate by Dab’s ponies.

There was a great deal to be said, too, about the runaway, and Mrs. Foster longed to see Dabney, and thank him on Ford’s account; but he himself had no idea that he had done any thing remarkable, and was very busy decking Miranda’s parlors with the evergreens.

A nice appearance they made, too, all those woven branches and clustered sprays, when they were in place; and Samantha declared for them that,

“They had kept Dab out of mischief all the afternoon.”

At an early hour, after supper, the guests began to arrive; for Mrs. Kinzer was a woman of too much good sense to have night turned into day when she could prevent it.  As the stream of visitors steadily poured in, Dab remarked to Jenny Walters,

“We shall have to enlarge the house, after all.”

“If it were only a dress, now!”

“What then?”

“Why, you could just let out the tucks.  I’ve had to do that with mine.”

“Jenny, shake hands with me.”

“What for, Dabney?”

“I’m so glad to meet somebody else that’s outgrowing something.”

There was a tinge of color rising in Jenny’s face; but, before she could think of any thing to say, Dab added,

“There, Jenny:  there’s Mrs. Foster and Annie.  Isn’t she sweet?”

“One of the nicest old ladies I ever saw.”

“Oh!  I didn’t mean her mother.”

“Never mind.  You must introduce me to them.”

“So I will.  Take my arm.”

Jenny Walters had been unusually kindly and gracious in her manner that evening, and her very voice had less than its accustomed sharpness; but her natural disposition broke out a little, some minutes later, while she was talking with Annie Foster.  Said she,

“I’ve wanted so much to get acquainted with you.”

“With me?”

“Yes:  I’ve seen you in church, and I’ve heard you talked about, and I wanted to find out for myself.”

“Find out what?” asked Annie a little soberly.

“Why, you see, I don’t believe it’s possible for any girl to be as sweet as you look.  I couldn’t, I know.  I’ve been trying these two days, and I’m nearly worn out.”

Annie’s eyes opened wide with surprise; and she laughed merrily, as she answered,

“What can you mean!  I’m glad enough if my face doesn’t tell tales of me.”

“But mine does,” said Jenny.  “And then I’m so sure to tell all the rest with my tongue.  I do wish I knew what were your faults.”

“My faults?  What for?”

“I don’t know.  Seems to me, if I could think of your faults instead of mine, it wouldn’t be so hard to look sweet.”

Annie could but see that there was more earnestness than fun in the queer talk of her new acquaintance.

The truth was, that Jenny had been having almost as hard a struggle with her tongue as Dick Lee with his, though not for the same reason.  Before many minutes she had frankly told Annie all about it, and she could not have done that if she had not somehow felt that Annie’s “sweetness” was genuine.

The two girls were sure friends after that, much to the surprise of Mr. Dabney Kinzer.  He, indeed, had been too much occupied in caring for all his guests, to pay especial attention to any one of them.

His mother had looked after him again and again, with eyes brimful of pride and of commendation of the way in which he was acquitting himself as “host.”

Mrs. Foster herself remarked to her husband, who had now arrived,

“Do you see that?  Who would have expected as much from a raw, green country boy?”

“But, my dear, don’t you see?  The secret of it is, that he’s not thinking of himself at all he’s only anxious that his friends should have a good time.”

“That’s it; but then, that, too, is a very rare thing in a boy of his age.”

“Dabney,” exclaimed the lawyer in a louder tone of voice.

“Good-evening, Mr. Foster.  I’m glad you’ve found room.  The house isn’t half large enough.”

“It’ll do.  I understand your ponies ran away with you to-day.”

“They did come home in a hurry, that’s a fact; but nobody was hurt.”

“I fear there would have been, but for you.  Do you start for Grantley with the other boys, tomorrow?”

“Of course.  Dick Lee and I need some one to take care of us.  We never have travelled so far before.”

“On land, you mean.  Is Dick here to-night?”

“Came and looked in, sir; but he got scared by the crowd, and went home.”

“Poor fellow!  I don’t wonder.  Well, we will all do what we can for him.”

Poor Dick Lee!

And yet, if Mr. Dabney Kinzer had known his whereabouts at that very moment, he would half have envied him.

Dick’s mother was in the kitchen, helping about the “refreshments;” but she had not left home until she had compelled her son to dress himself in his best, white shirt, red necktie, shining shoes, and all; and she had brought him with her, almost by force.

“You’s goodnuff to go to de ‘Cad’my and leab yer pore mother, an’ I reckon you’s good nuff for de party.”

Dick had actually ventured in from the kitchen, through the dining-room, and as far as the door of the back parlor, where few would look.

How his heart did beat, as he gazed upon the merry gathering, a large part of whom he had “known all his born days”!

But there was a side-door opening from that dining-room upon the long piazza which Mrs. Kinzer had added to the old Morris mansion; and Dick’s hand was on the knob of that door, almost before he knew it.

Then he was out on the road to the landing; and in five minutes more he was vigorously rowing the “Jenny” out through the inlet, towards the bay.

His heart was not beating unpleasantly any longer; but as he shot out from the narrow passage through the flags, and saw the little waves laughing in the cool, dim starlight, he suddenly stopped rowing, leaned on his oars, gave a great sigh of relief, and exclaimed,

“Dar, I’s safe now.  I ain’t got to say a word to nobody out yer.  Wonder ’f I’ll ebber git back from de ‘Cad’my, an’ ketch fish in dis yer bay.  Sho!  Course I will.  But goin’ ’way’s awful!”

Dab Kinzer thought he had never before known Jenny Walters to appear so well as she looked that evening; and he must have been right, for good Mrs. Foster said to Annie,

“What a pleasant, kindly face your new friend has!  You must ask her to come and see us.  She seems to be quite a favorite with the Kinzers.”

“Have you known Dabney long?” Annie had asked of Jenny a little before that.

“Ever since I was a little bit of a girl, and a big boy, seven or eight years old, pushed me into the snow.”

“Was it Dabney?”

“No; but Dabney was the boy that pushed him in for doing it, and then helped me up.  Dab rubbed his face with snow for him, till he cried.”

“Just like him!” exclaimed Annie with emphasis.  “I should think his friends here will miss him.”

“Indeed they will,” said Jenny, and then she seemed disposed to be quiet for a while.

The party could not last forever, pleasant as it was; and by the time his duties as “host” were all done and over, Dabney was tired enough to go to bed and sleep soundly.  His arms were lame and sore from the strain the ponies had given them; and that may have been the reason why he dreamed, half the night, that he was driving runaway teams, and crashing over rickety old bridges.

There was some reason for that; but why was it that every one of his dream-wagons, no matter who else was in it, seemed to have Jenny Walters and Annie Foster smiling at him from the back seat?

He rose later than usual next morning, and the house was all in its customary order by the time he got down stairs.

Breakfast was ready also; and it was hardly over before Dab’s great new trunk was brought down into the front-door passage by a couple of the farmhands.

“It’s an hour yet to train-time,” said Ham Morris; “but we might as well get ready.  We must be on hand in time.”

What a long hour that was!  And not even a chance given to Dab to run down to the landing for a good-by look at the “Jenny” and “The Swallow.”

His mother and Ham, and Miranda, and the girls, seemed to be all made up of “good-by” that morning.

“Mother,” said Dab.

“What is it, my dear boy?”

“That’s it exactly.  If you say ‘dear boy’ again, Ham Morris’ll have to carry me to the cars.  I’m all kind o’ wilted now.”

Then they all laughed, and before they got through laughing they all cried except Ham.

He put his hands in his pockets, and drew a long whistle.

The ponies were at the door now.  The light wagon was a roomy one; but, when Dab’s trunk had been put in, there was barely room left for the ladies, and Dab and Ham had to walk to the station.

“I’m kind o’ glad of it,” said Dab.

It was a short walk, and a silent one; but when they came in sight of the platform, Dab exclaimed,

“There they are, all of them!”

“The whole party?”

“Why, the platform’s as crowded as our house was last night.”

Mrs. Kinzer and her daughters were already the centre of a talkative crowd of young people; and Ford Foster and Frank Harley, with Joe and Fuz Hart, were asking what had become of Dab, for the train was in sight.

A moment later, as the puffing locomotive pulled up in front of the water-tank, the conductor stepped out on the platform, exclaiming,

“Look a-here, folks, this ain’t right.  If there was going to be a picnic you ought to have sent word, and I’d have tacked on an extra car.  You’ll have to pack in now, best you can.”

He seemed much relieved when he found how small a part of that crowd were to be his passengers.

“Dab,” said Ford, “this is your send-off, not ours.  You’ll have to make a speech.”

Dab did want to say something; but he had just kissed his sisters and his mother, and half a dozen of his school-girl friends had followed the example of Jenny Walters; and then Mrs. Foster had kissed him, and Ham Morris had shaken hands with him; and Dab could not have said a word to have saved his life.

“Speech!” whispered Ford mischievously, as Dab stepped upon the car-platform; but Dick Lee, who had just escaped from the tremendous hug his mother had given him, and had got his breath again, came to his friend’s relief in the nick of time.  Dick felt, as he afterwards explained, that he “must shout, or he should go off;” and so, at the top of his shrill voice he shouted,

“Hurrah for Cap’n Kinzer!  Dar ain’t no better feller lef long shoah!”

And then, amid a chorus of cheers and laughter, and a grand waving of white handkerchiefs, the engine gave a deep, hysterical cough, and hurried the train away.

Three homesteads by the Long Island shore were lonely enough that evening, and they were all likely to be lonelier still before they got fairly accustomed to the continued absence of “those boys.”

It was well understood that the Fosters had determined to prolong their “summer in the country” until the arrival of cold weather, they had found all things so pleasant; and the Kinzers were well pleased with that, as Samantha remarked,

“If it’s only to compare letters.  I do hope Dabney will write as soon as he gets there, and tell us all about it.”

“He will,” said his mother; but Ham’s face put on a somewhat doubtful look.

“I’m not quite sure about Dab,” he said slowly.  “If things ain’t just right, he’s the sort of boy that wouldn’t say a word about it.  Well, I must say I liked what I saw of Mrs. Myers’s notions about feeding people.”